November 4th - Patricia Hoyle's Birthday

We’d always kid my mother about her birthday being special because it fell on “election day.” It seemed that every time her birthday rolled around there was also an election scheduled, even though she personally didn’t celebrate birthdays – nor did she vote in her later years.

My mother, Patricia Elizabeth [Jarvis] Hoyle, was born on November 4, 1907 in White Rock, Texas – a small community that is now part of Dallas. Her earliest years were spent in Fort Worth and in the oil fields of west Texas. She was raised with two older brothers who both teased her mercilessly and protected her jealously. Brother Harry Jarvis, the oldest child, served and was wounded in both World Wars and lived much of his later life in Oklahoma. Her younger brother Tommy lived most of his short, tragic life as a jockey and thoroughbred trainer during horse racing’s “Golden Age.”

Pat, as she was called, managed to survive the turmoil that was her early life, raising two children as a single mother through a Great Depression, another World War, and a near fatal car accident – and then went on to raise three more children and spend the last forty years of her life happily married to my father, Alton J. Hoyle.

Actually Mom was not “born on election day” – simply because 1907 was not an election year. In fact, there were only three national elections (1924, 1952, and 1980) that were held on her birthday during her lifetime. However, looking back on those three specific elections will show that they were especially significant and socially evolutionary for those generations of Americans.

The election coming up on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, my Mom’s Birthday, is likely to be even more significant for America’s next generation. No matter who wins, the very fact that qualified voters have the opportunity to vote for anyone who is not a white male is extremely significant. The Democratic Party offers Barack Obama, an African-American for President; the Republican Party has chosen Sarah Palin, a woman, to be Vice-President. No matter which party wins, history will be made with our next team of national leaders.

In 1924 Mom would have been just 17, too young to vote and probably far too busy with her life to even care who the President might be.

Mom only had one real chance to vote for President on her birthday and that was in 1952. I’m sad to say that my best guess is that she didn’t vote at all (more on that later). If she had voted on her birthday in 1952 her choice would surely have been Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower. I know she voted for Thomas Dewey in 1948 and often voiced her dislike for Democrats, so there was no chance at all that Adlai Stevenson would ever get her vote.

Her next chance to vote on her birthday would have been in 1980, but I know for certain she did not. My parents were Jehovah’s Witnesses, having converted in 1952, and did not believe in participating in anything political, especially voting. So by chance, choice and circumstance, Mom most likely never voted on her own birthday in 1952 or 1980 for anyone – Republican or Democrat. Mom passed away in 1985.

Whenever her birthday fell on an election day the final results led to important historical shifts in American political history. In 1924 Republican incumbent Calvin Coolidge won easily against a severely divided Democratic Party. (Coolidge had assumed the Presidency upon the death of Warren G. Harding in 1923). The events during this period of American history were especially significant because the policies of Coolidge and his successor, Herbert Hoover (1929-1933), led the country directly into the Great Depression of 1929 and the failure of the nation’s banking system by 1933.

The election of General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower on Mom’s birthday in 1952 led to the end of the Korean War and to the eight to ten years of America’s modern “Golden Age.” During that period Americans enjoyed relative peace in spite of the constant threat of atomic destruction from an aggressive Soviet Russia. Despite a brief recession in 1957-58, the country enjoyed wide spread growth and prosperity. Home prices were low, interest rates were under 5% and gasoline was less than 30-cents a gallon. For most of us, the 1950s were truly “Happy Days.”

Even though she did not vote, on Mom’s birthday in 1980 Ronald Reagan won the Presidency running against a weak and poorly performing President Jimmy Carter. Reagan’s years in office saw relative peace thanks to his build up of the U.S. defense systems, the growth of computer technology, the expansion of the economy, and the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union. The fact is that most of us did well under Reaganomics. Little did we know that his administration was sowing the seeds of the economic mess we now find ourselves buried under.

This coming Tuesday, my Mom’s birthday (she would be 101 years old that day), will see the election of a new President and the beginnings of a vastly changed American society. I’m sorry that Mom is not here to see it all happen along with the rest of us. But as with each previous election that fell on her birthday in the past, I can assure you that the changes that lie ahead of us will be historic, significant, and life-changing for all of us. Even though I know that she would not be voting for either party or ever state her personal preference, I think that Mom would be very pleased to see an African-American man finally get the chance to be our President and to become the most powerful man in the world.