Brooklyn loves Barack....

and baked goods, apparently. Our Barack Bake Sale was a huge hit! Not only did we raise a pretty substantial amount of money ($585) but we met a lot of interesting people, too.

My friend Karen already blogged about it (with pictures..if you're interested, go to brooklynsbackyard.blogspot.com) but I need to say a few words about some intriguing characters we met along the way. Starting with the assortment of folks we met while putting up the fliers. One was an angry woman, who felt the need to scold Karen several times for posting things illegally. Another was a confused guy who saw thought Barack might be in attendance. While our baked good were really delicious...and we were all gung-ho Barack, not sure he really has the time to make a campaign appearance in the quite possibly the most liberal neighborhood in the world. Another was a dog walker, who perhaps spends most of his time talking to animals and therefore, really wanted to hang with us.

The bakesale started with a woman camped out on my stoop after seeing one of the fliers. Quickly, we got it all together.

Here were some of our customers:

A guy named Adam, who seemed to think we might be working for the campaign and quite possibly, wanted to spend more quality time with Karen. A girl who had no cash on her and ran to get her checkbook to buy some cookies. The woman in the car who purchased lemon bars and drove back around to tell us how amazing they were. The wheat-free girl who was thrilled to see No More Condolezza Rice Crispy Bars were on the menu. The dad with twin boys who spent 30 bucks on baked goods and walked away with Amanda's All-American Patriot Apple Pie, looking like he'd just won lotto. The cute sixth grade teacher who if he's single, should let us know, we have a potential prospect for him. The local newspaper guy who took like 50 pictures of our bake sale so perhaps we'll get our 15 minutes of fame, though I am personally hoping this won't count for mine.

Understandably, lots of people wanted to talk politics. The opinions varied, including a Republican who thanked us "for not screaming at him" and bought some cookies. Hey, if we can't convert you, we'll be happy to take your Republican money and hand it over to Obama, thank you very much. Only one woman truly predicted a gloomy election day ahead, due to " people in the South who are prejudiced" but we assured her we knew of lots of people in the South who were voting Obama. I think she was perhaps a bit prejudiced against Southerners herself. We told her we had high hopes, particularly because people in Florida (our people, anyway) were leaning towards Obama these days. In any case, she left smiling.

Everyone wanted to do their part and we made it easy for them....they only had to buy baked goods. Which let's face it, we all want to do anyway. Thanks so much to everyone who helped out and especially all the bakers....Karen and I didn't do it all ourselves...Denise, Laine, Amanda and my friend M all contributed. So did Jim, my neighbor who lent us his table. Everyone left with fuller tummies, slightly less full wallets and happy hearts.

I promise to be back to my old cynical self in no time.