Buttons

Political campaign buttons used to be a big thing.  Lots of people, including me, wore them.  Cleaning out our storage unit recently I came across a box of campaign buttons collected by my mom, something I didn't even realize we had.  The photo shows only about a quarter of the buttons in the box.  Most are from campaigns in the 1960s and most are for Democrats because mom was heavily involved in local Democratic politics in Connecticut, serving as Vice-Chairman of the party in our city, as a local Ward boss, and on the state party committee, along with managing a couple of Congressional campaigns.

From a young age, I enjoyed following politics and mom brought me to some meetings, including in the legendary smoke-filled rooms of the times, was a member of Youth for Kennedy as a 9 year old, and present at JFK's November 6, 1960 campaign rally at the Bridgeport railroad station which I wrote about in A Cruel and Shocking Act.

The most common buttons are for Abe Ribicoff who served as governor and senator from the state in that era.  You can also see a button for Adlai Stevenson.  The Ella button is for Ella Grasso, governor during the 1970s.  Kowalski was a Democratic congressional candidate from our district.  The Jackson Means Jobs button was for Scoop Jackson, the senator from Washington who was a candidate for the 1976 presidential nomination and, of whom, mom was a fan.  And, in the interests of political diversity, you can see her buttons for Nixon and Reagan.