 I'm one of the senior citizens of the group but I do not lose my sense of enthusiasm just because I'm in my 70s and I feel very very much that this new new era a new set of workers that we now had we have a new mayor it's our new mayor is the whole thing is coming up and even in national news I have a son that lives in California and they've even up on the dates of the status in California about what's going on in Burlington City Hall where their only socialist man so I feel kind of good about that in a way because even people across the country are interested in what's happening in Burlington City Hall we end up with a socialist mayor in Burlington could you imagine that that would have ever happened when you started out in politics I worked for community action for 18 years I saw about 12 years down the road in my to know our duty with this community action I saw a need for low-income people and poor people and poor people felt like that they did not have any place in City Hall they felt like they weren't wanted and I validated that on many occasions in my office they used to come and say just because we're low income why do we have to be excluded from the programs in City Hall and then we heard about what is now Mayor Sanders and he was running for office of another type in another you know in the state so we got acquainted and I said I'll help you I said I will help you as because I want to see new citizens I've just become a senior citizen at that time and I said I know the need more than most people around here because they come to our office for help and they express their feelings so he said that's good he said you can help me now he told me what his what his plans were and that he felt very strongly about trying to help all of the people including the low-income people and for the first time in history and I've been around these old parts for a good many years for the first time poor people low-income people in the city of Burlington could feel freely that they could be a part of Burlington City Hall it never was like that before if you didn't have a lot of prestige and a lot of money and live in a big nice house up on the hill you was not considered part of the network so after a while he became mayor then the people knew that they could come down here and feel like they're a part as a low-income person and really feel like they was welcome here and I think that part of the program was very important and I still think so do you were you here at organization day in 1981 when Bernie became mayor can you tell us what that was like do you remember well to make a long story short it was a new era in a new transition period and a new feeling among low-income people especially senior citizens I go to a senior citizen I belong to a couple senior citizen groups in Burlington and they came to us that day and said are you going to City Hall tonight we're all going are you going I said I wouldn't miss it so from that day forward I saw for the first time the consensus of opinions among my fellow friends which I have many in this city and being a native from other a lot of people ask us a lot of questions they say what is it like what was it like and what do we hope to achieve and that night we had a very large group from one of our local senior citizen clubs and they had never been here before they lived here all their lives and they never been here before and that night they came out of the woodwork because they went away with a feeling we at last can find and feel that we're a part of the program now I think with this new man I know who Peter is because I work for his brother it's at the Constable Department David Clavel I think he has a lot of work to do he first of all being from Vermont and being from one of skin bring from the area his birthplace and his heritage has a lot to do with how he achieves you know native born Vermonters are a very special set of people they want to feel wanted and if they can't feel wanted I interview people all the time down I've seen the citizens to go to more Peter I'm a lot I lobby and more Peter they have to feel wanted and if they're not feel wanted they feel destroyed now if we can achieve the same types of things in our new era we're starting out all fresh we'll have a very great success in the city hall we are walks nationwide there's other states is watching how we achieve things and how we work with our programs and things and they are watching how we do it I was in Seattle last June I was interviewed by several sets of people in Seattle Washington who watched the newspaper all the time and they they of course I used I lived in Seattle for 12 years so I know a few people being a member of the National Council on Aging I see some more people I was interviewed and they asked me all kinds of questions about how do we feel do we feel really welcome in our local city hall I said for the very first time that I can remember that is okay that's great Blanche thanks we're gonna have to go interview some other people but I appreciate it I also appreciate all the work that you've done yeah well I've been here for a long time I'm what they call a little fixture