I can sometimes get pretty impassioned when I believe in something. Occupy Wall St was an epiphany to me, and #BlackLivesMatter has been a labor of love, cementing my belief in the strength of activism as the cornerstone to real change. The Bernie Sanders campaign to me is the confluence of both, as well as a return to the kind of FDR populism this country so desperately needs now.

So I was lying in bed last night wondering how we could better communicate with each other about some of the things we’re each experiencing in our own neck of the woods during this amazing campaign season.

My loose idea was to create a thread for Bernie supporters to state where you are in the country and what your involvement has been/what it's been like (if you wish to share), and to share some fun personal stories/anecdotes. I’ll start in a minute.

But first I wanted to describe what I’m feeling here right now in NYC. It’s like the electricity in the air when the barometric pressure changes before a storm. The scene at St. Mary’s Park in the S. Bronx last week was, to use a popular culture analogy, a little like the Beatles arriving at JFK in Feb 1964, the electric reception at the airport serving as a harbinger of what would soon turn into full-blown Beatlemania.

There is a current of energy that is just waiting to be tapped into here. Like the feeling one gets hearing the hum of Niagara Falls from a distance, at imperceptible intervals growing greater and greater with anticipation of a magnificent revelation.

Berniemania has just touched down in NYC, and it’s a full on. The lovable aged moptop and very reluctant hero, who was compared to St John The Baptist by a Liberty University graduate in a blog posting after he spoke there, is eliciting powerful emotions out of people, different from the kind of collective relief and proud broad support of Obama. I expect it to be exponentially bigger next week when he’s holding a rally in Washington Sq Park and then off to the Vatican to speak about climate change and economic inequality.

Two stories of serendipity:

The electrical current is surging through the city's streets. Last week I parked on Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn to get some spices in that wonderful Middle Eastern section. I was wasn’t out of the car with a Bernie campaign sign for more than two seconds when I heard someone in the car next to us in the street waiting for the light yell something. He had been blasting the Who (5:15 from Quadrophenia, to be exact), but as I stood erect with the noticeable blue Bernie campaign placard he had instantly turned it all the way down.

“Hey, you got any more of those?” I was slightly stunned for second and having not heard him thought he was a friend who recognized me or something. Then repeated, “Can I have one of those?” Oh, yeah man. But look, these aren’t for hanging in your bedroom or something. If you have a really visible window then that’s something. “I know the doorman in our building and he’ll definitely let me put it up.” He then looks quickly over the buttons on my jacket that say “Bernie 2016” and “Tax The Rich” and says with a big smile, “I love you man. Thanks!” And he was off.

Not more than a couple of seconds after he scoots away, having held up traffic for a moment or two, the ambulance in back of him calls out through its loudspeaker, “Let’s go Bernie!”

I thought I was hallucinating.

I was not even out of my car door for even a split second and all this happened in about one minute. Wow, I’m going to see if I can parlay this into some shop windows on Atlantic Ave!

The first shop I walk into is one I’ve also been going to for some years. After ordering some paprika I ask the kind man with the ever-present smile if he’s following the presidential campaign race. He looks at me for a second and says, “not really” and makes a comment about Trump. I then say do you know who Bernie Sanders is?, as I show him the sign. His expression changes. He says, “before you were even going to show me the sign I would say he’s the only one I would vote for. He’s the only good one.” We talked about voting for another moment, then he said without hesitation, “sure, I’ll put that up.”

Then yesterday, I’m returning from the LIC office that just opened the day before on my way back to Astoria, and texted a teacher friend to say that I had lawn signs if he was interested. I look down on my phone to see “Yes please!!!”

When I get there he comes out and we exchange greetings for a few moments. Coming down the street is a guy in his mid-20’s/early 30’s who looks on at us approvingly. Sensing he’s a supporter too I say, “hey man, do you want one of these?” He lights up and says definitely, he says he lives in a basement apartment but the sign could be seen from the front of the street.

As we’re saying our goodbyes I look down the street to see a young guy holding a clipboard who has a blue button on his jacket. No, it can’t be. But yes, this is Berniemania 2016 and of course when I drive up to him I see clearly that he is canvassing by himself on that very same block. I’m thunderstruck by the quick succession of affirmative events, just like in Brooklyn last week.

I thank him for being out here and ask how things are going. “Well, this block had a lot of Hillary supporters.” Yeah, I said, Astoria is kind of lame, conservative and a bit older in places; it’s a big knock on the place I’ve lived for two decades. We don’t even have a used book store or live music venue here. “But the last two were for Bernie!” I’ll take those two out of three odds any day!

So, a show of hands: What have you been up to?

For my part so far I’ve been donating money to Bernie for about six or seven months at least, and multiple times. I’ve attended local phone bank parties, but with a four month old found I decided I could do more here at home. I’ve attended volunteer events and stopped in at two local campaign offices (now that they’re opened, and more to come) to see how I could help. I’ve gotten window signs up in Astoria, Greenpoint (at my favorite falafel shop where a young worker spotted the Bernie button on my jacket and smiled, leading again to another sign being put up) and Carroll Gardens. I plan on canvassing for the first time tomorrow in my neighborhood.

Has it been as electric as it’s been here where you are?

And, to my fellow my New Yorkers, what’s the vibe from your vantage point? But more importantly, what have you done/are you doing for the next 10 days?

We're gonna win this fucking thing!