Marshall Clemons’s reaction to his time with Sen. Biden:

I’ve got to be honest, I was a little nervous to have Senator Joe Biden walk a day in my shoes.  I care a lot about Harding Middle school, where I work as head custodian, and it was important to me that the Senator understands how much time and attention goes into making it a place that our kids and the community can depend on.  I also wanted to represent my union well, and my girlfriend Stephanie and I wanted to make sure that the house was clean and food was ready – it’s not every day you get to have a Senator over for dinner.

But when Senator Biden arrived, he put me at ease immediately.  Living in Iowa, I’ve gotten to see a lot of candidates, but I was surprised at just how down to earth Joe Biden was.   When he arrived, he shook my hand and slapped me on the back and we went right to work. 

The first job of the day was servicing one of the school’s two large boilers.  Every year we pull the whole machine apart, clean out the pipes, close it up, and restart it.  I had planned to do most of the hard parts myself, but the Senator dove right in and performed like a champ.  Senator Biden didn’t just want to watch me do my job; he was intent on helping me do it.

After working on the boiler, we moved on to cutting and replacing air conditioning filters, sweeping the floors, and checking up on the school grounds.  As we worked through the tasks, I got an opportunity to introduce Senator Biden to my coworkers and the school’s principal.  It was amazing to see how quickly the Senator developed a rapport with everyone he met and how much he wanted to know about our jobs and our lives.

After work, I brought Senator Biden home and introduced him to my girlfriend, Stephanie, and her two children.  Josh, her younger son, took full advantage of the opportunity and peppered the senator with political questions over a plate full of chicken and corn on the cob.  Before we knew it, dinner was over and the Senator was saying goodbye.  We got a good family picture, and he invited me to visit him when I’m in Washington, DC for SEIU’s Member Political Action Conference next week.

Harding Middle School has more than 900 students, so when I go to work, I get to see the future of our country up close and personal.  I work hard to do my job every day so that the teachers and students can teach and study like they need to.  I’m glad that Senator Biden got to walk a day in my shoes and see what an ordinary middle school in Iowa is like, and I hope that when he’s in the Senate or on the campaign trail he remembers the day he spent here. 

And if he’s ever interested, I’d definitely welcome him as a member of our crew.