There were a group of business men and women in cities scattered all across the Texas Panhandle that saw the writing on the wall two years ago. Many point to a speech made by Shelia Cidergap as the point at which the new movement started. It was when she was speaking to the Morse Junction Chamber and said simply: "George Bush is on his way out; the wind is shifting, and we need to get ourselves aligned with the new direction.”
Usually, the President was not challenged in even such small local venues, anywhere in the Panhandle, and certainly not by a women, and never before by a business women who was a major contributor to the Republican Party. But Shelia was also a pragmatist. She knew there was change coming and to be right and defeated was not an option; she wanted to be near-right and win.
She organized a group called the 66/40 Group named after Route 66 and Interstate 40 which is the equator of the Panhandle. The group never actually raised much money, but rather encouraged businesses in the area, and eventually the region covering three states, to make contributions to candidates that favored the area. These contributions were across party lines, always aimed at votes friendly to the 66/40 rather than just one party or the other. It was a group looking out for the area’s interest regardless of which party won, except for the White House. For that race, the 66/40 Group, led by Shelia, was betting everything on Obama. It paid off for the 66/40 walked away with a toe-hold in Washington, rare for Texans these days, and clout that would likely carry over into state wide politics.
The idea of taking a group to Washington for the Inauguration came up at a cookout at Shelia’s cabin on Lake Meredith the weekend after the election, just before Thanksgiving. Claude Muttner, a prominent John Deere distributor, proposed the 66/40 get a bunch of rooms, charter a plane and go to Washington, make it a long weekend. The dozen or so in attendance all agreed and, on the suggestion of Connie Muttner, Shelia should be a guest and not have to make any of the trip's arrangements. Just go and enjoy.
When the group departed Amarillo there were 11 in all made up of four couples and three singles. Shelia knew most of them, but two of the couples were new to her, one which shared her row on the plane, a man and his young daughter from Perryton, up near the Oklahoma border. During the flight to Washington, Shelia learned that Cynthia, who was in the middle seat, was in the third grade and that her father was part Kiowa, so of course so was she. Shelia also learned that Michael, Cynthia’s father, took his grandfather’s hot water heater business and turned it into a manufacturing firm specializing in solar panel components and was doing very well.
When the plan reached Washington, the pilot announced that those on the left side of the plane should have a good view of the National Mall during final approach. Shelia offered Cynthia the window seat so she could see better which she accepted. As the plane drifted slowly down, the three leaned forward toward the window, a cowboy’s daughter’s daughter, the great-grandson of a warrior leaning over a child of the 21st century, just inches from each other, so they might catch glimpses of the boxed Lincoln and domed Jefferson and pinnacled Washington monuments.