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Today's election will go down as historic, regardless of which ticket wins the White House. A Utah man has collected a lot of history of past presidential races and is showing it off for the first time.
John Haws started collecting presidential campaign memorabilia when he was 8 years old. That's when John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in 1960. A few months ago, he started organizing what he had, and we found out he has a lot!
That started his collection, which he has been adding to in boxes until recently when he decided to get it all out and organized. He has campaign items dating back to 1896, the year McKinley was elected and the first campaign button was made.
His collection can bring back a lot of memories. "We've had hundreds of people come, and they've really reminisced about their place in history: from World War II, where they were when Kennedy was killed, to how they feel about Nixon," Haws said.
Haws has found all of the items in antique shops, garage sales and by searching across the country. eBay has helped, but he had most of it long before the Internet.
Haws hopes sharing his collection will remind Americans of the opportunity to vote and make a difference. "A lot of time, we focus on the negative of each president. But there's a lot of great presidents, no matter which party or president; and I think we need to look towards that to see what a great country we have," he said.
There isn't anything on display for either the McCain or Obama campaigns today because people are voting in the same building as the display.
But Haws says he has a lot of campaign memories from both candidates and will add the president-elect to his collection.
The memorabilia display will be open until 8:00 tonight at the Lehi Legacy Center.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
