DUNMORE — While hundreds awaited the arrival of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton on Friday inside the Dunmore High School gym, Ron Patane dined only a few miles away at Casa Bella in North Scranton.
When the 68-year-old Moscow-area man took his seat in the crowded Italian restaurant, he couldn’t have anticipated the arrival of Clinton — or that he would have the chance to shake her hand and share a word.
“It was a privilege,” Patane said of the experience. “Here we have the former secretary of state, the woman who might be the next president. (I said) ‘I’m glad to see you. I’m glad you’re here. And good luck.’ ”
Clinton, in the area for a last-minute campaign stop before voters decide whether she or Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will secure a key victory in Pennsylvania’s Tuesday primary, was greeted by friendly faces as she made her way from table to table. She told one diner, “It’s always good to be in Scranton” and another, “We’re going to work hard.”
“I met people who said things like ‘I knew your cousins,’ or ‘I knew your uncles,’ ” Clinton said of the stop only minutes later, addressing the exhilarated crowd that filled the gym for her rally. “(I) met another woman who lived next door to my grandparents on Diamond Avenue. It just brings back a flood of the best memories and the best people.”
The electric atmosphere of the rally was a stark contrast to the relatively quiet restaurant, as chants of “Hillary! Hillary!” thundered from the crowd.
“I’m bananas for Hillary!,” said Katharine DiGiovanne, 23, who wore a yellow, body-length banana suit adorned with Hillary Clinton stickers. “I think she’s honest. She’s going to take this country to places that we’ve imagined, but have had no one to take us there.”
Dunmore resident Marlene Wilga shared DiGiovanne’s confidence.
“I have more faith in her than the others,” Wilga, 80, who wrote in Clinton’s name in the past two presidential elections. “She knows the ins and outs better than anyone. I think she can do something with that Congress, especially if we can get some Democrats in there.”
The former secretary of s-tate’s experience was also highly touted by attendees of the rally.
“I think Hillary is good for the job because she’s got experience,” Amber Le, 23, a nurse’s aide from Plains, said. “She supports all the things that I support, and I would like to see in a president.”
Climate change, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and properly funding education as the policy points Le is most concerned with.
During her approximately 35-minute speech, Clinton spoke to issues such as equal pay for women, the need for mental health support and the nation’s growing heroin and opioid epidemic.
Both the substance and the style of Clinton’s speech resonated with the audience, according to many who reflected on it afterwards.
“I like that she is trying to unify rather than separate, (instead) of putting up walls and barriers,” Lisa Orlandini, Tunkhannock, said. “There was a strong energy. There was a supportive energy.”
Orlandini also found Clinton to be very genuine, a trait that political opponents have accused her of not possessing.
“I think the other part was her heart,” she said. “In this crowd, you could definitely sense her sincerity and her heart as she spoke. It speaks to her as a human being. I think it’s her humanity coming together.”
Montrose resident Alicia Ross, a teacher at Blue Ridge High School, echoed this sentiment.
“I think people don’t have a sense of how exciting it is to see (Mrs. Clinton) in person,” Ross said. “She’s definitely electric, and she does come across as very sincere and caring.”