( Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. )
Street Polling includes a very broad range of political engagement styles.
Some Background
Classical political canvassing is centered around door-to-door conversations. In the early to mid 20th century the predominant a white middle class social structure referred to as the “nuclear family” was composed of a single breadwinner ( Dad ) at work, and a spouse at home focused on “homemaking.”
Strongly defined roles in the family focused the efforts by the parents to a very high degree. “Mom” kept the house orderly and clean, handling the family chores from cooking to laundry, planning vacation trips, birthday parties & sleepovers, dinner parties & neighborhood get togethers, and charting the social and scholarly trajectories the children would follow.
Dad took care of Poker Night with his friends, barbeques, Sports Night with friends, and training the kids in baseball and football.
The extended family along with Mom & Dad often became involved in political organizing as a natural extension of normal neighborhood socializing. Grandparents often helped out with neighborhood organizing tasks such as phone trees, mailing lists and the mailings themselves.