Pearl Givens Smith remembers, as a child, being directed to a separate entrance at a Louisiana doctor's office because of the color of her skin. | Photo gallery | Video: Is Illinois red, blue or purple?

"It's not about a black man running," she said during a party of Obama supporters Tuesday night. "It's about change. It's an inspiration to youth and gives them a message that destiny is in their hands."

More than two dozen people, a mix of black and white, women and men, retirees and children, filled the house of Rosie and Kevin Smith at 12 Ketcham Court in Bloomington. They wandered between the kitchen and living room, alternating between eating and watching history unfold on TV.

It got loud when news reports announced Pennsylvania went to Obama. It got louder with declaration that the Illinois senator had won Ohio. By the time the networks declared Obama the winner about 10 p.m., it was hard to hear much of anything.

Mike Williams, who works at State Farm Insurance Cos. and is president of the Bloomington-Normal chapter of the NAACP, said the election was exciting because it was a historic moment.

His mother, he said, got up early to go to the polls in Champaign and wished her husband was still alive. "We never thought we'd see this," she told her son.

Veronica Woods of Bloomington said Obama's victory bodes well for progress in the nation's race relations.

"His selection is not about the person," she said, "but what he represents."

----

In Flanagan, high school seniors Mathew Spencer and Laura Hillman were voting for the first time Tuesday.

Spencer, who hopes to attend a Vermont military academy, and Hillman, who wants to major in speech pathology, were serious about their rite of passage.

"It is important to vote so that your voice is heard," said Spencer during a lunch-hour break at Flanagan-Cornell High School, explaining his decision weighed heavily on his views about abortion and religion. "I think that it depends on where you're at (if younger voters) turn out to vote. I know that, in Flanagan, we take it seriously."

Hillman knew "it was the right thing to do" when she started the day by voting with her family in the western Livingston County community.

"If you don't vote, then you really have no room to complain about what's going on," Hillman said. "I think that we do have strong outlooks because one day it will just be us."

----

At Farmer City Chiropractic, the waiting room was filled with talk about how smooth voting went.

"I was amazed," said Donald Jensen, a lifelong resident of nearby Gibson City. "I thought it would take a while, but it went smooth. I was in and out in 10 to 15 minutes."

Fifteen minutes was all it took for Rodney Resler to vote in the northeastern DeWitt County town. His only difficulty was "which line to get in," since all three precincts voted at the same place.

At the clinic, business was brisk with patients exchanging food pantry donations for free back adjustments.

Owner Dr. Aaron Skinner didn't think the depressed economy would limit donations. "It's similar so far," said Skinner, hoping to match last year's cash donation of $500 and hundreds of cans of food.

----

Over in Lincoln, presidential historian Paul Gleason waited to find out which candidate would send his inaugural invitation.

Gleason, a co-director of the Lincoln College Museum, is well-known in Washington for his knowledge of presidential history and has attended the last nine inaugurations.

"What I enjoy most about an election is the inauguration," he said.

"As I get older, who wins isn't as important to me as the opportunity to witness history and that happens no matter who wins. I just enjoy the excitement of it."

----

In nearby Clinton, Liberty Village residents watched early returns at community rooms, with other seniors watching results at DeWitt Manor and the Friendship Center.

"I'm not sure if much will change very soon," said Don Goodfield of Clinton. "But it's still fun to watch."

----

In parts of the agriculture community, election talk took a back seat to the business of wrapping up this season's harvest.

Rodger Zook of Randolph Ag Service, south of Bloomington, didn't hear much in the way of election chatter.

"Everybody's too busy right now," he said. "Everyone I've talked to was going to vote. I voted three weeks ago because I knew we'd be busy."

He said the farm community is "concerned about the inexperience, one on both sides," he said. "I also think they're tired of the media coverage."

Across the road at Randolph Cooperative Grain Go., manager Steve Cope echoed Zook's sentiments as a steady stream of semis and grain trucks unloaded at the rural elevator.

----

Most of the veterans Oscar Simpson knows supported McCain, a former Navy pilot and POW, which was "all the more reason for us to hang together."

But if Streator's former military residents were paying attention to the election, it wasn't at their two veterans' clubs. The usually busy VFW was closed Tuesday and the American Legion had just a few customers.

"Come on, this is election night," said Simpson, a veteran of the Army and Navy. "We should be out on a night like this."

Diane Osland agreed most veterans supported McCain, but whoever wins should "go along with what it says here," she said, pointing to her sweatshirt message: "Get 'er done."

Reported by Patti Welander, Bloomington; Tony Sapochetti, Flanagan; Steve Hoffman, Farmer City; Kevin Barlow, Lincoln and Clinton; Troy Semple, Randolph; and Greg Stanmar, Streator.