Throughout the crowd, people hugged, kissed, high-fived, toasted and cheered. Tears dampened more than a few faces. Some raised their hands above their heads, palms out and fingers wide, expressing joy as their candidates triumphed victoriously. 

       With chants of “yes we did” and “O-ba-ma,” supporters at the Democratic watch party in St. Louis’s ritzy Pageant hailed their successes. None received a more dramatic response than the speech from president-elect Obama.  

      Hillary Price, a student in attendance from Washington University, admitted that she was still in shock that Obama won and said she started crying when she heard the news. 

      “It’s still like washing over me,” Price said. “I just can’t really absorb it.” 

      I asked DeAndress Green, a member of the crowd who volunteered for the Obama campaign, how she felt about the results. 

     “Look at my face,” Green said with her eyes wide and a smile stretched across her face.

 “I wasn’t worried in my heart,” Green said when I asked about her enthusiastic response to Obama’s new status as president-elect. “I knew that there was a great possibility that we would win.” 

     Green wasn’t the only one smiling in the room of well over 500.  People of all ages and races danced and sang, as speakers blared the songs “Celebration,” “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m yours” and “Let’s Get It Started.” My ears are still ringing. 

    Green asked if we had been outside yet, no likely referring to the honking cars and people shouting excitedly from the sidewalks outside the building. 

    “It’s like a smorgasbord of crazy outside,” Green said. 

 But as crazy as the environment was inside and out, the crowd took its volume to another level, erupting in cheers, high-fives, hugs and kisses as Obama’s face filled the screen, speaking for the first time as president-elect. As he spoke, the crowd subsided to a buzz and intently watched the big screens, entranced by the message, the speaker and the environment in which they gathered.