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Glenvar High School students Megan Laughon and Anthony Ratliff chose Barack Obama over class Friday.

Jessica Larson of Salem took a vacation day from her nursing job at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital and pulled her 11-year-old son, David, out of Andrew Lewis Middle School.

Priscilla Casey of Roanoke told the folks at her volunteer job at Goodwill that she felt a case of "Bahama flux" coming on.

Across the Roanoke Valley and beyond, Friday marked a giant "skip day" as students, teachers and everyday workers took the day off to see the first major-party presidential candidate to visit Roanoke during a general election campaign since Sen. John F. Kennedy in 1960.

"This is one of the most important and historic moments of my life," said Ted Edlich, president of Total Action Against Poverty, standing inside the Roanoke Civic Center. "I just couldn't pass it up."

A few school buses deposited schoolchildren and their teachers outside the civic center. Others came on their own or with parents. Adults took a personal day from their jobs.

At a time when the economy is crumbling, the nation is fighting two wars, food costs are escalating and jobs are disappearing, more than 8,000 people braved Friday's rain to hear a needed message of hope.

Obama is the first Democratic nominee to come to Roanoke since Kennedy, a man to whom the Illinois senator has been compared.

Obama has touched people in a way that some say they haven't seen since Kennedy. He has invigorated a generation of young voters and inspired older ones.

As the first black nominee of a major party, Obama's nomination has taken on special significance for black Americans, especially those who lived through segregation.

"I'm here for my ancestors, for my mama and grandmama," Casey said as she waited for the rally to begin. "It was raining, and I said it was my ancestors raining tears of joy."

Janis Wade, a campaign volunteer, notified her co-workers Wednesday at Lewis-Gale Medical Center that she was taking off.

"He needed to come here. He had sent a lot of people," she said, referring to visits by President Bill Clinton, Terry McAuliffe, Sen. Evan Bayh and other surrogates who have campaigned here in recent weeks on behalf of Obama.

Friday's event was festive, even partylike before the candidate's arrival.

Music by artists such as Flatt & Scruggs, Earth, Wind & Fire and Kanye West energized the crowd as they waited for Obama.

Robin Spence, a campaign worker from Lewisburg, W.Va., stood, trying to get the people nearby to join him as he bopped about to the popular tune "Signed, Sealed, Delivered."

Spence said he took a personal leave day from his job as a social worker so he could see the man he is trying to help get elected.

"I didn't tell them where I was going. They'll guess where I'm going," he said.

Others did what they needed to do to be at the civic center. Roger Hunter happened to be off from his job at MeadWestvaco so he could drive from Alleghany County with 14-year-old daughter Kasey and her friend Aleshia Carroll to be at the event.

More than a few women had a bad hair day because popular Roanoke stylist and Hair Attitudes owner Greg Addison canceled several appointments so he could attend the rally.

Edlich allowed TAP employees to attend, but they had to use personal time to do so.

And what about him? If the head of one of the valley's largest social service organizations weren't at the political rally, what would he be doing on a Friday morning?

"I'd be in a boring meeting," he said, chuckling.