ELKHART — The last thing Sam Rasp expected Sunday was to meet Sen. Barack Obama.

The 10-year-old Indianapolis fourth-grader was in Elkhart to visit his grandmother, Mary Rasp. They were taking a walk near her Jackson Boulevard home when a motorcade slowed to a stop right next to them.

Roughly 100 members of the press swarmed onto the street from a couple of touring buses, and then Obama stepped out of a big black luxury bus, accompanied by his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters, 9-year-old Malia and 6-year-old Sasha.

The Rasps were among the first neighbors to meet the Obama family.

Did they know he was coming? Did anyone tip off the neighborhood?

“I had no idea,’’ said Rasp, a fourth-grade teacher at Riverview Elementary School. She was thrilled, she said, because she’s an Obama supporter.

So is Sam. He said he will tell his classmates about meeting the Democratic candidate for president.

Trudy Myers, who teaches at Oxbow Elementary School, will use the experience today as a lesson in her fifth-grade classroom.

She said she will read a book called “Pink and Say,’’ by Patricia Polacco, about a couple of young Civil War soldiers, one black and one white, who become friends after the white boy is wounded. The white boy tells his black friend that he once shook the hand of Abraham Lincoln, and then reaches to shake his black friend’s hand. “Now you can say you touched the hand that shook the hand of Abraham Lincoln,’’ the white boy said.

Myers said she will tell her class that they can touch her hand, the hand that touched the hand of Barack Obama.

Myers said she supports Obama because “he can bring integrity and pride back to saying I am an American.’’ She hasn’t felt this excited about a candidate since Bobby Kennedy ran for president in 1968.

She wasn’t the only one who brought up Kennedy’s name.

Bill Wolf, a retired teacher, remembers when Kennedy paid a visit to Elkhart in 1968.

Wolf seized his chance to talk to Obama about Social Security. He said he complained that he has to pay taxes on his Social Security income, and “I don’t think that’s fair.”

Although he normally votes Republican, Wolf said, seeing Obama campaigning in his neighborhood might sway him to vote Democratic this time. He said Obama has the aura of youth and energy, with a young family, just like Kennedy.

Beatriz Jones, who lives on Jackson Boulevard, said she was undecided about her vote until meeting Obama.

He talks with his eyes, she said, and she could tell he was telling the truth. Jones said was in the crowd at Hillary Clinton’s recent appearance at the Coveleski Regional Baseball Stadium in South Bend, and Hillary never looked her in the eye.

Her 10-year-old son, Austin, talked basketball with Obama. Jones said Obama commented on Austin’s 5-foot-6 height, which is tall for his age, and said he could be a good basketball player.

As the word spread through the neighborhood, Obama’s plan to go door to door gave way to a strategy to shake as many hands as possible. Roughly 200 people lined the sidewalk to meet Obama, perhaps have their picture taken with him, perhaps get his autograph.

Tyler Nutting, a 16-year-old student at nearby Elkhart Central High School, used his cell phone to let his mother know what was happening. Then he handed the phone to Obama, who talked briefly to Tyler’s mother and 13-year-old sister.

Other people also had Obama speak by cell phone to relatives and friends in other locations.

At one point, Obama, with a cell phone to his ear, announced to the throng, “This is Hillary on the phone, and she said she’s supporting me.’’ As the crowd laughed, he clarified that he was talking to Hillary Van Dyke.

Another person Obama talked to by cell phone apparently told him he already had cast an absentee ballot.

“Who’d you vote for?’’ Obama asked. “Oh, you voted for me? Thanks.’’

Elkhart City Councilman Rod Roberson told Obama of their connection: He said he played basketball at Northwestern University with Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama’s brother.

Roberson said it was “absolutely great’’ that Obama came to Elkhart. “That’s what makes him connect,’’ Roberson said.

Obama worked the crowd for about 1½ hours before telling everyone he had to go to make his next engagement in Fort Wayne.

His wife and kids petered out before he did. The two girls gamely went from door to door with him at first, then said they would rather go to a park.

“I want you to get a vote, Sasha, before you can go to the park,’’ Michelle said.

Sasha apparently delivered, because mother and daughters slipped away virtually unnoticed about a half-hour into the appearance, presumably to find a playground.

For more information on Obama's surprise visit, stay with WSBT News and WSBT.com and read Monday's South Bend Tribune.