Well, here we go. We just got through Chicago and the Democratic convention. Did Kamala and Tim get the ticket to ride?

Don’t look at me with that confused frown. I only get printed on Sundays and it is Sunday, Aug. 18, as I write this. How would I know?

By now the opening act is over, the band has gone home, and the players in this star-spangled circus are on the road to convince you of their sincerity, and paint their dreams of conquest in the bright sun of our future.

As you read this, this Sunday morning, you’re still wondering who in the world is Timothy James Walz. I’ll tell you. He’s the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice president in the 2024 United States presidential election.

Tim was picked by the boys and girls in the smoke-filled back rooms, from the vine of contenders, to sit and stand alongside the star of the year, the cover star of Time magazine, Kamala Harris.

Wait. We know Kamala. She who is the vice president of these United States is not a stranger to many of you. But Tim? Who is he? He just got on board and hasn’t had time to impress you yet. He reminds you of someone but you don’t know who.

If you’re a brand new, first-time voter, you’re already ready for Kamala. But the 60-year-old guy with white hair? Think of Willie Nelson or Paul McCartney in white socks and black shoes. How about Mick Jagger who’s 81? Now, that’s old. Tim is only 60.

For years, my mother, who loved “Sunrise at Campobello,” always thought Ralph Bellamy looked like Roosevelt, and Greer Garson, who was lovely, reminded her of the not-so-lovely Eleanor.

Whenever one of Bellamy’s old movies came on Turner Classics, Mom, lost in her 92nd year, would say: “Oh, there’s that President Roosevelt fella, doesn’t he look grand?”

This brings me to a trick you older folks can use to bring the new players into focus. You can write this down. I’ll give you a minute to get a pencil and paper and your glasses, and don’t waste my time by going to the bathroom.

Remember Victor Jory as the mean Yankee who tried to foreclose on Tara in “Gone with the Wind”?

That’s Donald Trump. If you are a Trump fan, use John Goodman, or Dustin Hoffman, or whoever works for you.

But both Tim Walz and Kamala Harris are fairly new to everybody. So just imagine a livelier Anthony Hopkins, hopping and jumping and waving his arms with Hollywood’s Anne Hathaway in a pantsuit out there on the stage in Chicago. There you go.

The playbill of this 2024 election is full of new people.

You know Donald Trump, he’s bigger than life. The red wig, the blue suit.

This is the year of change — real, powerful change. It will be the year of the woman, with the first woman president.

Ladies and gentlemen, bring on Madam President 2025.

Postscript: It’s the Friday morning after Kamala’s speech. It was breathtaking. It’s all there, the blueprint, the details. Did you hear? It was the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen, but “crowds don’t vote.” Kamala laid it all out in bold print. Play the last 30 minutes back and pay attention. This is the real Kamala, the woman we’re gonna get. We’re standing at the crossroads of history. She’s holding out her hand to us — take it. It’s gonna be a tough race. Take her hand and run like Hell.

She’s gonna need every last breath you’ve got.

J.P. Devine is a Waterville writer.