Bryce Tappa, 34, and Kate Noble, 32, stood in the dark and cold near the end of a half-mile-long line Friday night.

The couple wanted to see Sen. Barack Obama speak at Santa Fe Community College, but they realized they would not be among the 3,500 people who would get inside the gymnasium. The line, stretching from the Witter Fitness Center to Richards Avenue, was simply too long.

Among the several hundred people left outside when the doors were closed at 6:55 p.m., a rumor was circulating that Obama would come outside to address those who didn't make it in. And so the couple ditched their spot at the end and made the 10-minute walk to the front of the line.

Tappa and Noble were not disappointed. Near a sidewalk at the side of the gym, several clean-cut men in suits were setting up fences, police tape and a makeshift podium. A crowd quickly gathered. One woman asked to shake an aide's hand. It was practice, she said. Another woman frantically tried to warm her hands inside her coat — she didn't want Obama to grasp an ice-cold hand, she said.

Tappa, who works for Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Noble, employed by the city of Santa Fe, huddled together. "I guess this was a good strategy," Tappa said.

When Obama emerged from a side door, a flurry of camera flashes went off and hands shot out to greet him. Several star-struck people remarked that his hand was big and warm.

"I'm sorry you couldn't all make it in," Obama said. "I'm not going to give a whole speech. I just wanted to say thank you."

Inside, they also were waiting for him. Four perky Santa Fe High School seniors sat in the reserved section near the front of the gym wearing fairy outfits with wings and wands. Together, their shirts said, "We believe in fairy tales." The reference was to a comment former President Bill Clinton made about Obama recently. If there were any "Obama girls" among the crowd, it was the fairy girls, who said they are all turning 18 soon and swear they'll register and vote.

"I think (young people) really will vote because a lot of them are excited," one of the students, Elyssa Jenkins, 17, said. "We are excited, basically, about his stance on the war in Iraq."

Kay Hagan, a Santa Fe-based writer and editor, was the first person through the door. She had showed up at the college at noon with a screenplay to read and a lawn chair.

"I think he inspires a whole new generation of people to get involved in the political process," she said.

Nancy Trent, a mother of two home-schooled children who she said had convinced her to support Obama, waited next to Hagan in line. She and her two children, Melissa, 18, wearing at least four Obama stickers, and Michael, 14, would be the second, third and fourth people inside.

Michael brought a book titled The Making of an Activist that he was hoping to have Obama sign. On Thursday, Sen. Edward Kennedy signed the book. The Trent children fancy themselves activists and say Obama isn't hype — that young people really will vote for him.

"(Obama) inspires this positive idea of what the government could be," Melissa said. "He makes every single person believe they could be a part of this change."

Contact Natalie Storey at 986-3026 or nstorey@sfnewmexican.com.