Becoming a parent changed her attitude, just as the collapsing industry changed her finances and her marriage began to dissolve. "I went from the businesswoman to 'I really want to do this mom thing right,' " Triplett said.
Last August, she launched a home-based business connecting a team of predominantly stay-at-home mothers with organizations looking to farm out back-office tasks without hiring more employees. It's growing steadily, aided, in her view, by a soft economy that makes employers reluctant to hire.
Getting by on less than a third of her former income, Triplett is juggling expenses as the presidential season unfolds.
She sold her home after it sat on the market for a year. She moved last month into a rental town house with two roommates, both of whom worked for the same mortgage lender. Everyone gets a bedroom, including Hannah.
She traded her luxury Acura SUV and its monthly payment for an aging Camry, fully paid for. She curtailed driving because of gas prices and favors suspending the gasoline tax this summer, as well as lifting the ban on off-shore oil drilling - positions espoused by McCain and mocked by Obama.
Triplett grew up in a household where her music-teacher mother and postal-inspector father were Republicans.
But she considers herself a Democrat, and she is likely to vote for Obama.
"I tend to agree more with the Democratic viewpoint that we're all in this together," she said. An Obama administration, she believes, would foster collegiality and a problem-solving atmosphere.
Despite her changed circumstances, there is no bitterness in her voice, and no anger at politicians in Washington. She figures she can get by these days on $1,500 a month.
"My goals are to live comfortably and never have to worry about making a ridiculous payment again," she said. "I know that if my business were to tank, I'd be able to bartend or wait tables two nights a week," and survive.
Working hard
Bob Harris grew up in the tiny south-central Pennsylvania town of Warfordsburg, where he ran track and played baseball in high school. After graduating, he trained as a barber and spent five years wielding clippers and shears.
Worried about the retirement security of a hair cutter's life, he stopped by a new plant opening down the road in Hancock and got a job. It didn't seem like the right fit, and he stayed only half a day.
