Demo Convention reporter's notebook

For Utahn David Holbrook, hearing from a swift boat skipper who served in Vietnam at the same time as John Kerry was an emotional moment.

"It was very, very moving. It brought tears to my eyes," said Holbrook, who served in the Army during Vietnam and now heads Utah Veterans for Kerry.

The skipper, Foster Wright, spoke at the Utah delegation's first convention breakfast about how he and Kerry were shaped by their wartime experiences. His voice broke as he described how President Bush does not share the same understanding of what it means to fight a war.

Said Holbrook, "It's not toy soldiers. People actually die."

Don't expect Howard Headlee of the Utah Bankers Association to switch his allegiance to John Kerry, even though Headlee is here in Boston.

Headlee had seats next to the owner's box at Fenway Park, where Kerry paid a surprise visit during Sunday's Red Sox-Yankees game.

The lobbyist, who is sponsoring the Utah delegation's daily breakfast meetings, said he appreciated seeing Kerry "as a husband and as a person. It's good to be away from the political intensity."

But was being just 15 feet away from Kerry enough to change the Republican's mind about who to vote for in November? "No," Headlee said.

Members of the Kennedy family, joined by about 1,000 other people, dedicated the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, a 27-acre park stretching between the North End and Fanueil Hall.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, an up-and-coming Republican, joined in Monday's ceremonies. Asked by a reporter what it was like to be a GOP governor amid the Democratic convention crowd, Romney replied: "We want to be generous hosts — and we want their nominee to go down in ignominious defeat."

The Kerry campaign says it will be tamping down attacks on President Bush this week, but campaign buttons on sale at delegates' hotels include: Bush in a cowboy hat under the phrase, "Mama, Don't Let Your Sons Grow Up to be Cowboys!" and a button referencing an initiative of the first President Bush to lampoon the second saying, "1000 Points of Light. 1 Dim Bulb."

Convention chairwoman Alice A. Huffman advised delegates that they can leave behind buffet leftovers without guilt. Leftovers are being given to Boston food banks. The avalanche of confetti and balloons that envelops Kerry and Edwards Thursday night will be politically correct as well. The confetti is made from only recycled paper; the balloons are biodegradable.