I can't speak from any other experience because I was born in Feb of 1979, just a few short months after he became Pope (JPII was elected by the conclave of cardinals in October of 78), so for my generation it is like having FDR as president for the early baby boomers and maybe those at the tail end of the WWII generation--all they knew for as long as they could remember...
In my mind I cannot even remember what the Pope looked like before Pope John Paul.
I read your profile. Good luck if you run for office. My state rep is younger than me and won his first race at 22.