Rather than writing about some historic site, this post is about the day I witnessed Presidential history in real time.
| President | Barack Obama |
| Location | Washington, DC |
| Date | January 20, 2009 |
| Who With | My friend, Sara. And a million other people. |
| Presidential Significance | Our first African American President took office surrounded by multiple other Presidents. |
As I type this, Donald Trump has left the White House and Joe Biden is just a few short hours away from being sworn in as President. This is an inauguration I would have liked to attend, especially considering Kamala Harris’ historic Vice Presidency.
Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, this year’s inauguration was already going be a smaller affair than usual, with Biden and his team clearly sending the message that people should not travel to DC for the event. Then, two weeks ago certain events occurred that help net Trump his second impeachment and resulted in security measures that make it virtually impossible for any non-invited guest to get anywhere near the Capitol. So, here I am, taking the day off work so I can sit on my couch in Florida and watch the day’s events on TV.
But while I cannot attend Joe Biden’s Presidential inauguration, I am able to reflect back to the time I was there for his swearing-in as Vice President.
That’s right! If you thought you saw me in the picture above, you aren’t crazy! That’s me! I was there at Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009.
Just in case your eyesight isn’t that sharp, here is an image from a different angle, which I’ve annotated to show that I was basically bumping elbows with six past, current, and future US Presidents.
Let me begin by saying that attending this inauguration was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever, Presidential-history-related or not. It took place twelve years ago today, but I still have very vivid memories of the ceremony and events surrounding it. However, since it has been a bit, the memories at this point are essentially a jumble of standalone vignettes and general impressions as opposed to a single coherent narrative. So I’m going to offer up my reflections in bite-sized chunks. Enjoy.
WE ARE ONE CONCERT
The We are One concert was, for better or worse, the de facto soundtrack for the time we were in DC. This was a big concert with several big-name acts that took place at the Lincoln Memorial the Sunday before Tuesday’s inauguration. My friend Sara and I arrived in the District during the concert and joined the crowd on the National Mall watching it on Jumbo-Trons. I
if we were upset about missing the first part of the show, we needn’t be. We had many opportunities to relive the concert. Through Monday, they showed it on the Jumbo-Trons many times, I assume on repeat, so we’d catch parts of it whenever we were near the Mall. Then, the morning of the inauguration while we were all standing on the Mall, captive for hours, they showed the full concert not once, but twice.
Don’t get me wrong. It was a great concert that I enjoyed thoroughly the first few times, but it is possible to have too much of a good thing. As I recall, Garth Brook’s fun rendition of American Pie remained a crowd pleaser to the end, but other than that, by the final showing of that concert, the crown was pretty much over it.
THE BOSS
At some point between the concert and the inauguration, my friend and I were making our way to the official Obama inauguration store. I was walking a little ahead of her, lost in though. I saw a lady walking towards us on the sidewalk on the arm of a man, in a group with a few others and I absentmindedly reflected on how red her hair was. After the group had passed by, I heard Sara asking me a question.
“Jennifer….is that Bruce Springsteen?”
Shaken back to reality, I looked back just in time to see the group climbing some steps and disappearing into their hotel. Sure enough, there was Bruce Springsteen. The lady with the red hair was his wife, Patti Scialfa.
A few moments later I texted my brother to tell him I’d just seen Bruce Springsteen on the street. “Was it E Street?” he replied, jokingly. I looked up for a street sign to see where we were. How fun would it be if we actually were on E Street? Once I spotted the sign I saw that we were on…F Street. I laughed, knowing that now I’d always have a good ending for the story of the time I saw Bruce Springsteen.
OBAMA, IT’S COLD OUTSIDE
Inauguration day was the best, but make no mistake, it was long and it was cold. We checked out of our hotel at 2:30 AM to drive to the Metro stop where we had to wait in line outside. Other than the time we were on the train, we were basically outside for somewhere around 12 hours. Most of that time, from 5:00 AM to a little after noon, was spent standing in place on the National Mall. Even with having throngs of other people close by to block the wind, the low was 20° and my two layers of clothes and my jacket were not enough. It was FREEZING! I distinctly remember pulling out my first-generation iPhone to Google “symptoms of frostbite” more than once. But you know what? It was totally worth it.
OF THEE I SING
One of my favorite memories of inauguration day was actually the train ride into DC. It was still basically the middle of the night and we were packed in like sardines, but the mood was decidedly upbeat.
Not long into the trip, this older couple from New Mexico started leading our train car in patriot songs. Now, maybe belting out “This Land is Your Land” with a bunch of strangers on a subway car at 4:00 AM would be crazy under normal circumstances, but that day it seemed like it would have been wrong not to do that.
ESCAPE FROM DC
For some reason, my dopey self went into that day thinking we’d scoot out of DC right after the ceremony and drive back to Florida with time for me to catch some rest before I went to work the next day.
Spoiler: That didn’t happen.
After the ceremony, my friend insisted on getting in line for the porta-potties. While she was waiting I watched about half a million people get between us and the Metro. We made an abortive effort to get anywhere near a Metro station, then gave up and wandered back to the Mall.
Besides facing delays getting on the road threatening our timeline, we were working on basically no sleep and had no business driving 1000 miles home that day. Around 1:30 I finally came to my senses on this and called my boss to let her know I would need the following day off, which she wisely had already suspected and was cool with.
Since we knew we we were stuck for a while, we headed to nearest museum, the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. We weren’t the only ones with this idea. By time we got there, the cafeteria had run out of foo and they had given up on the security check process and were letting the frozen hoards stream right in (kind of unthinkable today). I’d like to say we took in the exhibits, but really we went into one theater where there was some sort of multimedia presentation that struggled to to keep my eyes open for and Sara flat out napped through. When we left the theater we made it as far as the wall across from the theater, where we found a spot and rested with all the others doing the same.
Rather than making it back to Florida, that night we only made it as far as Charlottesville before crashing at a hotel, exhausted.
Still totally worth it.