A good 3 hours of sleep under my belt, I woke up, ready for this day. My dad, my Uncle John, my friend Kyle, and I were ready to head into DC for the Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States. My dad was certainly prepared for the day, as he stuffed all of his pockets with ham sandwiches, trail mix, water bottles, hand and feet warmers -- he was like a walking convenient store. I had so many layers of clothing on, putting them on was extremely difficult. I'd put on a few layers and then realize I forgot one and would have to start all over again. It was going to be a long, cold day. But we never expected what was to come.
Leaving the Cacioppo's house, we headed to the New Carrollton metro station. The traffic was absolutely ridiculous, but when we finally got off the exit, the line did not look so long. We were confused, but hey, not a long line! So we thought. Once we got to the top of the stairs, the line stretched a few blocks down, turned around and came back. Close to 3 hours we stood in that line, in the cold, making friends from all over the country.
We got off the metro and the Federal Triangle and when we were waiting to board the escalators along with 19842981298903284 other people, this strong breeze came down and someone yelled, "I feel the winds of change!"
We got up the escalator and there were people EVERYWHERE. And they were all be herded in one direction. We crossed the street as a line of police officers stood, silent, forming the path. We were no where near the Capitol Building, but we didn't really care. I looked toward the Capitol and just saw a sea of people. To the right, I saw the Washington Monument, surrounded by people. It was truly incredible.
They gave everyone on the National Mall little American flags, which made for cool pictures. Yet, every time you waved the flag, you whacked the person next to you because we were so crowded in. Just watching the people was enough for me. Everyone had so much clothes on, they couldn't move. I specifically remember this one lady who was sitting on the ground and when she went to stand up, she couldn't. There were a ridiculous amount of porta potties surrounding the Mall. I don't know why I remember this, but I do.
By the time celebrities like Beyonce and Alicia Keys graced the screens in front of us, I had forgotten about the cold. I saw my girl Hillary Clinton, and Scranton man Joe Biden. When Aretha got up to sing, she had that ridiculous hat on and everyone on the Mall laughed a little. One thing I know they edited out from the TV -- when they showed President Bush on the screen, people actually began to boo. To me, he was still leader of this country and I did not partake in the booing. He was in office only a few months when 9/11 occurred. I don't think he was at all the greatest president, but he was entertaining nonetheless.
We watched the whole ceremony on screens on the Mall. The video was waaaaaay behind the audio. You would hear President Obama speak, and then like ten seconds later, you would see him saying those words. No one seemed to care, though. We were like one big family. It didn't matter that we didn't know each other. We were sharing this experience.
Obama accepting the Oath of Office
Though, the worst was yet to come. Leaving the Mall was like a scene in Animal House. There were only two streets that were open that we could exit through, yet no one knew what they were. A crowd of people would walk down one street and we would follow, until they were turn around yelling "GO BACK GO BACK ITS NOT THIS ONE!"During this commotion, President Bush was boarding the helicopter back to Texas and a crowd of people had gathered round singing "Nah nah nah nah hey hey hey goodbye." Another thing they probably would never show on TV.
We finally found an exit, and what we thought we be a quick way out. We headed down into the L'Enfant Plaza station. We walked downstairs into the little mall where I ran into a crowd of people. This crowd of people was the line to board the train. The ceilings were low. Everyone was dressed for negative 30 degree weather and down there it was 130 degrees. People were stripping left and right. We moved about 3 bathroom tiles every twenty minutes. Thank God we packed those ham sandwiches. People began to faint and become sick and someone would yell, "Hey! Where's that guy with the peanuts?" And my dad would whip a pack of trail mix down the hall. "Hey! Where's that guy with the water?" Dad would throw a water bottle across the hall.
Dad, me, Kyle (Uncle John took the photo)
Check out this video, get a sense of the craziness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP7QdaYQtKQ
No comments:
Post a Comment