Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A Baby Boomer's Witness to History Part I

Over the next couple of days I will be blogging about my experience in Washington, DC as I witnessed history in the making with the swearing in of President Barack Hussein Obama. I hope you’ll be a frequent visitor to this blog and even share your own thoughts to the various posts or just offer a comment on your reaction to it all.

My daughter and I arrived in Garrisonville, VA on early Monday afternoon. My husband had made arrangements for us to stay with some of his friends. There was a house full of people upon our arrival. Some of the host’s family members decided to make the road trip from Atlanta, Louisiana and Texas.

It was obvious everyone wanted to be a part of this historic occasion.

After unloading the car, we got right back on the road and headed to DC for a day of sight-seeing. Initially, we thought we could park the car at the Metro Station in Springfield, VA and travel into the city but everybody else was obviously thinking the SAME thing. So my husband, being the smart man that he is, figured out a better Metro Station for us to go to and, sure enough, there was hardly anybody there. We joked about the scarcity of people due to the fact that it was in the “hood” and some tourists couldn’t begin to find it and probably wouldn’t dare go there if they did.

Our first stop was the National Mall where all of the festivities were going to be held. There were people EVERYWHERE and plenty of vendors selling all kinds of items. People were eager to buy anything that had Barack’s name on it. One vendor told me he sold 3000 shirts at $10 a piece in 48 hours. Not a bad hustle. Some people don’t make that in a year.

I decided I wanted to take pictures of people wearing Obama hats so I just stopped people at random and asked if I could take their pictures. I met folks from California, Jamaica, Ohio, Louisiana and even right in my own back yard of North Carolina.

Then we took pictures of the grandstand where all the big whigs would be gathered as well as.

Tomorrow, I’ll share the emotion of Inauguration Day from a baby boomer's perspective. Meanwhile, Enjoy the slide show.

4 comments:

Mitch said...

What a wonderful day it was. I'm glad you got to participate. I wasn't even going to try, but I live much further. Historical and life changing; wow.

Inner Genius Coach said...

Give us more Bev. Tell me how you felt and what happened.

For me watching it, I experienced the emotions of patriotism for the first time in my life.

I wrote about it on my blog.

Hugs to you. I love that you were there.

Iyabo

Joyce Mason said...

I'm loving the vicarious thrill of your "report," Beverly! Plus the Obama hat fashion show is way fun. We even got a tip for navigating large urban areas--park at the Metro, subway, etc., station that's less traveled.

Laurie said...

Beverly--You have a truly excellent blog! I was wondering since we have just opened a new "channel" devoted to Travel Reviews
on our website wwww.babyboomreview.com
whether you would consider cross posting some of your reviews or an excerpt so we can bring them and you to a wider audience?
We would be open to other suggestions.
Best regards
Larry

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