“We stood there for six hours and in that time we went from one side of the street corner to the other,” said Jack. “Usually you get some bickering or frustration in a crowd that size moving that slowly, but all you saw were people very positive and excited. You could have heard some screaming in a crowd that size, but really people just occasionally broke into song.”
“I was a little worried at first, I’m a little claustrophobic and I’ve never been that close to that many people,” said Mary Kay.
Bryton Hiatt, another local student, had the opportunity to see the day’s events from a different vantage point. Taking part in the James K. Polk Presidential Youth Innaugural Conference, he was in Washington for the weekend hearing speakers such as former Vice President Al Gore, Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Bishop Desmond Tutu, and spent inauguration day on the Mall.
“We were as close as the non-ticketed public was allowed to be,” he said. “It was pretty cold today but the body heat kind of helped. It was like a human blanket.”
While none of the four got close enough to really be a part of the official events, they all agree it was simply enough to be in a great moment in history.
“It was just so very exciting. You could see how happy everyone was to be there,” said Mary Kay. “Even knowing that we didn’t actually get ‘in’ I’d do it all over again.”
“It was just fantastic, just feeling the energy of the crowd and the excitement,” said Hiatt. “You met people of every age and every background.”
“We met a volunteer from Washington who was working the inauguration and he told us that Coca-Cola had offered to give every volunteer working the inauguration a scarf and hat but it would have to have the (Coke) logo on it... that was interesting,” said Martin. “The girl driving the taxi was like most people from the city. It was kind of like a mixture of a nuisance of having 3 million people in your city for one day and the feeling that it was really pretty cool that it was happening.”