Locals brave traffic, cold to see history in person

Charlottesville residents Debbie Campbell and Chris Murray waited for more than four hours in the bitter cold to get through the security gates at Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Yet Campbell said the experience was not all frustrating. Though they were “sandwiched in like sardines,” the thousands of spectators waiting in line, Campbell said, amused themselves by singing patriotic songs such as “My Country, ’Tis of Thee” and by playing such games as trying to name all 50 state capitals.

“Four hours of waiting for a ballgame would have been miserable,” she said. “This was just fun.”

Once the bundled-up couple made it past security and onto the Capitol’s grounds, the scene was “absolutely breathtaking,” Campbell said. A euphoric crowd of some 2 million people stretched from the Capitol’s steps as far as the eye could see down the National Mall. Many chanted Obama’s name. More than a few had tears in their eyes.

“It’s like time stood still for a moment to let us celebrate,” said Campbell, who volunteered at the Downtown Mall office of the Obama campaign. “There is hope for our country.”

Kelli Palmer, another volunteer with Obama’s campaign, also attended Tuesday’s historic inaugural proceedings in Washington. After waiting two-and-a-half hours in line, Palmer stepped through the security checkpoint and was immediately struck by the size of the crowd.

“You turn a corner and all of the sudden you see thousands and thousands and thousands,” she said. “There aren’t words to describe it.”

Palmer witnessed the ceremony from the inauguration’s blue ticket section, which was roughly “a football field and a half” from the podium. From that distance, Palmer could just barely make out all the dignitaries on the stage. Michelle Obama’s gold dress, she said, made her the easiest to spot.

Palmer had campaigned on Obama’s behalf in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. During the general election, she took a two-month leave of absence from her job at the University of Virginia to help register 5,500 new voters in Southside Virginia.

“I had to come here [to the inauguration] to see the benefit of all the hard work,” she said.

Not everyone’s experience at Obama’s inauguration went quite so swimmingly.

Kristin Szakos, who was the Obama campaign’s volunteer coordinator for the Charlottesville region, had a ticket to the event’s purple section, in the southwest corner of the Capitol grounds. But Szakos and her husband found themselves stuck in line with thousands of other purple ticket holders for hours. The U.S. Capitol Police had reportedly stopped admitting ticket holders to the purple and silver sections because of the size of the crowd.

At a quarter to noon, the Szakoses realized they had no chance of getting into the inauguration. They pushed their way out of the crowd and walked a few blocks until they found a gift shop selling Obama souvenirs. The shopkeeper’s radio was tuned to an airing of the inauguration, so they huddled inside and listened to the proceedings alongside several other ticket holders who had been turned away.

“It was kind of an interesting little community that we formed,” Szakos said. “We kept telling ourselves: It’s OK that we didn’t get in. Barack Obama is still the president now.”

Szakos, however, said she does not regret trekking to Washington for the inauguration. “I’m glad I went. Obama’s speech was wonderful,” she said.

And the size of the crowd, she added, underscored the country’s feeling of hope amid difficult times. “The fact that there was such a large crowd here was a testament to this new energy of the nation,” she said. “Obama mentioned in his speech that the ground has shifted. That’s how it feels here today. It feels like the ground has shifted.”

Jack Ridley Jr., who drove a bus full of Mount Zion First African Baptist Church members to the inauguration, said he was glad to have witnessed such a historic moment.

“Oh man. It was unreal. To be among all those people — one million plus! — and to feel those vibes and the energy of everybody … It was a glorious occasion.”

Ridley said the highpoint of his day was watching on a JumboTron as Obama took the stage and became the 44th president of the United States.

“Just seeing Barack standing there taking the oath of office and giving his acceptance speech,” Ridley said. “It was incredible.”