Weather Plays Its Role at the Inauguration
WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 – He may only have been in third grade at the time, but Steve Amoroso of Methuen still remembers attending former President Clinton’s first inauguration ceremony with his family in 1992.
When he recalls that day, the temperature is one of the first memories that come to his mind.
“It was cold,” said the 21-year-old George Washington University student. “I got to meet Senator Kerry. I was pretty little but I was always interested in politics.”
He hasn’t missed a presidential inauguration since. This term, even though his family opted out of attending the event, Amoroso decided he wanted to keep the tradition alive.
On Wednesday afternoon, he called Representative Marty Meehan’s congressional office to see if any more tickets were available and was lucky enough to reserve the last two of roughly 200 tickets distributed by the office.
Later that night, he and about 20 others stopped by Meehan’s office at the Capitol to pick up their tickets during a welcoming reception held by the representative’s staff. Many of them had hoped to see Meehan, who was supposed to host the reception.
But Meehan was stuck in Boston because his flight from Logan Airport was delayed due to weather concerns, according to his staff assistant Shilpa Phadke.
“He called to give his regards to everyone here,” Phadke announced early during the reception as visitors milled around Meehan’s office. They studied photographs lining the walls, watched a TV showing inauguration coverage, and talked about their plans for the week while helping themselves to refreshments.
Amoroso said he has arranged to watch the Al Franken Show broadcasting live from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington after the swearing-in ceremony.
He also hopes to see some protests, which he said were more abundant at Bush’s first inauguration than Clinton’s inaugurations.
“Bush’s inauguration had a lot of protestors.I wouldn’t mind that again because they’re fun to watch,” Amoroso said.
For Terry Hegarty of Tewksbury, the swearing-in ceremony will be the best part of the ceremony. A 21-year-old student at Catholic University of America in Washington, Hegarty made weekly trips to Bush’s campaign headquarters in Virginia last spring to do volunteer campaign work.
“After all the campaign trips, I’m looking forward to him taking the oath,” he said. “I feel that I’ve contributed in some small way to that.”
Rick Hanson of Chelmsford attended the reception only hours after he arrived in Washington on an Amtrak high-speed train. According to Hanson, who went to former President Clinton’s second inauguration, partisanship should be cast aside during the inauguration in order to yield support to the President.
“It’s history. It’s an aura of excitement all around the city. There’s patriotic pride in being here,” said the Budweiser beer distributor for the greater Lowell and Lawrence area.
Many of the visitors at the reception discussed the current weather as well as the weather for the upcoming days, sharing strategies for staying warm during the many outdoor inauguration festivities.
But Robert Hargraves, the state representative for the first Middlesex District, didn’t seem worried about the cold. He and his wife, Ellen, arrived early during the reception to pick up their tickets for the ceremonies.
“We’re ready for it. We’re New Englanders,” he said.
