THE INAUGURATION OF GEORGE BUSH : It Takes Wife’s Hug and Punch to Make Big Day Become Real

This is what George Bush said he would do on Friday:

“6 a.m.--catch 3 news shows. Drink Coffee--Play with grand kids--Pray--Go to WHouse--Go to Cap Hill--Get Sworn in.”

Indeed, that is what he did, adhering to that abbreviated agenda, written in his own hand a few days ago.

Thus, at 12:02:26 p.m., he recited the simple, 35-word oath of office, an ever-so-slight smile kept forming on his lips as he paused during the swearing in, and George Herbert Walker Bush became the 41st President of the United States.

It was a time of excitement, nostalgia, solemn ceremony, more nostalgia, and then exhilaration. And it was a day of much more than that brief schedule Bush scribbled for an aide.

Begins in Blair House

Just as Bush said it would, the day began at 6 a.m. Bush, according to his wife, Barbara, was the first to rise in Blair House, where the Bush family--George, Barbara, children and spouses, and 10 grandchildren passed the pre-inaugural night. The day was not scheduled to end until he visited the last of 12 inaugural balls and arrived at home for the first night in the White House at 1 a.m.

It was a playful George Bush who spied reporters and camera crews outside Blair House, the government guest house. He parted a curtain to tap on the windows, ducking back by the time the cameras had swung around to capture his image.

It was a nostalgic new President who confessed, after bidding farewell to Ronald and Nancy Reagan at the U.S. Capitol after the swearing-in ceremony, that he could barely contain his emotions.

“I was trying to keep the tears from running down my cheeks. After eight years of friendship, it was pretty tough,” he said.

sh Reagan Salutes Bush

As they parted, citizen Reagan gave Bush a salute from the steps of the waiting U.S. Marine Corps helicopter, and Bush, now the commander in chief, returned it crisply.

And it was a momentarily confused new President who confessed that when Sen. Wendell H. Ford (D-Ky.) addressed him as “Mr. President,” he remained mute.

“I’m standing there, waiting for President Reagan,” Bush said, adding that “something between an affectionate hug and a kidney punch” from the woman he calls “the silver fox,” his white-haired wife, told him he was now the President.

But, all in all, it was not a terribly hectic day for the new chief executive and the First Lady.

Dressed in a blue suit, white shirt and silver tie--chosen without any “big thought,” an aide said--Bush, accompanied by his wife, made a quick trip out of Blair House to attend a service at the 174-year-old St. John’s Church, across Lafayette Park from the White House.

Coffee in White House

Then, joined by Vice President Dan Quayle and his wife, Marilyn, they had coffee in the Blue Room of the White House with the Reagans. During the brief visit to the White House, Secret Service agents placed the inaugural license plate, USA 1, on a new, $600,000 armored limousine that was put into use for the first time for the trip to the Capitol.

The Reagans, Bushes and Quayles, emerging from the White House at 11:01 a.m., left en masse for the Capitol, Reagan and Bush riding together.

What, Bush was asked, was the theme of the august day?

“Continuity, plus,” he replied, finally, after eight years as vice president, on his way to claim the presidency on his own.

The ceremony complete, and the Reagans on their way to Los Angeles, Bush stopped briefly at a luncheon of grilled cheese and chicken nuggets for his grandchildren, and then dined at a more elegant luncheon in the Capitol rotunda.

“Come on, Dan, we’re waiting for you,” he called out good-naturedly at one point as the new vice president lagged behind as they moved through a corridor.

Signs Cabinet Nominations

Before he left the Capitol, the new President signed the papers sending the Senate the nominations of his Cabinet and another paper proclaiming Sunday a day of prayer--the first official documents he signed as President.

With the White House briefly vacant, a moving van pulled up to the front door, facing north on Pennsylvania Avenue, and the last of the Reagan’s personal items were removed. Much of their furniture, which was replaced by government-issue items, had been shipped to California last October.

Two other vans pulled up to unload the Bushes’ goods, which were quickly moved into the mansion by a team of 93 members of the White House residential staff.

And even before Bush was sworn in, the jumbo color pictures, 19 inches by 23 inches, that decorated the stairwell near the Cabinet Room with scenes of the Reagan years were replaced by Frank Posey, a White House picture framer. Down came a picture of the 77-year-old President, chain saw in hand, attacking the brush at his Santa Barbara ranch; up went pictures of the new President; with dozens of Bush family members outside a church in Kennebunkport, Me.; with predecessors Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter; casting a line in the surf of Florida.

In the Cabinet Room, the portrait of Calvin Coolidge of which Reagan was so proud was removed. So too was the portrait of William Howard Taft. In came a bust of Theodore Roosevelt and a painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

In the Oval Office, a collection of miniature saddles was taken out, as were two military landscapes. In went a collection of six Chinese porcelain plates and two paintings--one of the Grand Teton mountains and one of Gookin Falls, in Rutland, Vt. They were selected by the White House curator, for Bush’s approval.

On a table behind the President’s desk and on a credenza, about 20 framed Bush family pictures were quickly displayed.

Reagan’s choice for a desk--constructed out of timbers of the sunken and raised HMS Resolute as a gift of British Queen Victoria to the United States--will remain in the Oval Office. Reagan’s chair, which he used as governor of California, was rolled out, and in came the chair Bush used in his vice presidential office down the hall.

Bush--who visited the Oval Office for daily briefings with Reagan over the past eight years--decided after the long inaugural parade not to visit it for the first time as President until today.

In the top center drawer of his desk, said White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, he will find a handwritten note from Reagan, wishing him well.