Inauguration Is Their Brush With History

Connie Cox, who grew up in Alaska, swore when she left at age 17 that she would never again subject herself to frigid weather. She moved to California, threw away her snow boots and booked annual treks to Hawaii in January.

But this week, the 49-year-old Pleasanton real estate agent will travel to Washington to attend her first presidential inauguration. Although she had to buy a pair of boots and borrow a pair of gloves, she was thrilled to make the investment.

“My friends can’t believe I’m going to brave the weather for George Bush,” she said.

For some people, the quadrennial extravaganza known as a presidential inauguration -- with its glittery balls and colorful parade, candlelight dinners and private soirees -- might seem overcrowded, overpriced and over the top. And many Washingtonians, weary of limousine-gridlocked streets and mob-scene parties, consider it an event to be shunned.

“A person must have a gene missing if he loves going from ball to ball,” said Landon Parvin, a speechwriter to Republican presidents. He attended Ronald Reagan’s 1980 inauguration but goes no more. “The inauguration itself, that transition of power, is a wonderful moment,” he said. “The rest is an outlet for political hormones.”

But for Cox and thousands of enthusiasts, the inauguration is a one-of-a-kind phenomenon -- a brush with history, a reward for campaign service and a celebration of a hard-won victory.

“I thank God every day that he was our president during 9/11,” said Cox, who was so confident of a Bush victory she booked her airline tickets in September.

A Christian activist, Cox realizes that she is a red-state voter in the very blue state of California. “It will be wonderful to be in a roomful of Bush supporters,” she said.

Rita Krebs, 63, a retired nurse from Cleveland, sees the inauguration as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” Last year, two of Krebs’ eight children -- Katie Rahill and Mary Ellen Shaughnessy -- bought her a computer, her first, so she could work as a Bush volunteer in critical Cuyahoga County.

For Christmas, Patrick Krebs gave his mother a box, “wrapped up all nice,” she said. Inside was a miniature airplane, a Bush campaign button and a check for $300. And her sister, Kay O’Malley, bought her an inaugural ball outfit -- a black skirt and a red velveteen top.

“Now remember you’re from a red state; don’t be wearing anything blue up there,” O’Malley told her.

Pastor Aaron Wheeler Sr., chairman of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and founder of the Mountaintop Missionary Baptist Church in Columbus, is coming to Washington in perhaps the least glamorous conveyance to arrive all week -- a bus. Dubbed the One Ohio, the bus will drive all night to arrive Wednesday with 54 people, most African American, most Republican, most of modest means -- with a few reporters from local newspapers thrown in for good measure.

“The Republican Party has been saying we need more faces of darker hue,” Wheeler said. “We are coming. I want our young people to get on the other side of the river. This is a chance for them to get into the system.”

During the campaign, Wheeler greeted Bush on one of his many trips to Ohio. “He hugged me and said, ‘Pastor Wheeler, pray for me.’ He said it three times,” Wheeler recalled. He said he told Bush, “Mr. President, God will take care of you.”

Wheeler’s troops will stay at the Hampton Inn in Bowie, Md., some 20 miles from the Capitol. “I never dreamed of taking some 50 people to the inauguration,” Wheeler said. His next dream: being named U.S. ambassador to an African nation.

To be sure, not everyone at the inaugural will be awestruck by the brush with power. Alexander P. Haig, 52, is in business as a consultant with his father, Alexander M. Haig Jr., who served as President Nixon’s chief of staff and President Reagan’s secretary of State.

Haig remembers as a child standing outside “freezing and watching Lyndon Johnson in his car.” This year he is juggling invitations from public relations firms and law offices for parade receptions -- and “the best location will win.”

He plans to stop by the Grooming Lounge, which pampers the male hair, face and ego, and is worried about transportation amid the tightest, post-9/11 security ever.

But for most, even those who have “been there, done that,” the event still provokes wonder.

“A number of us Apollo astronauts are participating” in the “Celebration of Freedom” concert at the MCI Center, said Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon.

Friends are throwing Aldrin a birthday party at the Ritz Carlton on Thursday -- his 75th birthday falls on Inauguration Day, a confluence he said he had always enjoyed.

And for about 2,000 military personnel and their spouses, this inaugural marks more than a celebration. It represents a poignant moment amid war.

Tech Sgt. Ivan Idrobo, 37, is a computer expert who has been in the Air Force for 18 years. He is expected to be deployed soon to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Born in Ecuador, he came to this country at age 6, and became a citizen after a few years in the Air Force. Plucked from the ranks by officials at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington to be among the enlisted men and women at the first Commander in Chief Ball, he said he was “extremely proud.”

His wife, Tamm, was thrilled to find out that she was invited too. “She’s a die-hard Texan so this is the best present I could have given her,” he said.