-Mary Keenan

On January 20, starting at 10:00am, friends began to get together to watch on television the joyous event of Barack Hussein Obama’s inauguration as President of the United States. We were the Democrats “left behind”-the ones who could not make it to Washington D.C. Several of us thought we should celebrate this together rather than in the isolation of our own living rooms. Just to make it cozier, that morning it snowed in Rock Hill.

But snow did not stop the gatherers. Jim Watkins’ recent hip replacement did not stop him from hobbling up the brick steps to the front door. Almost twenty Democrats arrived at Mary Keenan’s house bearing salads, homemade bread, snacks, and deserts. Mary made soup. Yet no one-and these are EATERS-even munched a peanut until after the President’s speech, when we watched the assembly depart the Whitehouse steps. We were spellbound for two hours. Our young Yellow Dog Jonah tended a crawling baby from Charlotte-yes, three generations dared icy roads to arrive from afar

This was primitive TV, folks. No 21-inch set. Didn’t matter. And the streaming video in the next room, though large enough was-well, in the next room. Not cozy. Not with friends who had knocked on doors ’til the knuckles were raw, called on cells ’til the ear was sore, written to newspapers, set up signs, distributed pamphlets, buttons, bumper stickers; gone to endless rallies and fundraisers and meetings.

Were we a little paranoid when John Roberts failed to dictate the correct swearing-in oath? Were we delighted at the nerve of Aretha Franklin in that wonderful southern hat? Mixed emotions, perhaps, but one thing I know we all agreed on: The inauguration speech given by Barack Hussein Obama fulfilled our dreams and rewarded all our hard work.

Then it was done, he was our President, and we ate.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at 10:28 pm and is filed under 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.