An Inaugural Tale
By Trish Snyder

Dick and Trish Snyder

Dick and I were amazed when we received an invitation to Bill Clinton's inaugural ceremonies in January 1993. We hadn't even volunteered for him.  But $250 per person to attend the ball?  I told Dick that was just too much to spend on one dinner, let alone the expense of formal clothes, hotel, and getting to DC. "It's the chance of a lifetime, Patricia," said Dick. We had been involved in getting good candidates elected and Dick was on the City Council, but we weren't the highrollers that went to inaugural balls.

I was convinced that it was the chance of a lifetime and we sent in our reservations with a $500 check.  Then we started telling all our friends that we were going and got them excited. We imagined what it would be like -- ice sculptures, sumptuous food, great wine, beautiful men in tuxedos and women in gowns and showy jewelry. But we were casual people living in a beach town and didn't have tuxedos and showy jewelry. No problem. Our friend Ralph had just bought a new tuxedo and wanted Dick to wear it. My friend Rachel persuaded me to take her dangly earrings and sparkly necklace to the ball. Our friend in Alexandria gave us the use of his condo. We were set. It was like the Beverly Hillbillies were going to Washington, DC.

The whole town was excited and ready for change; you could feel it on every street corner. We were jittery as we got dressed for our formal evening.  There were seven balls where the Clintons and Gores would appear; our ball was at the Air and Space Museum. It was filled with men in tuxedos and women in gowns -- drinking wine from plastic cups and munching on pretzels and macadamia nuts.  We were hungry, but I told Dick not to eat too many of the nuts, to save room for dinner. But there was no dinner, no ice sculpture, and wine was $5 per plastic cup. So what -- there was live music and the Clintons and Gores would be arriving!

We danced, then wandered up to the second floor of the museum. We were in a small viewing room watching the first landing on the moon when we heard the announcement: Ladies and Gentlemen, President and Mrs. Clinton. For security reasons, the escalators and elevators were locked and uniformed men were posted at all the entrances.  The second floor crowd rushed to the balcony to catch a glimpse of Bill and Hillary up on stage, but we're short. We couldn't see over the heads of the hundreds of people ahead of us. So what - we knew they were there and we did hear Bill play the saxophone.

We wandered back downstairs, danced some more then later found ourselves back in another little viewing room on the second floor. Ladies and Gentlemen, Vice-president and Mrs. Al Gore. We knew the drill so didn't even attempt the escalator. We went straight to the balcony, but still couldn't see over the tuxedos and showy jewelry in front of us. So what - we were in the same room with the man that would go on to win a Nobel prize and an Emmy.

We slept well that night after our big day in Washington, DC. Dick told me the next morning that he was amazed at how tiny Hillary's waist was. He had dreamt that he was dancing with her at the ball.

*****
We've just made an additional contribution to Barack Obama. We'll be at our winter home in Mexico and won't be going to the inauguration this year. Getting this good man elected is the
REAL chance of a lifetime.

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