Presidential inaugurations

I have attended two presidential inaugurations. President Reagan's second one in 1984 and George Bush in 1988. It was so cold at Reagan's inauguration they moved inside the Capital Rotunda instead of the capitol steps. They called off the parade although they had a band concert inside as it was too cold for the instruments. Every state is assigned a hotel so everyone was from Kansas. We got a chance for a ride to the Capitol building withe Owens. The Owens were going to one of the Congressional buildings. We watch from Congresswoman Jan Meyer's office. We went to the Congressional Ball assigned the Kansans. I noticed one lady when she crossed her legs had on thermal underwear. I had to buy a long dress to wear and I had gone to J C penny;s outlet store and found a navy blue one. I used it for both balls I attended. President Bush's inauguration in 1988 had delightful weather. We went to outdoor events with planes flying over head and me jumping out of planes. We had fireworks and of course the parade. Shawnee Northwest had a band and drill team but we found the parade was a little long. We attended a great many events. One event had Mrs. Bush and Big Bird from TV. At one reception we met Shirley Temple. Scott and Kathleen were with us this time has Kathleen was nursing her new baby, Kelly. She must have been about 6 weeks old.

Hosftra Univ in Long Island, NY

November 18, 1987, Ray and I went to Hostra Univ in New York, Long Island to have a meeting with those involved in the Watergate scandal. The speakers were Tom Brokaw, Ray Price, Tom Wicker, Henry Kissinger, Roger Morris, C. L. Schzleburger, H. R. Haldeman, Chuck Colson (all the people involved with President Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal). It was being run by a high school friend of Ray's, Harry Middleton. I know we sat through a lot of speeches and banquets. We stayed at the Long Island Marriott. Ray loved it and we took lots of pictures of him with different people. We started back on November 22 and ran into bad weather so had to stay overnight in St. Louis. Sally and Cindy and Morgan and Stacy and Hayden met us at the Kansas City airport and we went to see the Fairy Princess on the way home. There was a long line and Morgan broke out with the chicken pox while we were in line but we stayed anyway. We hoped the princess had had it

Topeka

Living in a state capital has lost of interesting occasions. When I was young our governor was nominated by the Republican party to run for President, On the occasion of his nomination we had great excitement. Our cousins from Council Grove came in and Emma Lou and I tied our wrists together with a hanky so we would not get lost and we went to the state house grounds for the excitement. My husband-to-be climbed a tree and was pulled down by the police. There was much fireworks at night and cannons shooting in the daytime. However he only carried three New England states and not even Kansas. Later his youngest daughter was a senator and on Landon's 100th birthday she gave a birthday party for him and President Reagan came in for the ceremony. Ray and I were thoroughly checked in at the gate since a President was in attendance. Landon died soon after and was laid in state in the state house and buried in the Topeka Cemetery where my parents are buried. I thought it was interesting that the vice-president from Kansas was buried where my mother's twin is buried and Landon is buried at Mount Hope cemetery in Topeka where my mother is buried.

Ray as an elector.

My husband, Ray loved to run for office and he loved politics and those two kind of went together. In 1988 he was elected an elector for Kansas. I had to turn to my son Scott on that as I was a little hazy. Scott did the research for me. Ray was elected an elector He was one of the 7 named in the Bush-Quayle ticket. Each candidate has a slate of electors for each seat. The number of electors is determined by adding the two senate seats and the number of house members. Ray was elected for the Bush Quayle campaign in 1988. When Bush carried the state the seven people including Ray met in Topeka in the State Attorney General's office. When we got there the floor was covered with Junior High students and Ray sat at a table and voted,Technically people are voting for electors and they can vote for anyone so electors are chosen carefully so they vote correctly. Ray would have voted for anyone but did what the party wanted for he never varied from voting Republican. I sometime did as I voted for ones I liked.

Our Packard and whent it was used for a funeral

My parents brought a Packard with Jump seats when a friend of my mothers was having marital troubles. Her husband wanted a divorce so he could marry his secretary so he would not give her any money to live on. My father bought her car. Now at this time of 1933 we had a famous Kansan that died. He was vice president of the US when Hoover was president. He had been born in Council Grove, Kansas. His mother was an Indian. When she died he went to Topeka to live with his father's parents. Growing up he had several jobs. He worked for a newspaper in North Topeka and was elected senator eventually. When Hoover was elected President he looked for a vice president and Curtis was selected he was the first high official elected west of the Mississippi River. He use to say the only way he saw the president was to take one of the tours through the White house. He started the lighting of the first Christmas tree in the White House. When he died while in office in 1933 his body was brought back to lie in state at the State House. The funeral home called to borrow our car for the pallbears. Later we went to the theater to see our car in the newsreel. Curtis was buried in the Topeka Cemetery where my mother's twin sister was buried.

Parades, Chapter two

I forgot some important parades. My grand daughters who attended East were in their parades. Hayden even led the band as drum major. I know Stacy, Holly and Frances were in it. I am not sure about Morgan. Then there were those at Northwest. One parade that was a high point of the season was the Bluebird's Doll parade. In case you don't know Bluebirds are young Campfire girls. Your group was assigned a state we had Hawaii one year and dressed the dolls in grass skirts. The parade as I remember started at Lamar and went west on Johnson Drive. At the end you got a popscicle. Susan wrote a great story about when they marched in a political year and Lee was running for Congress. I know when Scot was running for Congreaa we had one parade when daughter Kelly was ill and could not go. Her cousin Frances took her place for the parade riding in her stroller.

Parades

I have always loved parades. I was in one when I was young and it was in Topeka and called the Kiwanis pet parade. I took my sister black cocker spaniel and entered. When the parade started he would not move so I carried him four blocks. Then when I was in college I was walking in the Home coming parade. When my son and son=in=law ran for office I walked in a parade carying a banner. One weekend when our grandson, Taylor was staying with us we had a call that the Sister Cities had a float in the parade and needed a kid so we told them we would bring Taylor. When we got there he wanted me to go with him so they let me be on the float. I know when we turned a corner they told us to smile and wave as we were on TV. We did as we were told and all grinned broadly. It was fun.

St Patrick's Day

I like St. Patrick's Day even if I am German descent. My Mother in law was Irish with a name like McClenny. You just wear green and if you like get drunk and have parades. The parades are fun to be in as everyone always seems to be having a good time and the music is happy. I cannot think of any food we ate special. If you were in school you tried to wear something green and it was a jolly time during Lent and so all the things you gave up for Lent you take a holiday from for one day. It seems that if you did not have something green on you got pinched but I am not sure about that.

Ash Wednesday

This was always special and we use to take our five children and go to the church and participate in the service. I see my church is having one tonight to start Lent. My husband especially liked this service as it got him in the correct mind for the Easter ocassion. Christmas and Easter are so important in a church to keep you on the correct path to be nice and kind to your fellow man. It is nice to be a nice person. This is short for you all know how important the Lent season is and you should not forget to be nice even to your dog.