Election Night in Chicago's Grant Park : CBSSports.com Blogs

Inauguration Day

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:10:53 EST

Hello,

this blog is created in the hopes of creating discussion and a way to chronicle the four days we spent in travel and in DC. My wife, 2 brothers, brother's wife and brother's ladyfriend and I all feel lucky enough to have attended the festivities in Washington which installed Sen. Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. I will attempt to chronicle our activities on and around that great day by referencing some of our activities with some of the music we enjoyed. The trip was planned shortly after election day. My brother's birthday is Janurary 20th and my wife thought it would be great if we all would get together in D.C. for the inaugration as a celebration of Obama's election and my brother's birthday. Then at Christmas Eve our other brother and his lady made plans to join us four. They would end up rendezvousing with us Tuesday morning.

Election Night in Chicago- epilogue

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 0:15:36 EST

Random Thoughts and Observations:

1. The sea of humanity we could see ran approximately a 1/4 long and a 1/4 mile wide. Now I know that was only one side of the stage. What we were able to see was half or less than half of the attendees

2. Our vantage point was up on an embankment , on a 45 degree angle from the crowd proper shown on TV. All we could see were faces- , Imagine that sweep of just faces !! That is an image I can not shake.

3 For early November, it was surprising that all of the trees still had not shed their leaves. Combined with the unseasonable warmth, it seemed late summer.

Election Night in Chicago- part three

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 11:48:16 EST

Everything we had done this evening, down to the misplacement of my shoes , had led us to be at the entrance at the most most opportune time. The remainder of the evening involved a half mile walk to the edge of the event, a surreal amble, considering that all other normal traffic was non existent. Normally busy streets are deserted, and the outside edge of the event is a chain link fence almost 8 feet high, and the opaque film over those fences. Finally we reach our final destination:

As it happens, we made it with about 15-20 minutes to spare, of course by this time all premium seats had been allocated. We cared not a whit, as we worked the outskirts of the crowd for the best view possible.

PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

Election Night in Chicago- part two

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:47:45 EST

slim to none....

My wife is maybe the most self-confident person I know, who takes no guff off of anyone, her stubbornness is only matched by her natural beauty. She is a woman one does not want tro let down, under any circumstances. On the night on which her favorite all time Presidential candidate is preparing to claim the Presidency within the distance of 4 or 5 well batted baseballs, I have no real way of getting her close enough to be able to say she was there.

Make no mistake, accomplishing this mission is up to me, since I am the one who enjoys bragging about how well I know this city inside and out. And to my loving wife's everlasting credit- she has yet to question me once on these matters, even on this evening.

Election Night in Chicago- part one

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:22:54 EST

The plans were made on line, in boasting terms meant to humiliate Republican-leaning strangers on a chat board. I would be in Chicago's Grant Park on election night to celebrate the victory of Barack Obama , junior U.S. Senator of Illinois.

But the plans were never finalized, words were mentioned to my loving wife, and to my Mother at her home at dinner on the Saturday night before the election.

I have known from the days I laid eyes on my darling wife that we would spend the rest of our lives together. Just as we both knew that on election ight, we would be very content to stay home and watch our favorite news network, MSNBC- with our fingers double crossed as we would root home our native son, Obama.

It was with not much sadness, that we realized we would not be travelling the 7 miles from our home to downtown Chicago. After all, we had not been granted a ticket by the Obama campaign -- since we had not contributed with volunteer hours or money.