Inauguration Day Morn / Inaugurationtag Morgen

I first learned of Barack Obama on the Fourth of July back in 2004. I was at the parade in Evanston, Illinois, the parade of all parades. It is a parade that lasts for hours. It includes bands and tumblers and dancers and fire trucks. It has amazing floats created by local groups and not so amazing floats created by local interest groups. And, of course, it includes politicians. Many of the politicians ride in classic automobiles, waving and smiling as they go by. Many pass out propaganda, like the infamous Jan Fan by Jan Schakowsky, which always seems to arrive in your hand just when you've really started to sweat. Most of the politicians are completely unmemorable for an out-of-stater, and most pass by in a completely unremarkable blur.

So back in 2004, we were sitting watching the parade. Every so often the crowd would give an extra cheer for a person or a group, but for the most part, the parade was dragging by. Perhaps there were more convertibles than usual or more bands that weren't performing than usual or more community groups that were simply marching by without float or costume. At any rate, the parade was dragging. And then came along Entry Number 103: Barack Obama for U.S. Senate, and I swear the entire crowd rose to its feet and started cheering as a man walked by shaking people's hands and saying hello. I remember asking, "Who is that guy?"

Like a scene out of a movie, kind of fuzzy around the edges and rolling in slow motion, my memory is that the whole crowd (though it was probably just one person standing near me) murmured, "That man will be President one day. That man will be President one day."

It's a funny memory, but one that has stuck with me over the last few years. It was the first thing I thought of when Obama appeared on the national stage in the Democratic primaries, and is a memory that replayed itself over and over throughout the months since then.

So here we are, January 20, 2009, and the crowd at that Evanston 4th of July parade was right. One day that man will be President, and today is that day. What a day it is.