Inauguration Take Two

FOURTEEN hundred and forty days ago, give or take, we sat in bleachers and looked out over the Washington mall and witnessed, perhaps 30 feet from us, Barack Obama become president. And now, four years later, I saw it like everyone else -- and I must say regretted that we hadn't flown to Washington, and stayed with our friends, and found a spot -- no matter how far from the podium -- a spot on the mall just to be there. And yet I did have time to look up at the waxing gibbous moon and see that Jupiter is sitting right above it never again to be so close until three inaugurations hence (three inaugurations and a year). Surely an omen, a sign, like the Ansel Adams photograph of "Moon over Hernandez, New Mexico" -- that surely something bigger and universal is watching over us.



And I did have time to go to the sea and feel the thunder of storm waves pounding into rock. And I did recall the three hurricanes, one that undid a presidency and two others that confounded two political conventions. But I do not believe in omens nor miracles, only in hard work and truth. So much has happened in fourteen hundred and forty days and so much will be done in the next.

Fields below Cotacachi

Fields below Cotacachi, originally uploaded by gcquinn.

Some of the mystery to our little spot in the Northern Andes.

Memories of the San Diego

Memories of the San Diego, originally uploaded by gcquinn.

Intense time warp for me as I bumped into this old wreck as I picked my way down the Sherman Island Levy. 1964, my brother and I walking the upper deck of this very ferry on the exhilarating crossing to Coronado Island. I was maybe 8, my brother 6, the family Plymouth station wagon, with the rocket fins, safely stored below us. And here it is a thousand miles and decades away. Why here?. Its been a week of coincidences. Flying to New York, reading my copy of the "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," the young guy next to me leaned over and said, "I designed that cover." And there was his name in the three point type, under "designed by." Interesting.

An Audience of Two million

The boys of The San Francisco Boys Chorus and the girls of the San Francisco Girls Chorus awakened at 4 am and boarded buses and met in one of the massive parking lots of the Pentagon. Their buses, searched by K-9 corps dogs, formed into a convoy of three (two for the boys, one for the girls. Their drivers told “stop for nothing, pass through all red lights,” they set out in a convoy escorted by a phalanx of Capitol police, side-car motorcycle police in the back and front – all intersections blocked for them as they sped through the darkened city with lights flashing and sirens blaring. I was with the boys and I can tell you from personal experience, it is something that a 9-year old boy would only dream about. More than one little guy told me that he would remember this day when he was 90.


Preparing for a wild ride to the Capitol

Dawn turned the sky a slight blue as we arrived at the US Capital, bathed in stark white spot lights. The boys finished their brown paper bag breakfasts prepared by the US Marines and then filed through the Russell Senate building metal detector, where once on the other side, they joined the Girls of the Girls chorus in the marble columned and red velvet press room to warm up and run through their program.

Then through another set of metal detectors and out into the fresh dawn to make their way through a gauntlet of cordons and police to the Senate side of the Capital building and out into the bleachers where perhaps a million people stood patiently waiting on the Mall for the program to begin.

Perhaps you saw them – a sea of red caps and red scarves just above where the dignitaries sat, flanked by huge flags hanging from the Capital building itself.

They took their places next to three chairs saved for Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Violinist Itzhak Perlman, Clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Gabriela Montero and above the spot where Barack Obama would take the oath of office in two short hours. (Later, Yo-Yo Ma waved at the boys and girls, and they waved back).

And then a voice boomed over them, “Ladies and Gentleman … and gave their two names, Boys Chorus Artistic Director Ian Robertson (joined on the stand by Boys Chorus Artistic Director Susan McMane) had the boys and girls stand and the first words of “America the Beautiful” rolled out across the two mile expanse before them, the mall. And the words reverberated back to them, echoing and rolling off of the buildings of the Smithsonian Museums, and up and the buildings of Pennsylvania Avenue to the right and Constitution Avenue to the left, two canyons of white buildings. And before them the towering, simple Washington Monument, flanked far in the distance by the Low, Rectangular Lincoln Memorial. And when they finished, thousands, perhaps a million voices cheered. The boys had been told that today the represented the people of San Francisco, of California, of the United States of America --- and of all children their ages, and I think this made an impression. They sang for 20 minutes, including a special piece composed by David Conte for the occasion, “An Exhortation” featuring the words of Barack Obama. David joined the boys and girls, appearing at Union Station miraculously as the buses pulled in to link up seamlessly.

It was crisp with wispy high ice clouds and it was cold – perhaps 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and yet the boys and girls, with their long underwear, their hand and foot warmers bore it well, alternatively sitting on their benches, or standing on their seats and cheering – as the occasion demanded!


Barack Obama waved at them after taking the Oath

Then the Marine band, and elegant trumpeters with their long lute-like horns, Arthera Franklin, Yo-Yo ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill, Gabriela Montero with fanfares for former presidents and vice presidents until they got to the President Elect, Barack Obama. President Bush turned and gave them a wave. And then the boys and girls looked on, standing on their seats, as Barack Obama took his oath and became their President… and the cannons boomed.

There was much more, and then the filed out of the stands and quickly back to their busses, their passage interrupted by beat of blades and the emergence of the huge presidential helicopter, now former President George Bush lifting above the capitol and above the boys and girls as he made one last flight to his waiting plane.


Former Pre. Bush lifts off

The boys somehow made it through the crowds to make their 4:30 pm flight, the girls planned to stay another day to perform in the capitol. An extraordinary day, something that a 9- year old boy, a 13 year-old girl and those of us a little older.. will remember for a lifetime.

For me personally, it was an honor to see the new dawn, literally and figuratively. To start with a police escort and to end with an afro American woman weeping with joy and a boy telling me, "I will remember this when I am 90."

Me and Yo-Yo Ma

Me and Yo-Yo Ma, originally uploaded by gcquinn.

I thought I was anonymously taking a picture of Yo-Yo Ma performing during the Inauguration of Barack Obama, but me, my camera and my bright blue cap joined Yo-Yo on TV screens around the world. Had I realized that I was on international television, I would have done less photography and more pensive pose striking, for sure! Someone told me that the cello was a cold weather version made of a metal composition. Frankly I was amazed that Ma, Gabriele Montero, Anthony McGill and Izhak Perlman were hatless and gloveless. My feet were freezing and my hands turned blue when I took my gloves off briefly. The music was beautiful and moving and in that cold I completely understand why they had to lip sink (or at least hand sink).

Peter Quinn in Red White and Blue

Peter Quinn unaware that it is COLD out there wearing the Saint Ignatius Colors!! His big regret -- not being old enough to vote on election day.

View from the Tunnel

Rehearsal day for us, the day before the inauguration. Here I am exiting the tunnel that only a day later President-elect Obama would pass though before entering the viewing stands and a croud of millions.

Introductory Words

I have a few stories to tell and until now I've been telling them in photographs on Flickr, picture by picture. But I want to tell the story of my father and the airplane accident that took his life 50 years ago this February (2009). There are a lot of photographs, charts, letters. I am hoping that blog can bring them all together. We shall see.

If you have come upon this, you'll see that I've started off with the brief story of the San Francisco Boys Chorus, the San Francisco Girl's Chorus and their trip to Washington, D.C., to sing at the Inauguration of Barack Obama. I liked the result andall I can say is that there is a bigger story to tell -- the struggle to survive that faced my father and a colleague 50 years ago this February. They would in the end make snowshoes from branches and warm clothes from the small airplane's insulation and, finally when there was no hope, they would write notes and cork them in bottles and leave them for us to find. The Dartmouth Outing Club coordinated a three-month search and its members were the first to hike into the crash site along the North Fork of the Pemigawaset River in the Pemigawaset wilderness. Now the Dartmouth Outing Club has been kind enough to invite me back to this rugged country on the anniversary of this accident. It seemed the moment to get it all down on paper -- or at least on blog -- as best I can.