(MCT)

(Editor’s note: This story ran in The Daily Hampshire Gazette on Wednesday Jan. 21, 2009, as part of a joint effort between The Daily Collegian and The Gazette.)

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama asked Americans to brave the ‘icy currents’ in the ‘winter of our hardship’ ‘- and if the frosty temperatures and long lines more than a million people endured over many hours at Tuesday’s inauguration are any indication, they are poised to accept the challenge.

For many of the estimated 1.8 million people who crowded onto the National

Mall and the vicinity to witness Obama’s swearing-in, the events were the culmination of months of carefully laid plans, many hours of travel and a willingness to do whatever it took to witness history in the making.

Retired Judge Sean Dunphy and wife Ann Dunphy, of Northampton, daughters

Jennifer Dunphy and Elizabeth Creamer, of Maryland, and five grandchildren all got up in the wee hours so they could make it to the National Mall in time to get places to stand in front of one of the Jumbotrons, which allowed people far from the Capitol to watch the proceedings.

They didn’t have tickets that would have allowed them to stand somewhere on the Mall itself, but the extended Dunphy family didn’t consider that a stumbling block.

‘The big thing for us is not only being here but being here with the family,’ Sean Dunphy said.

They were warming up at a pre-inauguration coffee-and-doughnut reception held by U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, at a Capitol Hill American Legion.

Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the now-demilitarized Irish Republican Army, was among Neal’s guests. Adams was in the United States for just one day to witness Obama’s inauguration.

‘Coming from Ireland, people are overjoyed that an African-American has been elected president,’ he said. ‘We hope he can deliver the kind of change people have voted for.’

Ann Dunphy said she was moved by Obama’s call for a new era of responsibility.

But, as it did for many of the people who attended, leaving the Mall turned out to be a much bigger production for the Dunphys than getting there. Hundreds of thousands of people patiently trooped from one closed-off exit to another for hours before they reached the nearest Metro stop.

The Dunphys had the good fortune to have reached their destination on Constitution Avenue just in time to see Barack and Michelle Obama at close range as they got into a car heading to the parade. The Churchill family of Amherst had much longer to go before resting. It took them nearly five hours to get from the Mall to Union Station, a trip that normally takes a matter of minutes, with a brief stop at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

Son Graham Churchill, 15, reminded the family ‘this is temporary’ ‘- which was ‘a very good perspective’ on the crowds and delays, said his dad, Andy

Churchill.

‘I think it is the kind of thing where you feel like it was history. It sure would have been nice to have history about 10 degrees warmer,’ he added.

The day, a cold one for Washington, with the temperature in the 20s and a wind chill factor in the teens, began for many people at 4 a.m., and by 5 a.m., Metro stops were busy. The chants of ‘Yes, we can,’ in the Metro car brought tears to Sarah Bontempo’s eyes when she arrived on Capitol Hill at about 6 a.m. Bontempo, an aide to Neal, had been working for months helping Neal’s constituents get tickets and with‘ arrangements.

‘It was just like nothing we’ve ever seen,’ Bontempo said.

Thomas Tedone of Agawam, Brenda Lopez of Springfield and Joyce Tedone of

Portland, Maine, were among the lucky 200 ticket
holders, although 5,000 or more of Neal’s constituents attempted to obtain them. They had planned so far ahead to attend Obama’s inauguration, he hadn’t even been elected yet.

Thomas Tedone, a Westfield College student and member of the Massachusetts

National Guard of Westfield, was serving in Afghanistan at election time and was so excited about voting for Obama, he sent Joyce a photo of himself with his overseas ballot.

Lopez, Thomas’s girlfriend, also a Westfield State College student, met someone who’d forgotten gloves and gave her an extra pair that she had brought along, an action much in keeping with the day, which was marked, people said, by extraordinarily good manners all around.

A sizable contingent of Springfield residents attended Neal’s reception, among them Myra Smith, who may have had the best Obama buttons at the inauguration.

Her niece Erin Washington, who lives in the D.C. area and is a Web tech specialist at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is part Seminole Indian and part Muskogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma. She made the buttons using traditional Native American beading in a rosette pattern, and each one took her about four days to make. She made them in return for Smith getting tickets to the inauguration through Neal’s office.

Denise Brown, of Springfield, was going to save her ticket for her grandchildren.

Attending the inauguration had been ‘a growing experience for us,’ Brown’s daughter Wedashia Ray, of Maryland, said. ‘Not everyone is able to be here to have this opportunity.’

Mary Carey is a UMass journalism professor and staff writer for The Gazette. She can be reached at [email protected].