*For an explanation of this heading, see the asterisked note
in this entry on my other blog.
[Edit 1/25/17.]
Keeping it simple:
This set of three pictures (515 KB file), which were
taken by me with a Polaroid camera on a cold January 20, 1981, in Washington,
D.C., during my first year at college at George Washington University, shows (upper
right) a view from the National Mall near the Capitol building when Ronald
Reagan, just having been sworn in, was there giving his inaugural speech (I
remember a PA system broadcast the voices [from people on the dais for the
swearing-in, which was right in front of the Capitol) across the wider area,
but I don’t remember if what he said was audible where I stood); left-middle, the White House as seen from the
south, across the big lawn (and near the so-called Ellipse, if you’ve ever been
to D.C.) (I noted on the back of the photo, “Looks like moving vans at the back
door”); lower-right, a parade on streets some distance from the Capitol, I don’t
remember where (the back of the pic says “Penn[sylvania] Ave[nue],” but that
road runs across a good swath of downtown D.C., from about the Capitol west [at
a gentle northwest angle, if I recall] to the White House and, northwest,
beyond).
Set of two pics (369 KB): left side, obvious in relation to
the first set of pics (the slightly different angle from the same basic
location I was in is shown by the presence of trees in the pic); and upper-right,
as I noted on back of the pic, “MP [military policeman] directing traffic at 15th
[Street and] Constitution [Avenue]. The streets between 20th &
15th (the only ones I saw) were completely deserted & had an MP
at [each] intersection.”
I didn’t vote for Reagan in either 1980 or 1984.
By the way, the inauguration for Reagan’s second term (in
January 1985) was canceled as an outdoors event for the public because it was
brutally cold that weekend. He was sworn in somewhere indoors, as I recall.
