Kansans Talk About Inauguration Experience

January 20, 2009

Among the millions who woke up before the sun was up in Washington DC, were a few kansans, not knowing what to expect.

Beth King told KWCH over the phone, "When you're on a street, a wide street full of people, and as you're walking you're taking baby steps and then you just stop and stand and it's person to person a block wide. "It's hard to describe."

King was at Reagan's first inauguration but said it didn't compare to Tuesday's ceremony. The National Mall was packed with people trying to hear our new president's message.

King adds, "Interestingly, people were very quiet. They were listening. They wanted to hear the message and in a crowd that large I don't think you get silence very often."

Among the crowd, two Sedgwick County teenagers who were surprised to see how well their age groups were represented.

"Surprisingly yes, there was a lot of middle school kids there even, which is kind of odd because I figured younger kids wouldn't pay a lot of attention to something like this, but they did," says Kirsten Liby, a junior at Sedgwick High School.

And she and others say what they saw is something they say will stay with them forever.

Jami Jackson-Howell, a sophomore at North High in Wichita adds, "I can tell my children and grand children...the first African American president was sworn in and I am an African American girl and I was there to see it."

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