Telegram had the pictures we wanted.
I probably put the film and notebook on top of my car while fumbling with my car keys.
They probably blew off as I drove away.
The rest of my day was better. I was at the airport, observing nearly 4,000 fellow West Virginians wait patiently for more than three hours for the president to return from his televised education forum at Robert C. Byrd High.
The airport departure lacked a certain zing.
It lacked U.S. Sens. Robert C. Byrd, Jay Rockefeller and U.S. Rep. Alan B. Mollohan. You could tell by the way some in the crowd lit up by waving their arms over their heads when they spotted former Gov. Gaston Caperton before the president's speech.
In a setting like this, they would have shone. They would have fired up the crowd, stoking that exchange of energy between speaker and audience.
By the time Clinton took the podium about an hour behind schedule, the bright sun and the shoulder-to-shoulder, standing- room only conditions on the tarmac in front of the KCI Aviation hangar had taken the edge off of the crowd.
Here is how I spent my day on the day the president came to town:
_ Shortly after 9 a.m. Sen. Byrd's office calls to say he won't make it.
_ 10 a.m. To the airport. No problem getting past DOH and state police roadblocks. Wonder what it will be like later when I'm trying to rush Bob's film back to the paper.
_ 10:30 a.m. The RCB High Band is belting out some marches, the KCI hangar is immaculate and puffy white clouds are scudding overhead.
_ 11:05 a.m. Gov. Cecil Underwood steps to the podium mike for a sound check.
_ 11:14 a.m. The band and the Lincoln High Show Choir is moved into the hangar and the hangar doors are closed. Meanwhile, the VIPs in a large tent next to the hangar are cranking up their party music.
_ 11:15 a.m. A Kiwi Airlines 727 charter carrying the national press corps makes a hard bounce on a very fast landing. Later, a White House Communications staffer say those on board felt the plane soar about 10 feet into the air.
_ 11:45 a.m. A small White House Gulfstream jet lands. A number of suits exit.
_ 11:52 a.m. A tiny State Police helicopter lifts off to make an aerial search of the airport. The press is escortedto a better vantage point to watch Air Force One land. We learn the president will not be making any arrival remarks.
_ 12:03 p.m. Several miles north of the main runway and several thousand feet above the horizon, the president's DC-9 is spotted.
_ 12:06 p.m. Air Force One's landing is smooth but its descent is very steep.
_ 12:15 p.m. State Police helicopter lifts off to provide air cover for motorcade. President still shaking hands with about 35 dignitaries.
_ 12:24 p.m. Motorcade moves out to RCB High. It takes new access road to U.S. Rt. 50 behind the new Army Reserve and National Guard pilot training center.
_ 12:30 p.m. I lose roll of film.
_ 2 p.m. Return to airport. Crowd is now stuffed, yes, like sardines, on the tarmac. Grade- schooler Clayton Barker, 11, of Troy, Gilmer County feels faint.
Paramedics with the Harrison County Emergency Squad and the Belington Emergency Squad give him oxygen. He smiles. I move on.
_ 2:30 p.m. Sarah Peterson, 4, of Bridgeport is ready for her nap. She lolls on a pillow placed on the asphalt next to her sister, Rebekah, 7. Their mother is Brenda. She thought it would be great to bring them out. Kory Humphreys, 6, is getting restless.
His mother is Sharon, of Clarksburg. Mrs. Peterson and Mrs. Humphreys are having second thoughts.
_ 2:55 p.m. The tentative time for the president's departure speech.
_ 3:38 p.m. Mayor Carl E. Furbee Jr. of Bridgeport asks crowd's indulgence.
_ 3:49 p.m. State Police helicopter returns. Motorcade must be on the way. Later we learn Clinton impulsively stopped it twice _ on Buckhannon Avenue opposite a convenience store and at All Saints Catholic Church in Bridgeport _ to shake hands.
_ 3:51 p.m. Presidential limousine stops behind podium. Cheers and signs of welcome go up, as do children on fathers' shoulders. The White House communications staffer running p.a. system turns up U 2's "Where the streets have no name."
_ 4:07 p.m. to 4:12 p.m. After intros by Mayor Furbee and Clarksburg Mayor Robert T. 'Tom' Flynn and the governor, Clinton gives standard stump speech.
_ 4:13 p.m. to 4:38 p.m. President repeatedly walks back and forth along metal crowd barriers to press the flesh. It's a genuine gesture, given the demands on his time.
_ 4:45 p.m. Air Force One lifts off.
_ 5 p.m. Mayor Flynn spots me and asks for a lift back to RCB High and his car. We chat. "This president likes people," he says. Agreed.
_ 5:30 p.m. Back in the newsroom.
_ 9:35 p.m. I carried a camera too yesterday. My film? Well, it turns out I had a light leak and the film is fogged. Bob tells me. He looks regretful. I believe him. Column is done, day is done, I'm done. Out of here.
Crowd braves hot sun for
chance to meet President Clinton
By TROY GRAHAM
Immediately after President Clinton's motorcade left Benedum Airport for Robert C. Byrd High School, the KCI Aviation hangar doors opened and a flood of people began jockeying for the best view of the podium where the president would speak.
The people would wait more than three hours for Clinton to return to the airport. Though the crowd got thicker and thicker, and the sun got hotter and hotter, the people remained patient.
For most it was a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity to see the nation's leader, worth waiting through anything.
For Big Elm Elementary School teacher Janet Dotson, it was more like fate that brought her and her mother, Luvon Greaver, to see the president.
"She had a dream about it (meeting the president) last night and then I surprised her with two tickets today," Dotson said.
Nel Elder, from Grafton, attended mainly for her three grandchildren, ages seven, five and 10-months-old. Her seven- year-old granddaughter, a Hepzibah Elementary first grader, was particularly excited, she said.
"I don't necessarily like Clinton," Elder added while feeding her baby grandson. "I came here because he's the president."
Fairmont Mayor Nick Fantasia, who said he saw then-Gov. Clinton in 1988 at a Jefferson- Jackson dinner, was excited by the national exposure of the president's visit.
"Two hundred million people will get at least a small glimpse of north central West Virginia and they will see the technology corridor is alive and well," he said.
Senator Mike Ross, D-Randolph, also lauded the exposure.
"It's a great event for the state of West Virginia. It's great for the economy," he said.
Ross expects the impact of the visit to fan out into all of Harrison's surrounding counties.
Some of those attending the Benedum rally were old hats when it came to presidents.
Fairmont resident Frank Pulice remembers attending John Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.
"About 40 of us caught the train in Grafton and went as a group," he said.
A few years later, Pulice and three others from Fairmont went to Kennedy's funeral, he said.
H. Laban White, a long time Clarksburg resident, and former Speaker of the House of Delegates from Harrison County, remembers going to the White House to meet Calvin Coolidge. His aunt, who was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, was invited by the first lady, who was secretary of the DAR.
"I've seen every president since Coolidge," he said.
However, not everyone was impressed by the presidential visit.
Bridgeport High School ninth grader Brian Meredith and his friends spent part of the afternoon playing cards on the hangar floor.
Meredith said they'd check out the president "eventually" because "the game won't last that long."
Clarksburg Publishing Company, P.O. Box 2000, Clarksburg, WV 26302 USA
Copyright © Clarksburg Publishing Company 1997
