‘Joyous spirit of celebration’

WASHINGTON -- For Cathy Thomas of Midlothian, the inauguration of Barack Obama "was a pinch-me kind of day."

As the first black American became president, two busloads from Richmond -- including Thomas -- witnessed it on the National Mall.

"It's just so many emotions," she said. "A day in my time, a day in my time. On the night he won the election, all I could say was, in my time. Today was a day I never thought I'd see, but I was part of it. It meant so much to be here. It was a great day."

Thomas was among 83 people riding to Washington from Second Baptist Church in South Richmond. Church members, along with friends and co-workers, assembled at 3:30 a.m., left the city shortly after 4 a.m., and were parked on M Street before 7:30 a.m. with barely a hitch.

Making their way around the city proved a little more difficult but not enough to deflate the ebullient mood. Even after being stuck in the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station for more than an hour while the National Mall was filling with celebrants, Salena Ware and Denise Woolfolk had few complaints about their eventual spot near the Lincoln Memorial.

"What made it special for me was the sense of unity among all the people," Ware said. "Everyone was orderly, in a good mood. They were cheering as we were stuck in the Metro station. There was just a harmony that I thought was good."

The best seats among the group came as a bit of last-minute luck for Chelsea Plax of Chicago and her mother, Marian Corbett of Richmond.

Plax found two tickets to the restricted-seating area through a sister-in-law with connections to a Missouri congressman. Corbett drove to Washington on Monday to pick them up, and Plax caught a plane to Richmond after work that day. They walked from the bus to the Capitol in only a half-hour.

The bus riders split up into dozens of small groups, so everyone's experience was different. Keeping everyone together would have been almost impossible, anyway. Losing sight of someone for a minute meant being separated from them for the rest of the day.

The Richmond group ranged in age from church member Wilnette Kirby, 70, to 9-year-old Donald Lee of Memphis, Tenn., whose family planned a history-oriented vacation around the inaugural bus trip with a Richmond aunt.

Kirby walked the 2 miles between the bus to the National Mall, going and coming. She said it was worth every step.

"I never thought it would happen in my lifetime," she said. "I grew up in the segregated South. I wanted to say I was there." Donald saw the day as possibly opening doors for his future.

"I think it was extraordinary because it was our first black president," he said. "It makes me think I could possibly be president some day."

His father, Daniel Lee, 45, said Donald turned down a trip to Walt Disney World so he could see the inauguration.

"He was the one who came to me and said he wanted to go."

They took the Metro to the L'Enfant Plaza, managed to avoid the blocked exit that delayed many others, and ended up in the middle of the Mall.

They even got into one of the warming buildings for a while.

"I was in line to get hot chocolate, and there were two people in wheelchairs," the father said. "It helps you capture the moment, for them to want to endure that.

"Everything was in a joyous spirit of celebration."

Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or .