President Barack Obama visited my next door neighbor’s apartment for a party recently. How would I write about that?
I consulted my genealogy group. They suggested that the president’s visit would make a good feature for a ‘Wordless Wednesday’ report, as it happened on a Wednesday. Usually a variety of prompts are used by genealogy bloggers to create content. For example—Military Monday, Thankful Tuesday etc.
Wordless Wednesday
But in order for this to be a real ‘Wordless Wednesday’ post, there should be only photographs here. The rules can be strict where elaborate story captions are not allowed. But some attribution information can be used. Of course, I broke all the rules because I’m sharing my highlights here. But, we were speechless, or wordless when he finally got here. So there.
Preparing for the President’s visit
When word came from the doorman that President Barack Obama would be visiting our next-door neighbor, we became very excited. Everyone in the building was excited too! VIP guests were set to attend a $35,000 per person fundraiser, we had heard on the news. I did spot the NY Governor and a few elected local officials on the day of his visit. But excited neighbors were already buzzing about it for weeks. We knew he was coming but we did not know when. After awhile, for about two weeks, we noticed security activities–lots of black cars and men in black with dark glasses. Two whole days before his actual arrival, things became even more intense as we watched officials and workers preparing and waiting on our street.
A flatbed truck pulled up with lots of construction materials. Finally, a tent was erected on the block so that guest cars could drive through. It was zipped closed and open by a team of security every time a car entered. Guests were shielded so you could not tell who was who. Noisy helicopters hovered above the area as the moment drew near. We even had security guards on our roof patio deck and on every roof within eyesight. We were not allowed to open our windows or stand by the windows. So, most of use were hanging out in the lobby. Streets were blocked for a radius of at least five blocks. Can you imagine driving into a tent? I took photos as much as they would allow. There were security dogs on the block too. Everyone needed ID to enter the block. As President Obama’s entourage drew closer to our street, we were ordered inside and away from our windows. Alas, only a few of us actually saw him. When fancy limos pulled up we were speechless. Is that him? When a limo left, we were speechless again. No one knew really knew which car he was traveling in, a policewoman told me.
