TONY COX, Host:
This is News & Notes. I'm Tony Cox. It's estimated that between one to two million people crammed onto the National Mall and along the parade route to catch a glimpse of President Obama's inauguration today. One of those people was author and multimedia journalist Farai Chideya, joining us now by phone from the nation's capital. Hey, Farai.
FARAI CHIDEYA: Hey, Tony, Tony.
COX: How you doing? Listen, describe for us the mood in the crowd during the ceremony. We're getting all these very interesting stories.
CHIDEYA: It was incredibly beautiful. I went with my mother, and I was lucky enough to be able to get a seat, which really, you know, I think it was great to have a seat, but it wasn't as big a deal as some people felt. Everybody had a good seat because you were there for the people and with the people. And you know, there was a couple next to us, you know, with young kids speaking French to them. And there were people, this couple, really cute, kissing, you know, when Obama was inaugurated behind us and, you know, just - old friends of mine. I mean, it was just incredible. And yet, we saw someone, you know, of course, we're hearing the news that a couple of the senators, Kennedy and Byrd, became ill after the ceremony, and we did see one woman, an older woman, having to be helped by the medics. I think that, you know, the temperatures did take a toll on some people.
COX: That was going to be my question. You couldn't tell from watching on television how cold it was because it was beautiful and sunny. The weather was an issue for some folks, obviously.
CHIDEYA: Yeah, it was. And you know, people did everything from bringing full-on sleeping bags to wearing what looked like, you know, fall clothes for a stroll in the park. People had very different strategies about what they were going to bring. They had very different understandings of what the security lines would let them bring in. There were huge piles of debris afterwards from things people couldn't bring onto the Mall. You know, it was organized chaos. I mean, it went off really smoothly considering, but there was certainly moments where people didn't completely know what to do, but there was no one who I've heard of who had a bad time. The only time that things are bad here is when you're trying to catch a taxi because there aren't any.
COX: Well, you know, Metro police said there were no arrests, at least initially, as a result of all those people being there, which is remarkable in and of itself. You could have that large a crowd and everyone be that well behaved.
CHIDEYA: People were amazing. I saw these young brothers last night, and they were like, where's the Mall? And this is one o'clock in the morning. And I went, oh, there's not going to be any parking over there. They're like, we just drove from Chicago. Where's the Mall? I was like, that way. So, people just brought their A-game.
COX: All right. Farai, thank you very much.
CHIDEYA: Thank you, Tony.
COX: That was author and multimedia journalist Farai Chideya speaking to us from Washington, D.C.
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