I haven’t been invited yet, but I am keeping my phone lines open in case President-Elect Trump decides to invite me to his inauguration. Perhaps he will want me to speak or something. My cell phone is fully charged.

Just in case he does call I have done a little research on past inaugurations. Of course, the first was our old friend, George Washington, who spoke only 135 words. Short indeed! Then along came the1841 President (Harrison) who was given the oath and had a hard time shutting up. It was below freezing, outside and he went on for an hour and 45 minutes. Harrison didn’t bother with a hat, gloves or even a coat. Afterwards, still full of himself, the new president shook hands (still outside) for three hours.

Oh yes, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the new president caught cold and died soon thereafter missing the pleasures of being president, after all. Silent Cal Coolidge gave a fairly short speech of 4,000 words. I guess he didn’t want to die of a cold. Most of them didn’t really have a lot of memorable words to say anyway. But Lincoln did call for “charity for all” and “malice toward none” which probably was a good thing to say with John Wilkes Booth sitting right there in plain sight in Abe’s official Inaugural picture. Franklin Roosevelt was a good speaker and came up with this puzzler: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

I heard John F. Kennedy say, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” That was a good thought JFK had but I regret to note at this time the national trend of thought has gone the other way. In 1805 Thomas Jefferson hosted the first inaugural parade. In 1866, Abe Lincoln was the first to include black people in his parade. Woodrow Wilson, in 1917 really stepped it up by allowing women in his parade. He was such a dashing liberal to do that. In 1977 our Jimmy Carter startled us all by making Roseline get out of the presidential limousine and walk with him the mile from the Capital to the White House. She did alright.

Walking that mile is a tradition that stuck. The other time when Trump was elected, I somehow watched some of the inaugural balls and dances. It was pretty interesting. His son Barron was 12 then and nearly fell asleep on the stage. If Barron makes this new inaugural, I’m sure we’ll hear expressions about “how he has grown.” Not unusual for a 12-year-old over a 4-year span.

Dolly Madison hosted the first inaugural ball in 1809. Tickets for the big dance were $4.00. I don’t know how many tickets Dolly sold but I hear it was well attended.

Along came Woodrow Wilson—who didn’t know how and didn’t like to dance. He used his presidential powers to cancel the dance. Made some people mad but it was just another case of there you are. In 1845 James Polk went coast to coast with his Inaugural. It was on the telegraph. People wondered “What next.” If only they knew.

In 1897 Mckinley once upped Poke. He not only used the telegraph, he was the first to be filmed doing the inaugural in moving pictures. In 1925 old “Silent Cal” Coolidge went coast to coast on radio. If you had a radio. Truman did it on TV. Kennedy one upped Harry by being the first to do it in color. Bill Clinton was the first to stream his inauguration on the internet. (1997) Incoming president Taft was smart. It was really bad weather for his inauguration. Know what? He moved it all indoors and everyone was happy. But they had the parade anyway. High winds and deep snow make me wonder if William Howard himself made the parade. That was in 1909.

But this is week two of our 2025 new year. Wonder what else this new period holds for us. More terror attacks? More inflation? War? We don’t know but God does and that’s why I always invite my readers to be in church Sunday. Things seem steadier there.

Wayne Bullard, DPh cwaynebullard@gmail. com