Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 14, 1993 TAG: 9301140070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CONNIE SAGE LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
MONTICELLO'S CLINTON CROWD WILL INCLUDE LUCKY
There were Christmas cards and index cards and even postcards: a lion, an elephant, "Virginia is for Lovers," "Early dusk in Roanoke" (the railroad yard) and portraits of Thomas Jefferson (for luck).It didn't matter what was on the cards. The rule was one card per person, dropped off in a box at Mr. Jefferson's Visitors Center. The lucky winners, just average Joes, get a chance in a drawing Friday to join Bill Clinton at Monticello on Sunday.
About 2,300 lucky folks will trudge up the road to the mountaintop home of Jefferson before dawn for a chance to get a glimpse of the first family-to-be.
The Clinton-Gore troupe, with relatives in tow, will launch next week's inaugural festivities with a royal tour of the third president's mansion at - of all hours - 8 a.m. Sunday.
This is the 250th anniversary of Jefferson's birth, and even though Jefferson never celebrated birthdays, the new occupants of the White House will be regaled with historical nuggets like:
Jefferson kept five daily journals - for weather, farm, garden, accounts and correspondence.
Jefferson said he had few colds because he washed his feet every morning in cold water. It must have worked. He outlived 30 of his doctors.
Jefferson called Napoleon the "scourge of the earth" but kept a bust of the French ruler in his tea room because he said he was important.
After the tour, President-elect Clinton, Vice President-elect Gore, their children, parents, aunts and uncles will go out the back door of Jefferson's home to address the crowd, which is expected to include Gov. Douglas Wilder and U.S. Sen. Charles Robb.
If the weather is as it has been this week at Monticello, spectators can expect it to be cold, wet and muddy. The lawn could double as a sponge, wet and squishy from recent heavy rains. A thick fog on Tuesday shrouded the barren, ice-coated tulip poplar and copper beech that frame Monticello's West Portico.
But this is a Virginia event and Monticello Director Dan Jordan wants to keep it that way. In a power struggle with the Clinton transition team, Jordan was able to keep most of the 2,300 tickets free and for Virginians.
Here's how they will be doled out, many in pairs:
750 to children, distributed in schools.
200 to Monticello employees.
500 to 600 to Rep. L.F. Payne, who represents the Charlottesville area, and the Presidential Inaugural Committee.
100 to 150 to the University of Virginia.
150 to 200 to state and local officials.
200 to 300 to local citizens in a drawing.
Having Clinton and Gore come for a dawn visit hasn't been a picnic for the Monticello workers.
The Monticello team couldn't meet with the Clinton transition team until noon Monday, and the Monticello workers still do not know where Clinton will stay Saturday night.
They've got four days left to figure out how not to let the public, news reporters, photographers and camera operators destroy Monticello's west lawn; how to cover them if it rains; and how to provide hot coffee and tea for thousands. They are working 15-hour days and will stay up all night Saturday to get ready for the event.
Despite the stress, Jordan is happy. He and his wife are Clinton supporters in a state that backed President Bush in the recent election.
"We're from the deep South," drawled the Mississippi native and former James Madison University history professor, whose wife is a native of Little Rock, Ark. "We can speak Southern to them."
Although Clinton "will be on the mountaintop one and a half hours," those 200 to 300 tickets left for the public (Charlottesville-area only) are passionately sought after, Jordan said.
Michael Emmert-Hart of nearby Keswick was one of a steady stream of people who dropped off cards for the drawing. "I'm excited," she said.
Holding her arms in the air Rocky-style, she said she had voted for Clinton because "he's young . . . and he can get me a job."
Clinton's next stop on his 125-mile trip following Jefferson's route to the White House will be a church service and lunch in Culpeper, which also is in high gear getting ready.
The visit to the town of 8,500 also will be brief - less than two hours - but preparations are consuming just about every minute of Town Manager G.W. "Griff" Griffin's time and that of other town officials this week.
There are streets to be cleaned, flags to be hung and a hundred other details. "It's a little overwhelming," Griffin said.
The Washington Post and The Associated Press contributed to this story.