Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 18, 1993 TAG: 9301190029
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: NF-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WENDI GIBSON RICHERT NEWSFUN WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
MEET OUR `FIRST KID'
Chelsea Clinton isn't the first kid to tack her favorite poster to the walls of the country's most famous house.Some of the others who lived in the White House were 9-year-old Amy Carter, teen-agers Luci and Lynda of the Lyndon Baines Johnson household, Teddy Roosevelt's 12-year-old Kermit, John Quincy Adams' 14-year-old Luisa and the Nixon's teen-age girls.
But Chelsea probably is the only one you know much about. The children of President George Bush and former President Ronald Reagan were grown when their fathers occupied the White House.
As daughter of President-elect Clinton and his wife, Hillary, Chelsea will show America what it's like to be 12 years old and in the public eye.
Already, Chelsea is somewhat accustomed to living in the spotlight. Her dad served as governor of Arkansas so she lived with her family in the governor's mansion in Little Rock, Ark., all but two of her 12 1/2 years.
Aside from that, it appears that her folks have tried to keep the rest of her life as normal as possible. It's been reported that they won't even hear of their only daughter getting her ears pierced before her 13th birthday.
And Newsday reported that Chelsea, in that oh-please-I'm-almost-a-teenager way, gets a little red-faced and embarrassed when her dad out-cheers the rest of the spectators during her volleyball or softball games.
Back in Arkansas, Chelsea took ballet classes and attended the eighth grade (after skipping a grade) at Mann Magnet Junior High in Little Rock. Since both parents worked - her dad as Arkansas' top government official, her mom as one of Arkansas' top attorneys - she usually got rides to school with her baby-sitter. Sometimes, though, her mom and dad dropped her off.
But now Chelsea Clinton's life is about to turn upside down because of the attention she'll receive as the president's daughter. Already her cat, Socks, has endured the harsh eye of a celebrity-hungry media. For Chelsea, life will be somewhat like living in a really nice fishbowl, where the whole country can see in and monitor what she's doing.
No longer will her parents or baby-sitter drop her off at school. Instead, the Secret Service, a group of federal agents assigned to protect the president and his family, will escort her to school.
They will take Chelsea to a private school in Washington, Sidwell Friends School. There a Secret Service member will stay with her and bring her home. (Though one probably won't be in her classroom, one will be close by.)
The Secret Service will stay by Chelsea's side, from morning until night, protecting her and her parents throughout and after their stay in the White House.
That means that no matter where Chelsea goes - whether to the movies with friends, to hang out in one of Washington's many malls, or on her first date - a Secret Service member will go, too.
One group that won't be traveling with Chelsea as she tries to maintain a normal-as-possible lifestyle is the media. The Clintons already warned television and print journalists that Chelsea is off limits: She doesn't do interviews.
Aside from living in the public spotlight and being tailed by the Secret Service wherever she goes, Chelsea's new life will be exciting.
"Yes, absolutely," her mom told People magazine when asked if school friend Elizabeth Fleming could come to the White House for sleepovers.
If Elizabeth, or any other friends, comes to the presidential home for a visit, Chelsea and pals - and Secret Service members - will have plenty to do, without even leaving the grounds.
The 18-acre estate offers a movie theater, tennis courts, swimming pool, solarium, putting green and bowling alley for recreational fun. Her family will live in the top two floors of the four-floor mansion. The bottom floors are open for tours by the public and government functions.
True, the curly-headed Chelsea may have it all when she moves into the big house on Pennsylvania Avenue. But rest assured, she still has to do her homework.