JEFFERSON WOULDN'T SHOW FOR PARTY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 4, 1993                   TAG: 9304040093
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium
JEFFERSON WOULDN'T SHOW FOR PARTY - EVEN IF HE COULD
If Thomas Jefferson were aware of plans for his 250th birthday party at Monticello, he probably would tell everyone to stay home.
That's exactly what Jefferson did in 1809 when he heard that supporters wanted to meet him on the road and give him a public reception as he was returning home after serving his second term as president.
Still, thousands will gather next week to eat cake, buy souvenirs, have their brand-new Jefferson stamps canceled and listen to speeches, folk stories, folk musicians, the city band and a fife-and-drum corps. There will even be a hot-air balloon. And this is just one day in a yearlong, coast-to-coast celebration.
To top it off, NBC's "Today" show will broadcast from Monticello on Jefferson's birthday, April 13.
The man who runs Jefferson's home, Monticello, concedes that Jefferson would be embarrassed by it all.
"He was a shy person about public events," said Daniel P. Jordan, executive director of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation. "He wasn't much for pomp and circumstance."
Many of Jefferson's varied accomplishments reflected his private nature. In the summer of 1776, Jefferson went to the seclusion of his rented Philadelphia apartment to write his best-known work, the Declaration of Independence. The document gave reasons why the 13 colonies should be freed from Great Britain and affirmed the colonists' belief in a representative government. Jefferson sat silently as the Continental Congress debated and edited the document.
As the designer of Monticello, the Virginia Capitol and the University of Virginia, Jefferson was the foremost American architect of his time. He invented the dumbwaiter and the swivel chair. Jefferson gardened and played violin in addition to serving as Virginia's governor, the U.S. ambassador to France and the nation's third president.
"I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage, with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked than to occupy the most splendid post which any human power can give," Jefferson wrote.
On Jefferson's first birthday as president, Washingtonians asked if they could serenade him as part of a tradition started with George Washington. Jefferson declined, saying the only birthday he celebrated was the birthday of his country.
Unlike President Clinton, who started the bus trip to his inauguration at Monticello and partied for days before the televised event, Jefferson rode a horse carriage in an uneventful trip and asked a clerk to read his inaugural address.
Despite Jefferson's shyness of public events, Jordan said the activities planned for April 13 are appropriate to Jefferson's legacy.
The hot-air balloon?
Jefferson, while he was minister to France, saw the first hot-air balloon raised in Paris, Jordan said.
"This gets into his interest in science and reminds people that's something he cared about," Jordan said.
The "Today" show?
"We're not staging anything for them," Jordan said. "It's part of our mission statement to spread knowledge about Jefferson, and the `Today' show has 30 million viewers."
All the music? Jefferson loved music. And county fairs were common in the area during Jefferson's lifetime, Jordan said.
"I also believe he would find it gratifying that his words were still taken seriously and that the commemorative has a serious, educational tone," Jordan said.
The birthday celebration includes a speech by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, remarks by Jefferson scholars and readings of Jefferson's words.
There will be a symbolic opening of Shadwell, the farm across the Rivanna River from Monticello where Jefferson was born in a modest frontier house that burned in 1777. Archaeologists have spent the past two years excavating the site and will show slides and artifacts.
The sunrise-to-sunset birthday party is part of a series of events that began with Clinton's visit in January and ends in December with the closing of an exhibition of Jefferson's original belongings in Monticello.
Planning for the 250th anniversary of Jefferson's birth began in fall 1988 when 37 organizations with interests in Jefferson formed a group to coordinate the events.
There are continuing education courses, lectures, archaeology field tours, exhibits in New York and other cities, new books and videos about Jefferson and countless lectures about Jefferson the inventor, the architect, the statesman, the horticulturist and the founder of the University of Virginia.
In September, symposiums on aspects of Jefferson's political and philosophical thought will be held simultaneously in eight major cities worldwide, including Paris, Prague, Moscow and Buenos Aires.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB