The Presidential election in November of 2008 was quite special, as Barack Obama was voted in as the 44th President of the United States. Now, imagine that he has roughly eight weeks or so to throw the biggest party of his life. Who is he going to call? The one man that had done every Inaugural Ball and Parade since President Truman, my father Earl Hargrove. 

Our family was celebrating Christmas and I asked my father if he needed any help with the parade. He said that he had it covered and I can’t tell you how disappointed I was. The next day my father called me to see if I was still interested, and, of course, I said yes. He told me to be at his office at 11 the next morning. 

The gentleman who managed most of our parades was supposed to fly in to begin the job. While at the airport, he had a heart attack. Dad needed someone to take charge. Within 30 minutes I had a desk, a computer and a phone. I remember calling my husband and saying you are going to have to hold down the fort because this is the real deal and I can’t screw it up. I had always worked with and for my father, so to all of a sudden become the one in charge was a real wow factor for me and one of the best experiences that I have ever had.

We transported the floats to the parade route staging area the day before the parade. We gathered around at dawn that morning and geared up to leave. I was in the lead police escort car. We would have to close entrances to our route from other roads and it was a series of cop cars stopping traffic while another went to close off the next one. 

On our way we were stopped by the secret service. The President Elect was nearby visiting a YMCA and all traffic around him had to be shut down. We were on that holding pattern for an hour and a half. Well, it didn’t take long for the townhouses that lined both sides of the street to open their doors and get a sneak peak of the floats. It’s not every day that something like that happens. They opened their homes to us so that we could use their restrooms and they brought us water and sodas. What a great experience to us all.