Bend Medal of Honor recipient Bob Maxwell, 88, and daughter Bonnie Ellison sat with a group of Medal of Honor winners Tuesday at President Barack Obama’s swearing-in ceremony. To their right were the Tuskegee Airmen.

WASHINGTON — Unbelievable crowds, unforgettable memories and unexpected snafus marked Inauguration Day for Central Oregonians in Washington, D.C.

Terry Kemple, a 71-year-old retired physical therapist from Bend, said she and her grandson got through an hours-long line just in time to witness the ceremony Tuesday.

“There were times this morning when it was like a soccer match and you thought you were going to be suffocated, but everyone was so nice,” Kemple said. “I just think it was more people than you could possibly imagine.”

Kemple’s 13-year-old grandson, Obama supporter Noah McCord, of Olympia, Wash., said he lost his footing at one point and was swept along in the crowd for about 10 feet, without touching the ground.

Noah, who volunteered for Obama’s campaign, said the day was worth the trouble.

“I felt proud of, one, my own work that I did, but also the fact that we kind of all came together and did it as a country,” Noah said.

Bend Medal of Honor recipient Bob Maxwell, 88, sat with other honorees facing the left side of the Capitol stage. Maxwell said he arrived in Washington on Monday night, just in time for a Disabled American Veterans reception.

Maxwell has attended every inauguration since President Dwight Eisenhower was elected, with the exception of President John F. Kennedy’s swearing-in. He said none drew crowds the size of this one, which was estimated at about 2 million.

“It’s the biggest ever,” Maxwell said.

Despite waiting for hours in subfreezing temperatures, Maxwell wasn’t cold, he said, because he brought hand warmers for his gloves.

Bend button-maker Delia Paine took a break from her kiosk in the basement of Washington’s Union Station, where she sells her Obama buttons, to watch the speech on TV, she said.

“We closed up our booth and ran out,” Paine said. “I thought it was fantastic — really, really great.”

Students represent

Bend High School junior Emily Miller was one of at least seven Central Oregon students who traveled to the inauguration through the Congressional Youth Leadership Conference.

Summit High School students Caitlyn Belza and Micaela Hester, La Pine freshman Jocelyn Parker, Mountain View senior Stephen Smith, Redmond High School student Christian Bales and Trinity Lutheran High School freshman Erienne McCray also were selected to take part in the conference.

Emily was enthusiastic about the experience.

“The inauguration was so crazy,” said Emily, who stood just behind the Reflecting Pool, west of the Capitol. “We were like sardines basically.”

Her favorite portion of Obama’s inaugural address was his message to Muslim leaders that “people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy,” Emily said.

“That was probably the most inspirational quote he had,” she said. “I think his speech was so good.”

Emily also got to meet Oregon’s U.S. senators, Democrats Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, and U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, she said.

In a text message after the festivities, Micaela said she became emotional during Obama’s speech.

“I started to cry when Obama gave his speech,” Micaela wrote. “Hearing Obama speak made me excited and hopeful for a new change.”

Things went as smoothly as could be for Bend attorney and mediator David Staver, he said. Staver left the house where he was staying at 8:30 in the morning and made it to the inauguration in plenty of time, he said.

“It was everything I expected and hoped for and more,” Staver said. “It was kind of the opposite of how I felt on 9/11, where I felt really connected to everyone in this country because we had this shared sense of tragedy and mourning. Instead … there was this feeling of we had turned the page.”

Staver had the feeling of being able to witness history as it happened, rather than reading about it in a textbook.

“This is the first time I’ve ever had a front-row seat” to history, Staver said.

Not too much disappointment

Marj and Harry Sippel, of Sunriver, weren’t so lucky. Despite receiving tickets to the swearing-in and leaving from a guest house in the wee hours of the morning, they didn’t make it inside the ticketed area.

“We started out at 5:15 this morning and, after hours of being in line, at 11 a.m. we were turned away,” Marj Sippel wrote in an e-mail, as her cell phone batteries ran out on Tuesday afternoon. “So … after holding back the tears, we headed for the closest pub with a TV.”

Fortunately, there was a silver lining, or two.

First, “We had an absolutely WONDERFUL time with all the people who also had tickets and did not get in,” she wrote. “There was a feeling of joy, hope and, for some, tears.”

And Harry Sippel didn’t end up playing “This Land Is Your Land” on the banjo in front of the Washington Monument, as he had hoped, but he did find an audience.

“Harry had a great time playing his banjo on (the) Metro for a group of high school students,” Marj wrote.