Ford's Funeral in GR: On-the-scene, Day 2

I'm going to forgo write-ups for the D.C. and Michigan funeral services... Those happened, you can look through news archives easily enough if you're really interested in what happened there. Since I was able to actually be in downtown Grand Rapids and experience some of the events first-hand, I'd rather talk about that instead of re-wording a wire article, as interesting as that may be. So that's the game plan with this post here.

Since there was a lot happening related to Ford's burial in Grand Rapids, lots of parking lots were free, especially one's near the Presidential Museum. With thousands and thousands of people expected in town, I decided to park away from all those ramps, and instead, parked my car a few blocks away at a church. It was a little bit of a walk, but, not really. Maybe like 5, 6 city blocks away? Nothing bad at all. But keep that in mind for the end of this story, 'kay? 5-6 blocks...

I arrived downtown around 11:30, 12 o'clock, anticipating the motorcade procession. The final funeral was that afternoon and the motorcade would be driving across town to Grace Episcopal Church. Walking up to Fulton Ave., I noticed groups of boy scouts gathering in groups, preparing to salute the motorcade as it drove by. There were hundreds upon hundreds of scouts, most waving American flags. It was an impressive sight, to be sure. But after having the Eagle scouts block my view the day before, I still wasn't exactly in a nice mood towards the scouts. So I made sure I wasn't near any. ^_^

For the "locals", I stood outside the Cottage Bar and Grill for the procession. While I was waiting, I had a group of ladies come and set up some chairs, then asked if I would save their spot while they got some food. Since I was going to be standing there anyways, I was more than happy to oblige. To pass the time, people gathered around that corner started to talk about the ceremonies, and how we wished all schools had off that day so the kids could be allowed to go downtown without getting a tardy.

The thing about a funeral procession for a former President is, it doesn't actually move very slow at all. Seriously, I think I've seen civilian processions move slower. It's boom-bang, the car's gone. You see the hearse? Now you don't! You see Jimmy Carter's vehicle? Now you don't! All in all, it was a pretty quick affair, but still, knowing the history surrounding the motorcade, it was a pretty neat sight to witness. One thing about the motorcade that amuses me is that it has a back-up coffin-car at the end of the procession. I understand that they should "be prepared" and all, but, it seems kind of... weird to have an extra hearse. Are they preparing, in case someone else's number is called? I... don't quite get it.

After the procession was over, I went into the Grand Rapids Public Library to warm up a bit. There's really nothing else to this side-story. Once I was good-to-go I left the premises and walked down to the Ford Museum.

Now, to get to the Ford Museum, you have to walk through the main hallway in the DeVos Convention Center. While it looks really cool through the street, with it's glass windows and unique design inside, it's actually very large and kind of intimidating when you're inside it, especially when there's only a handful of other people in there at the same time. Although, looking at that picture just now, you can kind of imagine that hallway being part of a fancy airport. So now, the Convention Center will now look like a bit of an airport in my mind and I have no one to blame but me. Great.

Having spent a few seconds to walk across the hallway, I walked over to the Gillette pedestrian bridge. (Which, if you stop to read the historical marker, used to be a trolley bridge.) I saw a few media types and took their pictures without permission, which makes me an awful photographer and pretty much goes against at least a dozen ethical standards. I didn't care, which is bad, but I think also means I have the potential to be like the photographer's equivalent of Jack Bauer on 24, breaking all kinds of rules for the greater good. Although, it's kind of hard to compare a government anti-terrorism agent to a photographer. That would be a blog post best suited for Epsilon, I think.

At the end of the bridge, I saw there was a small group of people gathered on the grass, right up against a fence. Intrigued, I decided to do what any sensible person would do in such a situation: stand there. I was only interested in finding out where pedestrians could be, close to the museum grounds, for the proceedings. A few minutes into standing there, I got confirmation that pedestrians could stand right on that little bit of museum ground. So basically, I had a great, almost un-interrupted view of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, on the biggest day in Grand Rapid's history. How cool!

Except, even the best things on earth have a drawback: I had to stand on an incline for a few hours. Standing on hilly ground, that was bound to happen. And unfortunately, the spot I got had maybe a 35, 40 degree incline, which wasn't bad for the first hour, but after a while it became really uncomfortable for my feet. And yes, I had a great view to history and I'm complaining. Shut up. As always, people passed the time by talking to each other and making new friends. This one lady I was standing next to had witnessed a plane crash in Peru in the 90's, had been in a same event as Hugo Chavez and other important Latino leaders, and is a principle at a GR school. I was also next to this family, and I spent some time talking to this younger kid who knew everything there was to know about remote-controlled airplanes, and we discussed how cool it would be to fly some of those around the museum grounds, and then talked about all the possible ways the Secret Service might deal with the planes. (Snipers, guns, bombs, you name it, we covered it.) That was pretty fun, I enjoyed it.

There was this Secret Service agent who was standing right near us, whose name I don't know, and should probably never know, for security reasons, but for this blog, I'll call him Steve. He would come up to us every know and then and chat for a little bit, talking about his job a bit and talking about the weather. He mentioned that when he saw that the weather was 40 degrees, he thought that "oh, I can handle that!", but he didn't see the part about 20-mph winds. Ha! When a family had left for a little bit to get some hot chocolate, he asked them where his hot chocolate was. He even came up to us at one point and told this one lady next to me that he got some new information, and that he was very sorry, but that they decided to move the ceremonies to the back of the museum, so the casket wouldn't be carried by the front. Just as shock started to settle in, the agent smiled and told us that he was joking and wanted us all to make sure that we knew that the Secret Service had a sense of humor. Heh.

We saw the jets in the early afternoon, the one's that would be flying over for the 21-plane salute, but they were just flying by as they were killing time in the air. The funeral started late and went late, so the ceremonies on the museum grounds were pushed back a fair chunk of time.

Basically, we all just stood there for a couple of hours. We saw some military officers practicing walking lock-step, and then later on we got to see the armed forces taking their spots in front of the museum. Which, instantly makes you think that "Oh, somethings going to happen now!" Except, it didn't, not for at least another half-hour. But we had new people to stare at now, which was nice. And since they had to look straight ahead and not flinch a muscle, they couldn't glare back, which was cool. (I felt bad for one officer, who had a coughing fit for about a minute straight. That was uncomfortable to even listen to. But, the officer soldiered through it. Ha!)

(BTW - When I saw "we", I mean myself and the other people in the crowd.)

I'll just flash-forward a bunch of time to when the motorcade arrived, because up until then, it was just standing around as everybody else called people on cell phones to find out where the funeral service was at. So, the motorcade arrived and the hearse went into park, and it was dead silent on the museum grounds. Silence. More silence. And.... more silence. Eventually, I could see some of the dignitaries sneaking around the back of the museum to the grave site. I got a little bit better picture of Carter, but, it was from far away. And if you look closely, you can make out Cheney and Rumsfeld's faces. No important dignitary can hide from my lens! (Should I be speaking like that when writing up my experiences at a burial? Probably not.)

Then, the Ford family came into view over by the hearse. The military band started to play, and let me tell you what: There are some things that can translate to television very well. The military band is not one of them. It is sooo much more powerful hearing them in person, it's crazy. After their two numbers were done, the casket was carried by us, and everybody leaned into take pictures. This is pretty much my view for the whole thing. Of course, I was pretty much taking pictures the entire time, but still, I was *that* close to the casket. And I'll bet you thought that the picture I posted earlier was a wire image...

I was still focused on the casket when I saw that Mrs. Ford was moving on by as well. Not thinking to have my camera on "sport" mode or something fast-acting, my shots of her didn't turn out that great. It was still something to see her and the Ford family, here on the last day of a whirlwind, multi-state funeral tour. I watched them walk down, until they were both too far away for my camera lens, and when they walked past my line of vision. (I had a tree obscuring my view of the tombstone.)

With nobody else walking my way, I walked a few yards back to the Gillette pedestrian bridge, in anticipation of the 21-plane flyover. While on the bridge, I could hear the cannon's firing off and could see the smoke that rose as a result of that salute. Very shortly thereafter, everyone spotted the planes flying in. And... there's no real words to describe that flyby other than awesome. After witnessing part of a State burial, seeing the coffin again, hearing the cannons and seeing and hearing the fly-by, I felt very..... humbled. It was an incredible experience, one that I was very glad to be a part of. It's hard to describe the emotions I was feeling then, and why I was feeling those emotions, but all these elements that you wouldn't think would make you emotional, did. I know I wouldn't have gotten goosebumps by watching it on TV, but in person, I did get goosebumps. It was amazing, simply amazing.

Now, with thousands and thousands of people who are ready to go home, foot traffic was very, very heavy. The parking lots closest to the museum were already backed up with cars wanting to get out, but couldn't because of foot traffic. As I walked back towards the church I was parked at, foot traffic got less and less, until I was the only person on the sidewalk. I decided to take the side streets home, choosing not to join thousands of people staring at each other's bumpers on the highway. I had to wait probably 10 minutes tops because of additional traffic on two streets, but after that, it was pretty much smooth sailing all the way back home. So not only did I witness something historic, but I avoided the heaviest traffic, too. And I got some great pictures out of the whole deal. So, as a photographer and a lover of public events, I was very, very happy. (Yeah, the humility had passed by then.)

And... that's it! I'll post a photo essay later, but then, it'll be updates as normal on this site. Until then, thanks for clicking on and enjoy the day.