Since the end of March, the White House has been in virtual lockdown. This week, however, the party preparation started again. The tables appeared at the South Lawn, set up by staff who had been suspended from work in person several weeks earlier as a precaution, but who returned this week to host the July 4 party at the White House.
For White House social secretary Rickie Niceta and the White House team of chefs and butlers, cleaning staff and ushers, the slow recovery from normalcy begins with a party in the midst of a pandemic.
However, the table chairs are not the typical eight or 10, but only four, just enough to accommodate a socially distant seating plan. There will be tablecloths and flowers, some food, including grill stations for hot dogs and hamburgers (adorned with small American flags attached to toothpicks) and soft drinks, details supervised by Niceta, one of the employees who since late March had been doing her work from home.
Bartenders, who normally used to go bare-handed for past White House events outdoors and white gloves for the more formal ones, will wear disposable rubber gloves and face masks recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. illnesses, which will constantly be swapped out for new ones, a White House official told CNN.
The picnic guest list will reflect the health trauma the country is still grappling with. “The guests will be made up of front-line workers and their families,” Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere told CNN, “including law enforcement officers, doctors, nurses and others, as well as members of the military and their families.”
Members of the Trump administration will also be present, Deere said. Although Deere did not specify how many guests were expected, the White House says the invitation-only event, which culminates in seeing military aircraft overpasses and a large-scale fireworks show on the National Mall, will include social distancing.
“As President Trump has said, this year’s Independence Day celebration will look different from 2019 to ensure the health and safety of attendees,” said Deere.
“We told those people who have concerns that they may stay home. But those who want to come and join us, we will give them free face masks, if they choose to wear one. But we are not going to distance ourselves socially,” Noem said on Fox News. .
July 4 was not always as politically charged as it is this year, with a country in the midst of a cultural and social lawsuit, as well as a pandemic, and an election looming just four months away. Thomas Jefferson in 1801 was the first American President to hold a July 4 celebration at the White House, complete with horse racing at the North Lawn and the Marine Band (which will also play at the party on Saturday night) performing tunes. patriotic in the entrance hall, according to research by the White House Historical Association.
In 1850, although in the Washington Monument still under construction and not in the White House, President Zachary Taylor attended the July 4 festivities and consumed ice water, cherries, and other raw fruits. Taylor died at the White House five days after a gastrointestinal illness that historians believe to be cholera.
Shortly thereafter, in the early 1900s, when the White House grounds were practically open to anyone who wanted to wander through them, July 4 made it a favorite picnic spot, kicking off the tradition of one night in the sprawling lawn, admiring fireworks that started over the National Mall.
A favorite photoshoot for many presidents and first ladies in recent decades has been standing on the Truman balcony of the White House on the second floor, a spacious outdoor area commissioned by former President Harry Truman in 1947 that spans from the Yellow Oval of the Executive Residence Room, looking into the distance at the fireworks.
This year, with all the coronavirus continuing to rob Americans, the celebration will likely be different depending on the weather.
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