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We finally reached that after being nearly mobbed. The crowd was terrible. If the crowds at this year's (1953) inaugural ball were bad, they were worse in the Uline Arena, which was a much smaller place. That's about all that I remember about the ball, except that the room was simply hideous. It still looked like a livery stable and it was decorated very badly with the cheapest kind of bunting and not enough of it. It was all red, white and blue and there was no idea of making it look like a ballroom. There were these rows of boxes around the edge, which were not boxes at all, but just a raised area which the carpenters had built. They'd put rough boards around little enclosures which held six or eight people.

Being with the Polks was pleasant. They knew a lot of the old time Democrats. So I met a huge number of people on this particular night who I sometimes placed later and sometimes didn't. I still didn't get any idea of the structure of government. You couldn't tell Senators from anything else. There were some diplomats there, although none of them were in diplomatic dress. They were in plain evening clothes and had apparently come because somebody who had a box had invited them to come, or had them to dinner and brought them. They were very pleasant and agreeable. Lily Polk knew a great many of them. I