GOOD OLD DAYS:

Irene Collins remembers the day she and her parents took her grandfather to a veterans hospital in Los Angeles for treatment.

For some reason, she remembered, the staff wouldn’t admit this man, a veteran who had served in four branches of the military, and at 72 years old, tried to get in the fifth one, the U.S. Coast Guard.

Word spread among family friends and co-workers about how Collins’ grandfather was rejected. Weeks later, Collins’ mother received a call from an apologetic governor.

Her grandfather shouldn’t have anymore trouble getting into that hospital, the governor told Collins’ mother.

So when that governor, Ronald Reagan, was sworn in as the 40th president, Collins said her family was watching like millions around the country.

“When that came we were all excited,” Collins said with a smile. “It’s mostly because people were so excited to have someone for the people.”

While some say the same thing about our newest president, Barack Obama, people have found something memorable in many presidential inaugurations.

Rita Halter, 75, a Costa Mesa resident for nearly five decades, remembered with sadness the somber swearing in for President Lyndon Johnson aboard Air Force One after President Kennedy’s assassination.

“We were all still in shock, basically,” Halter said. The day sticks out because in a motorcade weeks earlier, Kennedy had passed by the school she taught at in Hawaii, she said.

Anna Kozma, a volunteer at the Costa Mesa Senior Center, said she and her friends swooned over Kennedy and wanted to see him in person raise his right hand and take the oath of the office.

“I think everybody loved him. I couldn’t travel, but I wanted to be there,” she said.

Arlene Flanagan, a board member at the senior center, remembered President George W. Bush’s inauguration with clarity.

She, like many in the country, was still angered at his victory over Al Gore.

“The anger, the hostility, it was just unconscionable,” she said.

For most, however, this week’s swearing-in was absent of many of those hard feelings. It was a celebration, said Janete Oliveira, a fact that reminded her of elections in her native country, Brazil.

“There’s a lot of expectations. All the people are together in the streets, it’s very exciting. It’s a celebration,” she said.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at [email protected].