Tales from the Ironing Board: Hillary Clinton, the Inauguration, the Women's March and Me

Every woman has her own tales to tell from her own ironing board.

"I felt I was somewhere I knew I shouldn't be. To my left were bleachers, not even half full of people. To the right of the gate through the fence was a band. A full marching band, all lined up in their uniforms ready to march. As I was rolled closer to the gate, a young, 20-something African American man stood behind his big bass drum, alongside a trombonist and a trumpeter. He smiled and winked at me as we rolled past him through the gate. I smiled and winked back. Only then did I realize that this was the Inaugural Parade. Inaugural Parade? I definitely wasn't supposed to be here! This was the last place on the planet I wanted to be on this day. I, of all people, had become a giant burrito in the 2017 Inaugural Parade.

"How did this ever happen?"

Jackie Smith never expected that volunteering for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign would pull her into a world of felt and glue guns, flash mobs and photo ops, protests and marches, and lead to her crashing the 2017 Inaugural Parade.