Sacramento Ca Celebrations

It may not have rivaled President Bush's flip-flop on taxes, but the embryonic Wilson Administration was having trouble all weekend coming to a decision about what to do in case of rain. On Friday, Wilson staffers insisted that the inaugural ceremony would remain outside on the west steps of the Capitol unless the deluge reached biblical proportions. By Sunday, inaugural organizers considered moving the entire ceremony down the street to the dry confines of the Sacramento Community Center.

It may not have rivaled President Bush's flip-flop on taxes, but the embryonic Wilson Administration was having trouble all weekend coming to a decision about what to do in case of rain. On Friday, Wilson staffers insisted that the inaugural ceremony would remain outside on the west steps of the Capitol unless the deluge reached biblical proportions. By Sunday, inaugural organizers considered moving the entire ceremony down the street to the dry confines of the Sacramento Community Center.

Memorable decades rarely end neatly at their chronological borders. And so it was with the Eighties. In California, at least, the Eighties finally seemed to self-destruct sometime in the last half of 1990. Maybe it was the day a California homeowner sold his house for less than what he had paid. Or maybe it was the day when George Deukmejian woke up and discovered that a comfortable surplus in the state budget had turned into a huge, blood-sucking deficit.

Memorable decades rarely end neatly at their chronological borders. And so it was with the Eighties. In California, at least, the Eighties finally seemed to self-destruct sometime in the last half of 1990. Maybe it was the day a California homeowner sold his house for less than what he had paid. Or maybe it was the day when George Deukmejian woke up and discovered that a comfortable surplus in the state budget had turned into a huge, blood-sucking deficit.