Hello everyone, this is Citizen Lucky2888 reporting, I had filed(typed) a report but then I don't know what I did, it didn't post and with some alcohol in me after the celebration I was in no condition to type the whole report all over again, but now I am going to try it again so it can benefit all...
I and my friend who was nice enough to accompany me on this special day reached the Masonic Center at 12.05 parked our vehicle at Masonic's parking , had to shell out $ 30.00 for the convenience, then we took the elevators up to the auditorium level and when the doors opened I felt I was at weekend farmers market, the whole floor was hustling and bustling, could hear all the lanuguages spoken in this world, nobody had formed lines yet to get in , I guess all were just waiting and enjoying the moment with their loved ones, I and my buddy strolled around when we reached a booth an older couple asked me if I wanted to sign in for the Voters registration, which I did and infact signed it as an citizen before I had taken the oath, when I enquired with the older gentleman he explained its okay as it will be dated as the same day...so I went ahead and did it, was weird that they were trying to influence me to show my affiliation to a certain party , which I duly ignored and did what I wanted to do...here I would like to suggest that you can wait as during the ceremony the officials from the Voters registration will pass out the forms during the ceremony.
By now the lines had started forming,suddenly there was excitement in the air, there were 4 entrances next to each other and the IO were there to check if you had filled the back of the O/L and signed and will also check your Resident Card, there you were instructed to go to a specific door which were identified by the sections, section 1 was written on my O/L which was right across the entrance so I walked there and thats were my resident card and the O/L was taken and now the I was ushered in to the area and directed to sit in the designated area...I was seated next to a young lady who had driven from LA for the oath and was supposed to drive back after the ceremony as she had her school the next day.
The Ceremony started at 2.10pm and we were informed that in all there were 1275 people taking oath, there were cheers all over especially from the guest , lots of clapping and as we progressed there were few videos shown then some small speeches from the Guest speaker and announcemnets from the census , voters registration and passport office soon the national anthem was sung (I missed it , had to run to the loo)some more videos and then we were all asked to stand for the oath of allegiance , the oath/pledge and national anthem was printed on a page and was handed over to us with a small flag as we had entered...so we all repeated after the lady who had administered the oath, whole auditorium erupted after that as we were officially the US Citizens, then one of the new citizen was asked to come over on the stage to administer the pledge of allegiance, the selected person was a gentleman from India (Amit Kumar), once he finished we were shown a video from President Obama and thats when the ceremony was concluded...we were asked to sit as the IO's came and gave us the Certificates at our seats, as soon as I got I left immediately as I was not applying for the passport...
Drive back home was good and of course stopped at a place to enjoy chilled AMERICAN beer...
Once again Thank You all for your support and guidance...and Good-Luck to all who are waiting for their process to be over....
God Bless America
