Bush Plays Host as Children Scramble for Easter Egg Prizes
WASHINGTON — Thousands of children frolicked on the White House lawn Monday, hunting wooden eggs and rolling real ones in a rite of spring that converted the presidential estate into a playground.
President Bush joined briefly in the fun, blowing a shiny whistle to start the Easter Egg Roll in which his 3-year-old granddaughter, Marshall Bush, was entered.
There were no winners or losers in the 10-yard races. All participants got wooden eggs bearing the names George and Barbara Bush.
The same prizes could be found without too much scrutiny under hay strewn about in pens elsewhere on the lawn.
Some of the eggs bore the signatures of Michael Jackson and other famous White House visitors.
The Bushes’ pet projects were not forgotten. Some guests got Virginia pine saplings, and all the children took away canvas sacks crammed with books and other souvenirs.
Some families waited hours to get in; other groups, such as the four children brought from a shelter in nearby Alexandria, Va., had special passes that let them right in.
The lawn teemed with clowns, minstrels, an Abraham Lincoln look-alike, balloon artists, dancers, bands, a yo-yo master and other entertainers, among them TV puppeteer Shari Lewis.
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