ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
Back in Washington, D.C., there were speeches, spectacle and celebrities, and also vendors. Out among the inaugural entrepreneurs was NPR's Art Silverman.
ART SILVERMAN: Unidentified Man #3: And you know, once you open it up, it smells like hope.
(SOUNDBITE OF TALKING VENDORS)
SILVERMAN: Or if you don't want to inhale hope, you could go for an Obama calendar, an Obama wallet, or maybe a hat, scarf, or God forbid, an Obama condom. And if your first reaction to all this is that low commerce is spoiling the high tone of the day, well, it's not as callous as it first seems. Street vendors are satisfying a real need here. Ask the Delores Warren of Virginia Beach, Virginia. She sells her wares with a nod toward history.
DELORES WARREN: These are keepsakes. These are what you share with your children for many generations to come. You were there in 2009 for the first black president of the United States of America.
SILVERMAN: Unidentified Man: He's actually getting a chance to actually be - set a foot in the White House because they had us out there doing all of that hard labor.
SILVERMAN: And there's Jenus Fann(ph) and her 15-year-old son Brian Perry debating what to buy from vendor Brian Mar(ph) before they left for home.
JENUS FANN: We're buying T-shirts.
BRIAN PERRY: Obama T-shirts.
FANN: I want to take some home and have it for my brother, our son and everything. So, we're doing good.
BRIAN MAR: I'm trying to get rid of these Obama license plates, man. Everybody is skimming on these though. These are hot commodities out here.
SILVERMAN: A hot commodity indeed. But let's face it, on a cold inaugural day in Washington, D.C., there was no souvenir better suited than the Obama hand-warmers. Art Silverman, NPR News, Washington.