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A small-town girl with no consuming passion for politics,Laura Bush brings to the White House unaffected charm,quiethumor and a confident personal style.
从西部小镇上对政治毫无兴趣的普通女孩到今天站在了政治权力顶峰的第一夫人，劳拉·布什带给白宫的是自己那种自然率真的独特魅力、恬静平和的优雅气质以及坚定自信的个人作风。
By the time the inaugural parade is over on the afternoonof Jan.20,Laura Bush and her family will go to their new home.From that moment on she will be at the helm of a 25-personstaff and a domain of some 150 rooms,with which she is notentirely unfamiliar.Thanks to her father-in-law's four yearsas President,Laura has already slept in the Lincoln and theQueen's bedrooms and still trades Christmas cards with manyof the staff who waited on the elder Bushes.
But there will be changes.Across from the antiquefilledbedroom she will share with her husband of 23 years.Laurawill likely set up quarters where fraternal twins Jenna andBarbara can crash when they're home from the University ofTexas and Yale,respectively.She'll also find a niche forGeorge W.'s 250 baseballs(signed by such superstars as TedWilliams and Willie Mays)and baseball cards,which he begancollecting in boyhood by sending them to famous players androokies and asking for their autographs.And she will alsosurely stock the small second-floor kitchen installed byHillary Clinton with Diet Coke and her husband's favorites,egg salad and peanut butter and jelly.
When the First Couple do entertain,it's likely to be aninformal affair."I think we'll see lots of Tex-Mex,lots ofgrilling and barbecuing," says sister-in-law Sharon Bush,47,wife of George W.'s younger brother Neil.Indeed,Laura didn'tthrow a single black-tie event during her five years in thegovernor's mansion.
During off-hours in the private living quarters theBushes can be expected to keep to their normal morning routine,which includes the President rising at 6 a.m.to feed thepets and make coffee for his wife.In the evenings the familywatches"action films,but the girls and I also like moviesgirls like,"she said."We really liked Elizabeth."Sports areanother staple."We watch a lot of football and baseball,"sheadded."Sadly I don't have a lot of other hobbies except forreading.""They're going to be just like your next-doorneighbor.The President and his wife." Says Washington Postsociety reporter Roxanne Roberts.
It was a role Laura Welch could scarcely have imaginedgrowing up in the West Texas oil town of Midland.Looking back,Laura said in an earlier interview,"I was lucky to have avery normal childhood in a small town where people felt veryfree to do whatever we wanted to do.We were sheltered in thisfreedom in a way that maybe we didn't understand."In highschool,"There were at least five girls in the car every timewe went out cruising," says Weiss."We liked Kent cigarettes.Oh,we all stopped smoking eventually,But we used to sit out bymy swimming pool and play bridge and smoke and drink Coke.Laura was excellent at bridge."
In 1964,Laura Welch left the three-bedroom brick housein Midland for Southern Methodist University in Dallas."Herroom was always the central headquarters for fun,"says aformer classmate."One day Laura says,'I need to practice myMiss America wave.' We all started laughing and asked herwhat she was talking about.She laughed and said.'You justnever know when it will come in handy.'She put her hand up inthe air.middle fingers together and moving it in a mechanicalmotion.Now when we see her on television before she gets intoa car or as she walks to the stage,we'll scream.'Look!She'sdoing her Miss Americawave!'"
Before going on to her master's degree in library sciencein 1973.she taught at Houston's John F.Kennedy Elementary.Herdates were mostly with young men "who were really bright,"says her friend Pamela Nelson."She wouldn't waste her timewith anyone who wasn't serious about their future and studies." It wasn't until 1977 that she reconnected with a boy she'dknown vaguely in seventh grade,George Bush,whose family hadmoved from Midland to Houston when he was 12."I think ourfriends wanted to fix us up because we were literally thelast two people left who hadn't married of all our friends,"she told the New York Post in 1999.If the librarian waslooking for a challenge,she found it in George,who was in theoil business."Before they got married,"says Robert McCleskey,"he lived in a garage apartment with the bedsprings heldtogether with a necktie so they wouldn't hit the floor.Georgedidn't spend a whole lot of money on creature comforts."
After their small wedding just three months later atMidland's First United Methodist Church,"it was like AudreyHepburn walking into the Animal House." says George's brotherMarvin,44."Here was this bright,cerebral,lovely human being -a very serene-type person-coming into this chaoticenvironment known as the Bush household." But she soonsettled her new husband down -in 1986 he stopped drinking.Today she refers to their twins' birth as the turning pointin their lives,"I was 35 when I finally had Barbara and Jenna,"she said,"so we never took our children for granted.Ever."
To this day "one of her favorite memories was when sheand George would be lying in bed and reading all of thepapers early in the morning,and the girls would wake up andpile into bed with them," says Nelson."She'd say,'Those werethe happiest times,just having those babies and that luxuryof time together.'"
There will be precious little of that in the next fouryears-no sunset walks with George W.through fields of nativegrasses on their Texas spread and not much chance to sharechiles rellenos with girlfriends at Guero's Mexicanrestaurant in Austin.Yet if history serves,Laura Bush willmake the most of her situation.And though her husband may beforever shadowed by the extraordinary circumstances thatbrought him to the White House,few seem to quibble with hisroommate at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
"I think we're gonna be lucky to have her," says NellieConnally,81,widow of the late Texas Gov.John Connally.
1月20日下午的总统就职游行之后，劳拉·布什和第一家庭的其他成员就将入住新居了。从这一刻起，她将成为这座拥有150个房间的豪宅的女主人，指挥着手下25名工作人员。亏得有一位当过四年总统的公公，劳拉对于这块领地并非完全陌生。她曾在林肯起居室和皇后起居室住过，还一直与为老布什夫妇服务过的工作人员互寄圣诞卡。
不过还是有很多地方得有所改变的。除了为自己和相濡以沫23载的丈夫布置一间古色古香的卧房之外，劳拉还为双胞胎女儿詹娜和芭芭拉拾掇两个小窝，好让她俩从学校回家时可以小住上一段时间——姐妹俩现在分别就读于德州大学和耶鲁大学。劳拉还要替丈夫的250个棒球以及一大堆的棒球卡找好安身之所，那些棒球上有泰德·威廉姆斯和威利·梅斯等大牌明显的签名，棒球卡则是布什从少年时期便开始收集的，他寄卡给那些著名球星以及球坛新贵，索取他们的亲笔签名。此外，她还要在希拉里·克林顿在二楼辟出的那间小厨房里储备上健怡可乐和丈夫最爱吃的鸡蛋沙拉、花生酱和果冻。
第一夫妇宴请客人将会是相当轻松随意的。布什弟弟内尔的妻子，47岁的沙朗·布什说：“我想肯定会有很多得克萨斯—墨西哥风味的食物，还有烧烤之类的。”事实上，在布什五年的州长任期内，劳拉就从来没有在州长官邸举办过那种要求出席者穿礼服打领结的正式宴会。
在非工作时间里，总统一家在白宫的私人居住区里还是仍将继续保留以往的一些生活习惯：总统6点起床后喂喂宠物，替妻子冲好咖啡。晚上一家人一起看“动作片，但是孩子们和我喜欢看一般女孩子们爱看的电影，我们都非常喜欢《伊丽莎白》。”（注：《伊丽莎白》：导演夏克哈·卡帕(Shekhar Kapur)1998年作品，获71届奥斯卡六项提名（包括最佳影片及最佳女主角提名），并最终获得最佳化妆奖。凯特·布兰琪(Cate Blanchett)在片中饰演16世纪的英国女皇伊丽莎白一世，并由此获得56届金球奖以及99年度英国影视学院奖(BAFTA)的最佳女主角奖。）劳拉说。体育节目也排在他们的收视单上。“我们常看橄榄球和棒球比赛。可惜，此外，除了阅读，我再没别的爱好了。”“他们就像住你隔壁的邻居一样，总统和第一夫人。”《华盛顿邮报》社会专栏记者洛克西恩·罗伯茨如是说。
这样的一个角色是生长在得克萨斯西部石油小镇米德兰那个名叫劳拉·书尔奇的少女从未想到过的。劳拉在一次接受采访时回忆起自己的过去：“我很幸运能长在一个小镇上，童年生活非常健康、正常，镇上人人都可以毫无顾忌地做喜欢做的事。我们就是在这种自由氛围的庇护下成长的，尽管当时自己可能没有意识到这一点。”昔日的好友维丝回忆起念高中的时光：“每次我们出去兜风，车里起码会挤着五个女孩，我们都喜欢抽健牌烟。当然最后我们都戒烟了，但是那会儿我们经常坐在我家的游泳池边玩桥牌、抽烟、喝可乐，劳拉桥牌打得很好。”
1964午，劳拉·韦尔奇离开老家米德兰小镇那栋有三个卧室的砖房，到达拉斯的南卫理公会大学念书。“她的房间从来都是我们的欢乐大本营。”劳拉昔日的一位同窗说：“有一天，劳拉说：‘我要练一练美国小姐式的挥手。’（注：美国小姐(Miss America)：美国有一年一度的全国性选美活动，先由各州选出州小姐，参加决赛，最后的总冠军即获得“美国小姐”称号。）我们都被她逗笑了，问她到底是什么意思，她笑着说：‘说不定哪天就能派上用场呢。’然后她举起手，手指并拢，很机械地挥动着。现在每次我们在电视里看见她上车或上台前的手势，我们都会大叫：‘瞧！她的美国小姐式挥手！’”
在1973年去念图书管理硕士之前，劳拉在休斯敦的约翰·肯尼迪小学教了一段时间的书。她约会的对象大多是些“才华横溢的青年才俊”，她的朋友帕米拉·纳尔逊说。“她从来不浪费时间跟那些对未来和学业吊儿郎当的人交往。”1977年，她与七年级时的同学乔治·布什重逢，当时她对布什仅有一点模糊的印象，因布什在12岁那年随家人从米德兰迁居到休斯敦去了。劳拉在1999年接受《纽约邮报》采访时说：“我觉得所有的朋友都想把我们俩撮合到一块儿，因为在所有的朋友当中，我们是当时硕果仅存的两个单身。”如果说这位图书管理员在寻找挑战的话，那她可算是找对人了——这个在石油行业工作的乔治·布什。他们的一位老朋友罗伯特·麦克克莱斯基说：“结婚前，乔治住在一间车库房里，他那张床的弹簧是用领带给绑在一块儿的，这样整张床才不至于散架。乔治是不会为了舒适而花很多钱的。”
三个月之后，他们在米德兰的第一联合卫理公会教堂举行了简朴的婚礼。“就像奥黛莉·赫本走进了《动物屋》（注：《动物屋》：(Animal House)导演约翰·兰迪斯1978年出品的描写一部大学生生活的影片，剧中学生们大搞“野性派对”的恶作剧，迫使系主任对这些大学生们严加管教。）一样，”乔治的弟弟，44岁的马文说。“我们这儿则是这位聪明、富有智慧、可爱的人儿——这位性格平和安详的女士——走进了杂乱无章的布什之家。”但是很快，劳拉就让她的新婚丈夫安分了起来——到了1986年更是让乔治戒了酒，现在劳拉常将他们生活的转折点归于双胞胎千金的诞生。“我到35岁才有了芭芭拉和詹娜，所以我们对孩子的降临从来都是心存感激，一直都是。”
直到现在“对她来说，最美好的记忆就是：早上，她和乔治躺在床上读着当天的报纸，孩子们醒了后跑过来和他们挤在一个床上。她总是说：‘那是最幸福的时光，和那两个孩子在一起，还能拥有那么多的悠闲时间。’”纳尔逊说。
接下来的四年时间里，这样的情景肯定就更加弥足珍贵了——再也不能在得克萨斯辽阔的天然大草场上沐浴着夕阳余辉与乔治携手漫步，也鲜有机会再与女友们去奥斯丁的“格罗”墨西哥餐厅分享美味的chiles rellenos（一种墨西哥风味食品）。但是既然已经在其位，劳拉就会尽最大的努力去谋其政。尽管入主白宫之路上的种种波折可能会令总统永远生活在阴影之下，但宾夕法尼亚大街1600号（注：宾夕法尼亚大街1600号即美国总统府白宫所在地。）的女主人却令人无可指摘。
“我觉得拥有她是我们的一大幸事。”上届得克萨斯州长约翰·康纳利的遗孀，81岁的内莉·康纳利如是说。