[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
[April 8, 1996]
[Page 556]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Annual Easter Egg Roll
April 8, 1996

    Where is Bernie? Is he behind me? Oh, here you go.
    Well, let me say I always look forward to this every year. And the 
forecast today, believe it or not, was for snow. But we knew that the 
Easter Egg Roll wouldn't be spoiled, and just look what a wonderful day 
we have.
    So let me say I want to join Hillary in thanking all of you who have 
contributed to make this Egg Roll successful. I want to thank all of you 
for coming and all of those who will come. This is a wonderful day for 
all the children who come here, and it really belongs to the children. 
And I love looking out and seeing all these smiling faces of parents 
with their children. I sometimes think the parents have more fun than 
the children do, but it really is for the children, so all of you like 
me, who like this, try to restrain yourselves so that the kids can stay 
front and center.
    It is a great honor for us to be a part of this. It is one of the 
things that we are really thankful for, the opportunity to live in the 
White House, to do, because it gives America's children a chance to come 
here and be a part of this. I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful day.
    And I think it is time to start. So I want Bernie to come up here 
and blow the whistle to start the Egg Roll. He has been doing this every 
year for a few years--[laughter]--and we are honored to have him again. 
He is as much an institution of this Egg Roll as anything else we do. So 
let's give him a big hand and let's begin. Bernie Fairbanks, come on.
    All right, we've got one track here and one track here. And I'm 
going to blow the whistle, and both of you start at the same time, okay? 
All right, one, two, three.

Note: The President spoke at 9:50 a.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House.