Hundreds visit memorial morning after dedication

Thursday, April 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The crowds gone and the national spotlight pointed at another American tragedy, the newly dedicated Oklahoma City National Memorial took on a more modest -- but no less powerful-- tenor for those visiting Thursday morning.

"Yesterday it was so easy to get caught up in everything, the president, the crowds. But it's a little more peaceful and reflective this morning," said John Marshall, his hands in his pockets and his sport coat buttoned to ward off a stiff wind on another wise cloudless day.

By Thursday, the media trucks and public prayers had moved 600 miles west for the first anniversary of the Columbine High massacre in Littleton, Colo. But the emotional weight of the Oklahoma City memorial was not lost on the hundreds of people who walked across its grounds Thursday.

"It's still just terribly sad," Marshall said. "I just watched a maintenance man walk by with tears in his eyes."

The memorial's 168 chairs -- lost in a sea of visitors the night before -- appeared Thursday as a silent army of almost human forms, each draped in colorful displays.

Automatic sprinklers doused the flowers and stuffed dolls left for bombing victims, with water splashing off the chairs' bronze backs and slipping down their glass bases like tears.

One man leaned on a chair back using a single outstretched hand. Head hanging, he paused for several seconds then gave the chair two quick, familiar knocks with his fist. He smiled at the ground briefly, then slowly ambled away with his hands in his pockets.

Just outside the east gate of the memorial, stacks of folding plastic chairs filled sidewalks while workers dismantled plywood media platforms from Wednesday's ceremonies. Dozens of crushed water bottles skittered and rolled in the wind.

Inside the memorial, Dave and Karen Malone from St. Louis pushed their daughter Meghan in a stroller. Their son, Jacob, walked alongside.

Karen Malone said her parents live in Oklahoma City and that she and her husband visited the site shortly after the April 19, 1995, bombing. She said the family wanted to reflect on the lives lost in the bombing.

"I just couldn't imagine what they were going to do for a memorial, but this is beautiful," she said, while standing by the memorial's wind-rippled reflecting pool.

Many, like Rhonda Fulbright, said they stayed away from Wednesday's sun-drenched ceremonies to avoid the hassles. She silently gazed across the memorial.

"I think it's great they let people leave things here," he said of the items left behind on the chairs. "I think that's really important."

April McCaslin spent more than a half hour winding fairy-like through the chairs of the memorial, each bearing the name of a bombing victim. She happily straightened flower arrangements and smiled as she paused over several chairs to read dedications left behind.

"This is a powerful place to be," she said, wearing yellow headphones and bright purple pants that came down to mid-calf. "You can read some of their stories and get to know them better."

She said she was among the thousands attending the public ceremony the night before, but that she wanted to make a more personal visit by herself.

"God takes things that could be tragedies and uses them for good," she said.