In 1919, Ronald Reagan's family moved to the town of Tampico in Illinois and lived in a second- floor apartment above the H.C. Pitney variety store. After he became president of the United States and moved into the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when he heard the tourists below, Reagan complained to his wife Nancy, "Honey, I'm still living above the store."

When Jackie Kennedy first moved in, she felt oppressed, "I felt like a moth banging on the windowpane. Sometimes I wondered 'How are we going to live as a family in this enormous place?'"

"It's an office building," Lyndon Johnson drawled. "It's not the kind of place you would pick to live in."

So, why do so many people fight so hard and spend so much money for the opportunity to live and work there?

Ronald Reagan didn't like it.

"More than once during the eight years I lived there, I stood at a window looking over the big lawn of the White House, through its black iron fence at the people strolling along Pennsylvania Avenue, and found myself envying their freedom. I'd say to myself, 'You know, I can't even walk down to the drugstore and look over the magazine rack anymore. Will I ever be able to do it again?'" he said.

When his term ended, Reagan remarked, "I'm not going to tell you I didn't enjoy being president. I did. But in a way, you're a bird in a gilded cage."

Confident president

It is early yet for President Barack Obama and his family.

Hopefully, he would avoid the fate and the feeling of James Buchanan (1771- 1868) as he left the White House. Buchanan had tried to keep the nation together and prevent a civil war, but when South Carolina seceded in December 1860, the writing was irrevocably on the wall.

In March 1861, when he was leaving the White House, Buchanan told the incoming president, Abraham Lincoln, "If you are as happy, my dear sir, on entering this house as I am in leaving it and returning home, you are the happiest man in this country."

Looking at President Obama, there is a confidence about him and a sense of togetherness in his family that may give him an edge over the others.

True, George W. Bush has left him some advice and the Bush twins did the same for the Obama girls, but the White House does not only have a bitter-sweet or even eccentric history, but an ethos that can be overwhelming.

Patti Davis, daughter of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, complained: "I hated the White House. It's like this tiny, claustrophobic town. There are eyes and ears everywhere."

Those eyes have seen and those ears have heard many very interesting things in its time.

According to several sources, in July 1962, Jackie Kennedy's friend and one of JFK's ladies, Mary Meyer, brought six joints along to her tryst with the president. James Angleton, the director of covert operations for the CIA and a friend of Ms Meyer, is quoted as saying: "They shared one and Kennedy laughingly told her they were having a White House conference on narcotics in a couple of weeks. They smoked two more joints and Kennedy threw his head back and closed his eyes. He refused a fourth joint.

"Suppose the Russians drop a bomb?" he asked.

I suppose that had this happened, while Kennedy was blowing smoke, it would have been a headache for the 'Joint' Chiefs of Staff.

Food and other issues

There were issues of greater substance: food. Eleanor Roosevelt loved sweetbreads (the thymus or throat glands of lamb, beef or pork) and in one week, it was on the White House menu six times.

President Roosevelt sent her a note: "I am getting to the point where my stomach rebels and this does not help my relations with foreign powers. I bit two of them today."

Perhaps the worst thing about the White House is the press corps.

Jimmy Carter considered them "a bunch of prima donnas". He thought that kids in high schools asked better questions.

We have already seen an example. When President Obama dropped into the briefing room after the first session of his new press secretary, Robert Gibbs, some of the media started to pester him.

Even though he was not amused, Obama was more controlled than Ronald Reagan who lost it after reporters persistently asked questions during a no-questions-allowed photo sessions.

"Sons of bitches!" he exclaimed.

Tony Deyal was last seen commenting on the Obama dog issue and suggesting they get one like the Kennedys. When asked what they fed their dog, Jacqueline Kennedy replied, "Reporters."