Washington DC

There's a song that goes...."Memories...like the corners of my mind....misty watercolor memories...of the way we were." Barbra Streisand sang it. Whenever I hear it, I think of the city of my birth and the city that I grew up in......Washington DC.

It's funny, it's sad, and it's true. You don't fully appreciate something until you don't have it anymore. And as much as I loved growing up in DC.....and I really loved it.....I didn't truly know just how special it was until I didn't live there anymore. As a child, I knew that every Spring that DC would get a lot of tourists, but it didn't really register that people came from all over the world just to see the place that I called home. The White House, the Washington Monument, and Georgetown were just part of my backyard. I saw them at least once a week, sometimes more, and they were just a part of the scenery.

As a teen-ager, at least once a month, my friends and I would head on down to Georgetown to shop and eat ice cream in Georgetown. For some reason we loved a store called Papagallo's. We loved walking the sidewalks of Georgetown. I remember laughing hysterically with my friend Sherry about different things that seemed funny to us, but were probably pretty silly.

I remember every Saturday going with my parents across the Key Bridge into Virginia so that my Dad could see his doctor and get shots for his heart condition. I'd always bring along a book and I would sit and wait while Dad went in. I always enjoyed those times because we'd always stop somewhere nice to eat on the way back. I didn't realize just how sick my Dad was then. I just accepted weekly doctor trips as being normal.

I remember accepting it as normal that one always heard stories about the famous people of the day. Stories that were never published in the newspapers. I guess that's what one calls "living inside the Beltway".......only there wasn't a Beltway when I was a child. Hard to believe that when the beltway first opened (when I was 15), my Mom and I drove on it for fun.

I loved going horseback-riding in Rock Creek Park and visiting the zoo. I loved it when friends and family members came into town and we would take them sightseeing. I loved the 4th of July fireworks celebrations at the Washington Monument and the way my Mom took me to either the Smithsonian or the National Arboretum or the Capitol every Sunday after church.

I remember standing on the street watching the funeral procession for John F. Kennedy and how solemn the clop clop of the horses hooves sounded as they pulled the cassion. I remember how everyone around me began to cry as the procession went by. I remember the shock of returning home and hearing my Dad tell us that he had watched Jack Ruby shoot and kill Lee Harvey Oswald on national TV.

I remember watching President Eisenhower give the commencement address at my sister's graduation from American University and not realizing that not every college had the President of the United States speaking at it. I remember hearing about President Johnson flirting with one of my sister's friends who looked great in a sweater. (I never have read about that one in the papers).

There's an old saying that "you can't go home again" and I think that sometimes that is true. The Washington DC of today is different from the one of my childhood. It is much bigger and more crowded and more security conscious. The DC Metro didn't exist during my childhood, but I do remember that when I first moved from DC it was just beginning to be built.

One of my big regrets is that I had wanted to take my daughter up to DC at least four times a year while she was growing up, but by the time she got old enough, I was always working at my business and there was just always something that needed to be done and so the time got away from me.

And I do enjoy the slower pace of life in Richmond. I am glad that it's not as crowded as DC and I love the rural areas of Virginia. But I'll always treasure that golden childhood growing up in one of the most vibrant, powerful, and exciting cities on Earth.