Washington, DC, and the Surrounding Area was the destination of my second cross country drive across the country. It was my home for around six years. The Surrounding Area included District Heights and Forrestville, Maryland where I lived and Alexandria, Virginia, where I eventually worked. I spent the first year there working in downtown DC.
Working and learning to get around in “The District” was my first challenge. The District of Columbia was masterfully designed many years ago in a grid format. All the streets, which have numeric names, run in the same direction (north-south) and are parallel. All the Avenues, which have alphabetic names, run in the opposite direction (east-west) and are also parallel. But then along came the roads with the State Names. They bi-sect the streets and avenues culminating sometimes in complicated “circles”. My favorite – not – Dupont Circle. I got messed up there more than once.
The problem with the circles was knowing where the continuation was of the street or avenue you were traveling on. Also, being sure that it didn’t become a one-way road going the wrong direction. I tried not to drive often in the district for that reason. Buses and/or cabs were easier.
Lovely Parks
As you can see from the maps above there is also a lot of parklands set aside in the district. The most familiar park area is what is called the Mall and the Ellipse. It runs from the Capitol to the White House. It then continues to hold many of the famous memorials. The Jefferson Memorial, The Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Wall. A rather comprehensive description of the designing and numbering of the streets and avenues can be found here at Wikipedia.
My venue for the most part centered in one area quite close to the White House. My office was between 15th and 16th Streets on K Street. The White House is at 16th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue and was only two blocks away. Surprisingly, at that time there was a Russian Embassy on 16th Street. I could view the rooftop of that building from my office window. It was covered with antennas attempting to “listen in” on things at the White House.
On nice days, I often ate my lunch in Lafayette Square. This is right in front of the White House and right next to that church where Trump recently posed. The Square always had pretty flowers and there were benches to sit and enjoy the sun.
The FCC
My work took me to the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) which I think was located at 20th and M at that time. It was a nice six city block walk. I was given cab fare for the trip, but I frequently walked enjoying the shops along 16th street. The National Geographic also had a building along my route. They had marvelous displays in the lobby of their building. I often stopped to peruse them.
Other than a couple of trips up to the American University Bookstore, I didn’t venture far from my office area. But on weekends we frequently came into the District for military band concerts and to visit the Smithsonian Museums. Note the plural – there are five buildings and one could spend a lifetime going through them.
Cherry Blossom Time in DC
My advice to folks thinking of visiting Washington on vacation, pre-plan your trip and don’t expect to do too much. Bring comfortable walking shoes. Also know that summers are very hot and humid, so spring or fall are better options. If you are lucky, you can visit in the Spring when the Cherry Blossoms are in bloom – a truly lovely sight. But, alas, one never knows just exactly when they will bloom. And may disappear overnight with a strong wind storm leaving the District covered in petals. A big bonus of working downtown was passing the grove every day, so we couldn’t miss the beautiful blooms when they happened.
Know in advance that you can spend several hours just standing in line to visit the White House or the Capitol building or any of the other government buildings. Unless they are high on your preference list, you have probably seen as much of those sites on TV as you will on the tour. However, standing in the balcony over the House of Representatives in the Capitol, is awesome. Perhaps plan one day to take a Grey Line tour to Mount Vernon or even one that just goes to the various sites in the District.
Home in the Evening
Come four or five o’clock in the evening the District empties as everyone heads for homes in the suburbs of Maryland or Virginia. My home was in Forestville, which was about a 30-45 minute trip either in a car pool or by bus. Forestville was a very hilly area with lots of trees. The house we rented sat up on a hill. There were 13 steps up from the street to the front door. The house had no garage, so groceries had to be lugged up those steps, but once up there, the house was a spacious Cape Cod.
Living room, full dining room, kitchen, sun room (aka den), two bedrooms, and one bath on the first floor. The second floor had two very large rooms and a bathroom and there was a full basement below. The back yard was flat and had quite a number of trees that dropped tons of leaves come fall. What a job raking them and getting them all down to the street for pickup. No burning allowed. A nice bonfire would have been much easier.
The Hills
Come winter, the front yard provided a great sledding area, but treacherous steps. We had a little short legged dog at the time and she loved to chase the squirrels. One funny memory of that front yard is of her running down the slope after the squirrels and losing her footing to do a slide to the street.
Other than a small shopping center a few blocks away, there wasn’t much in the way of entertainment in Forestville or District Heights. Movies, concerts, etc. were all down in the District. In nice weather, however, we would frequently drive out to the shore or to Annapolis or just to the Hudson River. My son acquired a small trimaran and I would haul him and the boat down to the river to sail it. He had been in the Sea Scouts in California before our move, so he had some training with boats.
New Job and the Beltway
The second year that I was there, I found my job in programming with a division of the Navy. It was a GS-5 entry level job with an agency called NIPSSA. I know, it sounds like dog food, LOL. It stood for Naval Intelligence Processing System Support Activity. A real mouthful, hence the acronym. It was a sub-agency of Naval Intelligence.
The office was in Alexandria, Virginia, which was about a 30-45 minute commute on the Beltway across the George Washington draw bridge across the Potomac River.
I spent five wonderful years at that job only finally leaving it to return to California. Washington, DC is a wonderful, exciting place, but it is also lonely. Everyone comes to the center to work, but your best friend at work could end up living 60 miles away on the other side of the circle. I would meet lovely young men who would ask for a date only to renege when they found out I lived in Maryland and they lived in Virginia. I was what they called “geographically undesirable”.
Andrews Air Force Base was close to where I lived, and occasionally I would go there to socialize. But I was pretty shy and not one to go out on my own. My neighbors were all married, so I didn’t socialize much with them It was a lonely time, and at the end of five years, when my son turned 17, he decided that he wanted to join the Marine Corp. so I was left there totally alone, except for my work colleagues.
Back to California
And so, in the fall of 1974, I decided to try my luck with a job transfer back to the west coast. See my third cross-country trip for the details.
