CHAPTER 170. THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH WASHINGTON DC 1992
The year 1992 began like many others in this time period. We left the kids at my parents on Groundhog Day while we went driving off somewhere, which would have included dinner. A month later, on March 1,(Laurel’s 14th birthday) the Cub Scouts held their annual Blue & Gold Banquet. My parents came to it since it proved a double feature for them. This is because the Gentle Palm Karate Team was the entertainment. My folks not only got to eat with Cub Scout Troop 62, but saw Laurel and Noelle perform Karate.
Barney Taylor retired as Chairman of Wilmington trust on April 19, 1992. He had joined the Bank in 1979, one year before I did. Barney remained on the Board until May 1998. Barney Taylor died of cancer on August 6, 2005. H was 79. Leonard Quill took over in those top positions.
Pneumonia at age 71. He didn’t even outlive Barney Taylor.
His son Timothy (photo left) was a film actor in Hamburger “Hill", “Argo” and “Hiding Out”. Tim Quill died on September 25, 2017 at the age of 54 from cancer.
1992 and somewhat accidentally. I had begun the year promising a trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando. You can imagine the excitement that generated. What I planned also shows the level of earnings I had reached. I was going all out on this jaunt. Wilmington Trust had a travel agency located in the main lobby of the Wilmington Trust headquarter’s building and I stopped in one lunchtime to allow them to plot the trip plan and do all the booking.
We would fly down on Delta Airlines, the flight included in our package. I had selected the Bungalows in the Polynesian Resort within Walt Disney World, which at that time was the most expensive of their on-sight hotels. (Pictured left) The monorail stopped right at our doorstep to whisk us into the Amusement areas. The park, entertainment, meals were all included. By the time I was done our vacation was costing several thousand dollars. It was going to be a blast.
And we never went. To this day I have never been to Walt Disney World or Disneyland or any other Disney attraction. I have seen Disney movies.
What happened?
Just as I was finalizing the details of the trip, Lois walked in and said she had left her job. This was staggering news. We were about to spend a huge chunk of cash and she was suddenly without an income. Together we had been making a very good income, but the idea of having to live on mine alone was a scary proposition and we decided this was not the time to be so frivolous as to blow our bank account on Walt Disney World.
cancelling the trip. I asked if we could design something a bit easier on the pocket book and what we came up with was exchanging one Fantasyland for another. Our trip would be to Washington DC.
Washington didn’t have a bunch of rides or Mickey Mouse (although many of the politicians were pretty Mickey Mouse). No one called it the happiest place on earth, but it did have its advantages. It was a lot cheaper. Instead of paying thousands of dollars to visit a glorified amusement park, we would pay a few hundred to stay where we were surrounded by history. Our biggest expenses were the AMTRAC train to and from Washington, and our stay for a week in the Embassy Suites, (which included breakfast). Breakfast was great, by the way. It had everything one could want, fresh omelets, bacon, potatoes, pancakes, you name it. All the sights to visit in Washington were free. Our hotel was in Georgetown, but a quick cab ride costing but a couple of bucks delivered us to the action. Our only other expense was lunch and dinner.
pose in back of the White House (left to right, Noelle, Darryl and Laurel.). Our kids loved the trip. They quickly forgot Walt Disney World, but they have never forgotten our trip to Washington. They still talk about it today.
Although we did stop by some sights, such as the White House and the Hoover FBI Building, we did not take the inside tours. The lines at these places were very long and there was plenty to see in the city that didn’t involve waiting around a couple hours. (Right, Noelle, Laurel and Darryl at the FBI building.) At that time the FBI was housed in the Department of Justice building. Plans for a separate FBI center weren’t made yet.
trip to Washington. I suppose some things have changed. After all, I never did get to see President Blue’s room in the White House. If you don’t understand that statement or recall a President Blue, then I suggest you look up Vaughn Meader on the Internet, a once popular comedian whose career died on the day President Kennedy was assassinated. In reality, this particular site didn’t exist when I was there as a teenager.
I had created a quiz for the kids to answer while we were in Washington. It had questions like find the star on the Senate floor where John Quincy Adams died. There were about 25 odd sites to locate and we did find them all. I wish I still had the list. There was so much to do and see from riding a tram touring Arlington Cemetery, seeing Ford’s Theater where Lincoln was shot to the kids delight in just ordering pizzas from room service. We were never bored.
You kept busy visiting the museums surrounding the National Mall, all part of the Smithsonian and all free. I think we hit them all including the National Art Gallery.
Air and Space Museum, where Lindberg’s Spirit of St. Louis greets the guests.
Darryl was especially enthralled with the Insect Zoo within the Natural History Museum. That was where you could gaze on dinosaur bones as well.
They also got to lay hands upon a piece of the moon in this museum. It must have been an argument at some point about whether this moon rock (right) belonged in the Natural History Museum or across the way in the Air & Space Museum. Could have been both, couldn’t it?
Another popular tour was through the Museum of American
History. There was a room displaying every First Lady’s Inaugural Dress. The highlights were displays from our own time, like Fonzie’s leather jacket from Happy Days and Archie Bunker’s chair from All in the Family. One room contained antique automobiles, such as this three-wheeler (left).
Some things in the Smithsonian reminded me too much of my passing years, for instance, In 1959, after high school, I had graduated from an IBM technical school. The publicity for this school said, “Learn the job of the future.” So I learned these machines, how to operate them, how to program them and how to wire the control panels, which were the brains that told them what to do. The photo on the right is a man holding one of these plugboards. When I had first started working at Wilmington Trust in 1980 I had seen some control panels laying around on a junk heap. I had not seen one for years since. But here, on display in the Smithsonian were IBM plugboard control panels. My job of the future was now the memorabilia of the past.
We were walking in downtown one afternoon, looking for a place to have lunch. We crossed this wide street and suddenly behind us was a loud crunch of metal on metal. Looking back, I saw a box truck had slammed into a car. I hurried everyone along because I had a scary feeling we may have been the distraction that led to the crash.
We ate lunch in a second floor restaurant inside some kind of bazaar like place. There were a lot of stalls with exotic and not-so-exotic trinkets for sale, as well as clothing, souvenirs and other sundries. Out the restaurant front window we could see the one end of the National Mall and the traffic on the boulevards. A waitress brought our order and as the server walked away we realized it was the wrong food, except for Laurel who took a hearty bite of her sandwich before we could single the waitress back. The waitress apologized, snatched up the plates and deposited them before several gentlemen a couple tables over. These men dug right in, including the sandwich that Laurel had started to eat. They never noticed the big chomp out of the center of one half.
We had dinner one evening at Blackie’s My wife and I had eaten
here on a couple of our earlier trips to Washington when I had classes with the AMA. It had become a favorite of ours. It had been a landmark eatery for several decades, known as Blackie’s House of Beef, located on 22nd and M Streets NW. It had been founded back in the early ‘fifties by Ulysses “Blackie” Auger along with his wife Lulu. It became a powerhouse restaurant and for a long time FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover dined there every Wednesday night with his friend, Clyde Tolson, who apparently may have been more that a friend (Hoover and Tolson on right.).
An old fashioned steak house, the servers were mostly older guys with long apron tied about their waists. Our particular Old Guy had some problems juggling the food; in fact, a couple salads deserted his tray as he delivered them, smashing against a nearby wall. He was embarrassed, but the kids were entertained. They often remarked on the flying salads.
age 87. Apparently December was a finishing month for Blackie’s.
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