D.C. DOINGS

As a carry-over from my previous post, I am going to tell you about my experiences in our nation's capital. I begin with the short visit I made there in 1955 while in college. I had flown up to Baltimore to visit my roommate and her family.  Friends of my parents, who lived in D.C. (friends, not parents) invited me to go to Washington for a day tour so I hopped on a train and off I went. We dashed around the Smithsonian, ate some really good food and went to the Capitol building. I was standing in the rotunda when an important looking group of Asian men came down a corridor so I snapped a photo of them. At that moment a heavy hand clapped me on the shoulder and told me that I wasn't supposed to take a picture of those people and he would have to confiscate my film. I looked bewildered and said, "But what do I know? I'm from Beeville, Texas" He let me keep the film. I had taken a photo of Syngman Rhee, President of South Korea.


Moving on we jump to 1981 when we were living in New Orleans where Louis, my husband, had a ship agency (for ocean-going vessels)  He was quite familiar with this business having worked in that field for others for many years.  The longer he was on his own, the more he realized that it was important to learn what the federal government had to offer to business such as his. Having had some years of working for the government myself, he decided that I would be the one to go to Washington to learn what monies were available for small ship agencies like ours. Sounded good to me, so off I went.

I had a nice room at the Marriott close to the center of D.C. with the metro right off the lobby. I had never experienced a subway or a metro so I had no idea how to get on it. I stood at the turnstile like the country bumpkin I was until I saw a man in a uniform and asked him what I had to do to get on and how would I know when to get off. I didn't want to ride around all day on that thing so I said, "What do I know, I'm from Beeville. We don't even have taxis, much less metros." I hadn't figured out how to ride the streetcar in New Orleans yet either. Actually I had but I kept riding around to neighborhoods I didn't want to be in, going back and forth until the conductor finally asked me where I wanted to go.

I'm going to try to get to the point of this tale. You say, "well, it's about time".  I started this D.C. story because after this trip I realized that the goings-on in this country are controlled by a handful of very cunning people who populate that city. I learned that if you really want to get something done you have to ingratiate yourself with someone who has "pull". Or, if you are an organization, you have to have a lobbyist who most obviously comes at a cost and who knows the ropes. Our little ship agency was not one of them. If you think about it, not much has changed.

Before I left I wanted to see the Washington Monument which I had missed before, so I got up early and went to that beautiful site. I was there by 8:00 a.m., the only person around at that time, (I thought), when behind me I heard a voice yelling "Who you think you be? Bruce Lee?" I turned to see a young man walking at a fast pace toward me and yelling that over and over. At first I couldn't figure out why that particular phrase and then I realized that I had on all black clothing and he was some kind of nut. I envisioned the headlines in the New Orleans Time Picayune and my the Bee Picayune: WOMAN ASSAULTED FOR IMPERSONATING BRUCE LEE IN NATION'S CAPITAL.

Just then a male jogger appeared and, not breaking pace, asked if I needed help. When I told him what had happened, he said, "Oh well, we have a lot of nuts here in D.C. Come along with me." So we jogged together, me in my high heels until we got back to a more populated area where I caught a taxi to the airport, happy to know that I wasn't going to be a headline.