MEMORIES
PAGE 17
Wm. E. Wiley and Son on Nichols Ave. My dad was Clyde
E Wiley. I am in Ft. Collins, Co. I will be back with a lot
more history. Dad went to school and was friends with George Curtis.
Okay, a little reminiscence. I miss Felix Grant and his
I was searching for a
source for Valati's and could not believe what popped up!! I am a
4th generation Washingtonian. My mother was from Georgetown and my
father from Anacostia. His Dad helped build Anacostia Methodist
Church and had
late night
show. Also, Weaver and ? was it on the morning show of WMAL?
So many good memories! Thanks for the work. We had a cottage
at Highview near Deal.
Saxton Wiley
Greetings !
I grew up in Arlington, and recall (but was too young to
attend) live televised dance parties for Milt Grant's show behind our
house at the pool of the Rausch estate on Wilson Boulevard.
Do you have any knowledge of live shows broadcast there from
north Arlington?
All the best,
Todd Crespi
crespifilms@yahoo.com
There was no Virginia Beach in Arlington.
However, on the N bank of Four Mile Run, just W of the Alexandria
Canal which adjacent to the road preceding Jeff Davis Highway (Route 1),
was a 40-acre amusement park called Luna Park. The trolley line ran
parallel to the road and a spur branched off for the "Luna Park
Special". There was a 16-page booklet in 1906 that described
Luna Park as "unquestionably the grandest and most complete amusement
and recreative place between the great ocean resorts... architectural
fashion plate, and the scenic beauty is unsurpassed in this
country...magnificent buildings, ball rooms, restaurants, roller coasters,
soot-the-chutes, circus performances, exhilarating rides and exposition
shows... It is an ideal outing place... the impressions will linger in our
memory."
A concrete reservoir up the hill near Fort
Scott (right at the end of our property) supplied water for the 80-foot
lagoon which looked like a bad copy of Venice. Special features were
brought in for short periods, rented from Coney Island. Four trained
elephants came, they broke free and were scattered all around the county.
Some roamed around the VA Theological Seminary. Three were eventually
caught in Fairfax County. A few years later, the park was severely
damaged by fire and it was abandoned. The elaborate entrance gates and
some of the buildings remained until around the mid-1950's. There's
no mention, however, of a beach.
There's a public sandy beach on the Potomac
River near Westmoreland State Park in Colonial Beach, VA. There is no
reference to Virginia Beach in either my Arlington Heritage
or Northern Virginia Heritage books.
At Donaldson Run, the mouth was a favorite
swimming hole and a boat-landing. It was called Swimming Landing
Run, but this was on the land records before 1900. Also, the current of
the Potomac was and still is very dangerous around there. It's along
the palisades off N Glebe Road. A few people committed suicide there,
including Mrs. Donaldson, who also killed 2 of her children under the ice
- a 3rd child escaped.
I was born in River Terrace and attended
Benning Road Elementary for kindergarten; Raymond Elementary for
grades 1, 2 (still remember the school song); finished at Keene
Elementary; was graduated from MacFarland JHS in 1957; At Coolidge in
1957-1958; then got caught using a false address, and we moved to MoCo
where I was graduated from Northwood HS 1960. I was graduated from Mount
Vernon Junior College in DC - a women's school and now part of GWU and
coed. I have lived in Arlington in what is now Pentagon City,
since November 1968. I was working on contract to the Institute for
Defense Analysis (the IDA building) at 400 Army Navy Drive and working in
what was then called the NMCSSC in the bowels of the Pentagon. Still
live on Army Navy Drive. Our entire condo condo shook on 9/11 and the
smell of the jet fuel filled my home for more than a day. I was
watching it happen on tv, as I felt and smelled it.
As far back as I can remember into the
1940's, there was never a beach in Arlington, and we came over here a lot
by car. All around Arlington House was Freedman's Village, and
the other "colored" villages established after the Civil War and
several were around the area of Pentagon. But the waters around there
haven't been clean in > 75 years., and there was always dredging going
on.
There's a great Arlington Room at the
central library on N. Quincy Street.
And
Julie might want to
check the Washingtoniana Room at the main library in DC re: Kaywood
Gardens, which I'll bet was built by Kay Builders. You can even call the
Library and I've always had great luck with whoever was on the desk in the
Washingtoniana Room.
Hi,
We added our memories and they were included on Page 15. Somehow,
another (same) set of our memories got added to Page 16. We were using
a new e-mail program so probably, somehow, submitted them twice.
Anyway, we would love to hear from any of the other persons who have
contributed to the "Memories of DC." We are especially interested in
hearing from those who were born around 1928.
Our e-mail is lester@lbandeddavis.com.
We have a genealogical web-page with pictures of my Davis ancestors and
Eleanor's Deyoe ancestors -- some at famous sites in DC. That site is
http://www.lbandeddavis.com.
We are looking forward to hearing from any and all of you.
Lester B and Eleanor D. Davis
I found your site doing a search for Hot
Shoppes Chicken Noodle Soup! What a wonderful surprise. Less
calories this way.
I wanted to let the person who is searching
for friends of his/her mother, Gail Richter to contact me at: aallen329@hotmail.com.
We lost touch when we went to different schools after Coolidge High
School. I might be able to suggest some contacts to get more
details.
As for some of my favorite memories, my
family moved around to different parts of DC from 1940-1980 so I have a
wide pool of locations to draw from:
Earliest memory is doing a somersault over
the handrail of the set of stairs from the old Georgetown Hospital that
takes you down to M Street. (This site later became famous in the movie,
The Exorcist!) My mother, meanwhile, was giving birth to my brother.
Taking walks with my father and mother up
Georgia Avenue to get frozen custard from the walk-up stand with the
life-size polar bear in front...(and, what about the life-size taxidermied
polar bear in front of the furrier Zlotnick?? downtown) was a real treat.
Taking a rowboat ride to get to the other
side at Hains Point where we'd go swimming at the end of the work day with
our parents. And, taking the streetcar through the woods to the
swimming pool at Glen Echo on the weekends were big adventures. If
we were lucky, we could go on the rides that they had there, too.
On Sundays, my grandfather would take me for
a bus ride... Really. That was his thing. We'd get on
the bus and transfer all over town. We had no destination. I
could be a busdriver now. He knew every route and wanted to share.
All on one token! We didn't always head for the tourist spots,
either. Sometimes, we went to different parts of town to see how
different people lived. It was a real education for me. My
parents never knew what we were up to.
Does anyone remember the market on Florida
Avenue? My grandmother would take me there with her on Fridays to
watch her pick out a live chicken for dinner. Then, we'd take it to
a butcher around the corner and wait awhile. When it was ready, we'd
carry it on the bus and ride back home where my grandmother would
make chicken soup. If the chicken had any unfinished eggs inside,
she would put them in the soup and save them especially for me.
Truth be known, it never did take much to make me happy:)
Other good memories include the art shows, outdoor
movies and fireworks on the mall. The Medical Museum that I
loved to take my out-of-town cousins to see because it was so creepy.
Probably my favorite of all was in the
Loew's Capitol Theatre on F Street where my mother would take me to
see a live stage show and movie. Here you could explore secret
nooks that led to nowhere. The ladies room was a delight with
velvet settees and bronze statuettes to enjoy. In addition,
there was another room with probably 30 separate makeup tables with chairs
and mirrors; each had its own special lighting, and all this went around
the room from one end to the other. You could imagine how glamorous
it was at night when the adults would be there. (I always wondered
how the Men's room looked in comparison but every time I tried to peek in,
when no one was watching of course, someone would be coming out.)
Later, we lived at 15th and Swann
Street, NW, my friends and I would go around the corner to
a store on 14th Street where they had what I recall as the biggest
selection of penny candies in the world. My favorite candy
would not be politically correct anymore but, in those days (Since I
was included as one of the black children, anyway), we all
could affectionately call the licorice candies "nigger
babies" and enjoy every taste without feeling guilt.
We went to the theatre near 15th and U
Street, where the black people sat upstairs and the white people sat
downstairs. I sat upstairs with my friends. When my
father got a job near 7th and M Street, the friends I made over
there took me with them to the theatre but this time the black
people sat on the left side of the divider and the white people sat
on the right and I had to sit on the right side! The
manager made sure I would stay where I "belonged." He
even took the time to complain to my father that if I didn't sit
still in the white section, I wouldn't be welcome to go there.
A few years later, I would go to the
lunch counter at the Chastleton Hotel at 16th and R to get candy but
my friends couldn't come in with me. I couldn't believe that it
was all right to treat people differently just because of their skin
color and I sure wasn't having any of that (I think I was 9 by
this time) and so I asked the waitress if this was true. She
told me that she was sorry but that's how it was and so I bought
some ice cream and left without eating it or paying for it as my
little statement to the establishment. Today, I'm still an
activist.
It took all those years that I was
growing up and attended Coolidge High School before the friends
of my childhood could have gone to school with me.
My teacher, Miss Malloy, taught us always to
spell out the name of our city, always, never DC. She taught us
songs like, "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean, and "Silent
Night" in German. We had music, science and Victory Gardens and
a firm base for future learning. Believe me, it was hard but the
older I get the more I appreciate my schooling in Washington, D.C.
People really won't believe now if I go on too long about how great it was
to grow up there. I took my children to visit my old home in SE some
time ago and they were appalled and one said, "Gee, Mom, I didn't
know you lived in a slum". Well, how wrong that was! There was
free access to a great library at Seventh and Pennsylvania where a
librarian asked me one day if my mother knew I was reading "Gone With
the Wind" and myths of the Grecian civilization. Wow, how many
even know who you are today much less knowing who your mother is? I
have three friends today in this area on the Eastern Shore who lived there
also and we all agree it truly was wonderful. We all had the same
memories of being free to visit Capitol Hill, the Folger, the National
Gallery of Art, and all those museums, climbing up to the top of the
Washington Monument and walking up to the White House. Those marble
palace-like buildings are just as beautiful to me now and on each trip
back to "home" I am struck with how fortunate we were to live
there. Many a cold day I walked into the Botanic Garden just to get
warm. Has anyone mentioned the National Cathedral? God surely
lives there! I still get a thrill going there. as welll as
Union Station. We went on trains then to New York and it was a long
trip once. Many years later my son went to school at Gonzaga
but by that time he could not understand my love of the city because it
was scary on North Capitol St. then. Well, we moved to a suburban
neighborhood where no one knew you and everyone was from somewhere else
and one had to have a car to get the kids to school, etc. Better
schools, though. Yes, it was "safe" but oh so blah.
Now I am so pleased that my grandchildren are knowledgeable about the city
and enjoy it often with their parents. I even got to take the boys
to the Kennedy Center for a concert at Christmas. They were suitably
impressed by the acres of red carpet and marble halls along with the
sounds of the tympani and choirs. My brother, Donald, died in Korea
and is buried in Arlington. I like to remember him playing baseball
on the Ellipse. Thanks for the memories! Carol Winters
I lived in
DC, (actually Anacostia) in the early 60's. Hot shoppes, White Tower
burgers, The big chair in front of the furniture store in Anacostia,
taking the bus and then street car from Barney Circle way down Pa. Ave and
then walk a couple of blocks to the Lionel train store, swimming in the
big pool in Anacostia park, going to kramer junior High school, and how
about the WW2 submarine down by the navy Yard ? Also watching the
airplanes take off from the Air Station and fly over John Phillips Souza
Bridge. I live in Wisconsin now....a loooooooong way from DC.
Haven't been since the early 90's.......must
know that "Fish & Cow" guy. I grew up on Minnesota Ave. and
am 62 now................What a website !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..dave
Patterson
I grew up in Silver Spring in the sixties, but
have lived in Alexandria for about 20 years. My sisters took piano lessons at
the district line, just off Georgia avenue, and I would spend time with my dad,
in Silver Spring while we waited for them. We hung out at Wilson Pontiac on
Georgia avenue, and had breakfast at the Hot Shoppes across the street. Down the
road a little there was a cool entrance to a diner in the shape of a coffee pot.
It was at the corner of Georgia and possibly East-West highway. I worked at the
main Post Office in Silver Spring, right next to the Silver Spring Acorn, where
the actual spring is located. There's a little plaque about the man who
discovered it with his daughter. I believe it was the Blair family. Does anyone
have a photo of the polar bear ice cream place that was in Silver Spring? I
still recall how it looked, but I'd love to see it again. There's a great tape
available on the history of Silver Spring put out by WETA. -Doug
My mother, a resident of the District of Columbia since 1940,
recently passed away. At her funeral my Uncle Richard Fitzgerald said
that he used to work at Fairlawn, riding the horses, and on the week-
end he would stay with my Mom and Dad at their apartment on Minnesota
Avenue.
As a child, I heard the word Fairlawn, but do not know what it is. I
recognize many of the old favorites on the Memory Pages: Velati's
candy, Woodies at Christmas, Garfinckel's where the ladies wore white
gloves, taking the streetcar to Glen Echo, Uline Arena, Griffith
Stadium, the vegetable monger with his horse and wagon, the old
market on Seventh Street in southeast, Milt Grant, Pick Temple (my
favorite bread's Heidi) and many more.
Three generations of our family grew up on South Carolina Avenue next
to Garfield Park. The Parks Department would show movies in the
summer time on the side of the Parks Building.
In those days, our neighborhood was called Southeast, as opposed to
Far Southeast which was across the Anacostia Bridge. Real Estate
people renamed it Capitol Hill much later.
We used to get fliers from the District Commissioners slid under our
door as the spring time approached urging us residents to be polite
and helpful to the tourists who would soon descend upon our little city.
I have many wonderful memories, but I do not remember Fairlawn. Can
you help?
Many Thanks
Ellen Fitzgerald
Born in Old Providence Hospital
Dear Debi,
Many thanks for what you are doing. Please add the following genuine
memories to your pages:
—Jimmy Ortte
It was so much fun and exciting reading the WDC memories. My mind raced for
hours flooded with joy, recalling what we all shared together. Especially when
it was my neighborhood and places I frequented.
My very earliest memories were of the late ‘40s. Horses in the alleys.
Water troughs on Nichols Avenue SE for horses. At night lots of people sitting
on their apartment stoops, smoking, talking about tire shortages, etc. While we
kids ran amok on our tricycles, playing tag and hide ‘n seek, and dressing
up as cowboys. I lived in a house surrounded by apartment buildings on Mellon
St., SE, Congress Heights. I recall the coal chute and coal bins for the apts.
The milk trucks grinding grears. The Good Humor man and Jack and Jill Ice Cream
trucks. Enormous weighing scales outside People’s and Mellon’s
drug stores.
One day they told me you’re going to school. Congress Heights Elementary
Kindergarten. Adults walked me there for the first week; after that we kids
walked ourselves. 1950 first grade at St. Peter’s, SE Capitol Hill. I was
introduced to nuns, a new school and D.C. Transit—all in one week. We
rode the bus to/from school by ourselves. Second thru sixth grades back at C.H.
Elementary. I was a latch key kid as both parents worked. I recall Safety
Director Dick Mansfield and Sgt. Pike coming to CH Elementary.
1951-59: I attended the police Boys Club and Camp Ernest W. Brown for 2 weeks
every summer. In SW DC we had a day camp called Bald Eagle, near Fort Drum, so
much fun. A friend just told me they still have Christmas displays at stores
downtown.
For me, as a child at Christmas, Hechts, Kanns, Lansburg’s were the ones
we shopped at, then rode the bus home with arms full of packages. At Congress
Heights Elementary, who could forget Liffs DGS Market next door and the D.C. Rec
Center one black away with plenty of woods and creek nearby. Every year I walked
down Portland St. to Bolling AFB for Armed Forces Day. To see those early jets
fly over was stunning.
Highs Dairy ice cream was awesome; also Good Humor and the one-gallon glass jug
of milk was challenging to carry; Jack & Jill and Stevenson pies were a
treat once a month. In SE, Bob’s Frozen Custard and Leaning Tower of
Pizza were my favorites.
Can’t forget Hurricane Hazel and its aftermath—and whatever
happened to the Big Chair at Curtis Bros.?
As a teenager, fast cars were fascinating. Early drag racing on Mellon St. and
from Hart Jr. High we raced to McDonalds in Eastover for lunch. 45 cent 3-course
meals. Also, the teen twist at Mighty Mo. And no one has yet mentioned the Ranch
Avenue Drive-in—dusk-to-dawn marathon free coffee and donuts. Teenage
drinking for me was at Fort Carroll Tavern—great juke box (good rock),
underage drinking no problem. Then you would load up on Little Tavern
hamburgers.
Great memories of Penn Theatre and others there. My dad hung out a 3-4 joints
across from Marine Barracks on 8th St. Sometimes I tagged along. I loved the
Wineland Theatres—Congress, Atlantic, Naylor, Anacostia; ABC and Super
Chief drive-ins.
We had a cottage at Selbey on the Bay. Loved North Beach & Triton and slot
machines in Southern Md. Many Harleys at N. Beach and summer carnivals in PG
County.
Memories of Pick Temple, Glen Echo, Marshall Hall, Milt Grant, Griffith Stadium,
D.C. streetcars, and the smell of Wonder Bread near Griffith Stadium.
Those years now bring a smile to my face and a yearning to turn back the clock.
Perhaps we could ALL meet to reminisce.
Many thanks,
Jimmy Ortte
jimortte@aol.com
Do YOU have any memories of
D.C.? If so, please e-mail me and I
will add them to this page.
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