Snow and Washington DC

Strange things happen in the DC area. We have lived in Arlington, VA twice. Once in the summer when I attended IBM repair school. During that stay the Head of the Nazi party was assassinated and in a separate incident, a man went crazy three stories above us in our apartment building and started shooting out of his windows at anything that moved below with 2 pistols. The swat team fired tear gas  and much of it entered out apartment and we had to evacuate.

 (This is the bureau, an enormous building, 2nd largest in the DC area)

 The second time was when I was stationed at the Bureau of Naval Personnel, just across the Potomac from DC. Sherry also worked at the Bureau, just down the hall from me. Most days we ate lunch together. In the summer many times we picnicked on the lawn for lunch.

So, DC is the most unique (ODD) place we have ever lived. A four-leaf clover is a mutation, an oddity, right? Every time Sherry and I lunched on the grass at work, overlooking the Pentagon, the Potomac and Arlington Cemetery we found a four leaf clover, at times two. They seemed to say, we fit here! LOL.

(The Pentagon, the largest building in the DC area then, this was about our view, during our picnics)

I was over the Input/output section of Data Processing. I had 35 women and 4 men. Mostly civil service workers. Anytime a foreign dignitary came to town you could count on 50% ‘excused’ paid absences because of bus route changes to allow for the dignitaries caravans.

In the winter, ANY fore-cast of snow, sleet or ice everything closed shop except the military.  We were there when the farmers descended on the Mall area, Carter was President. WE had about 3” of snow while they were there. DC has little or no snow removal equipment. The farmers volunteered to take their tractors and clear the streets.

Then came the snow of 1979, about 18”. We happened to be out of town, visiting family in NC over that weekend or week, then headed back to DC thru the snow.  Our apartment was only three blocks from The Bureau. We could not get into the parking lot and had to park with thousands of other cars in the streets.  Those dedicated policemen walked thru 18” of snow to give every car a ticket! Of course everyone  threw them away, but there was a ticket on every car.

(This was our parking lot at the apartment building, we parked on Arlington Blvd There was no way we could get in) 

At that time we drove an old '61 Opal. I was amazed it made it because even on the highways we seemed to always be dragging the snow, or floating on snow! LOL

So when I hear of snow in DC, I smile knowing the weather men are telling HOW TERRIBLE THINGS ARE…….. BUT I KNOW that MOST everyone in DC is happy, NO WORK with full pay! That is our government at work.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

That is not to belittle the problems the citizens have who get stranded on the roads, or living without power. We know about that first hand from hurricanes in NC and winters in North Central Missouri. I shoveled snow for three or four years, it is no fun!

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