Our Road Trip Comes To a Close: Saturday in Washington D.C.
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
The sad fact was that the trip on which Bob and I had embarked just one full week before had come nearly full-circle and was drawing to a close. We were in the heart of Washington D.C. at the busy Hotel Harrington when we awoke on Saturday morning, August 11. We had just one day left to try and cram in as much as possible in Washington D.C. and the nearby Arlington Cemetery. The temperatures had returned to an acceptable level, but the sun shone brightly above in the early morning hours as we left our hotel. Bob made the three block walk to our rented car while I watched the luggage. We met up and headed toward the National Mall. Read the rest of this entry »
The assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan by the loony John Hinckley on March 30, 1981 left quite an impression on me when it occurred. I remember Mark Staples knocking on our front door and delivering the news after school that Monday. I was a Jimmy Carter supporter in the last election (mainly because my parents were), and I was incredulous that an actor could have ascended to the highest office in the land. I later came around to having a great deal of respect for Reagan, but even then it shook me that our leader could take an would-be assassin’s bullet. The other thing that I could never get out of my mind was that Reagan’s press secretary James Brady (seen above left just before the incident in the blue suit) had been shot in the head.