Oh My God, Was it Hot.
Reliving a Moment

Why I remember this, and why do I want to write about it? Memory is a strange thing some times. Although my thoughts recently do seem to have some cognizance of place. I have been writing recently, in my blog, of Washington related things, and it occurs to me that it was indeed a good time in my families life. So what memory keeps jumping out at me? It's the ungodly heat that in earlier days of the last century put Washington D.C. on the hardship list for emissaries of other countries.

I can almost feel it still. How many nights did we spend in our favorite place of residence, a garden apartment located off the George Washington Parkway between Alexandria and Mt. Vernon, poor as church mice (how poor is a church mouse?) lying abed and groaning when the sheet got above our knees. This was the days when apartments were not, as a rule, air conditioned. The sweat clung to our bodies like a body stocking. Memories like that are hard to beat. I, at least, got to go to work, after showering off the nights perspiration and heading off to an air conditioned office. But Hazel, my poor wife was already at her office in those days, and only got to count the seconds before her showers effects wore off and it was humidity at it's worst all over again. In between tending to our two sons needs, her only possible relief was a retreat to a small balcony off the living room, where maybe, on a good day, a breeze might come her way.

After all these years gone by, and our comfort levels being addressed through the years, we still rate those days in the humidity and sweat, the days we would most like to re-live. Why, are we nuts? No, we were young, Washington was exciting, and the only thoughts were of tomorrow, which we knew would be exciting, interesting, and we thought would go on forever.