Summer time is almost here in DC, we have only had one day of scorching heat, but I think more are coming along.I have been keeping busy at work, and learning more about the neighborhood I live in, as well as the local area's history. My immediate neighborhood was originally a small community of freed slaves, mostly agrarian, called Brighton, but later changed to Brightwood. Prior to the Civil War it was a sleepy suburb of DC as the capital developed. Modern day Georgia Avenue was 7th Street and the most notable citizen was a gentleman named Emery. Mr. Emery was the mayor of Brightwood, until the Civil War started and he joined the Army as a captain in the local militia. His house was on the hill immediately to the north of my house, now Brightwood Park. When the Civil War began, Brightwood Park and the Mayor's house became a semaphore signal station that communicated between the Capital (you can see the Capital building from Brightwood Park) and the ring of forts around Washington, DC.
About a mile north of my house on Georgia Avenue, there is a re-creation of one of the Civil War forts, Fort Stevens. Fort Stevens was one of the ring of forts along Military Road (now part of Missouri Avenue), it was also the sight of DC's only Civil War battles where Jubal Early made a last gasp attempt to sack the capital in 1864. He was repulsed in a short battle, Abraham Lincoln went to Fort Stevens to watch the battle from the ramparts. There were 41 Union casualties from the battle, they were buried in the Nation's smallest Military Cemetery, also off of Georgia Avenue.
On Memorial Day, a friend of mine, a Maryland native, Cletus (that is his real name, honest) and I drove around the fort and checked out the National Military cemetery.
We also went up into Maryland to a small church where the Confederates buried their dead prior to retreating back into Virginia.
We also went to Lincoln's summer home, and actually sprang to take the tour of the inside. I was kind of let down, normally, the houses are furnished in period pieces, but Lincoln's summer home was not. It was interesting to see the room where he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation and listen to how he struggled to frame slavery, the causes for the Civil War and the elimination of slavery as the reason for the Civil War. Slavery was one of the thousand pound gorilla's that hovered over our nation prior to the Civil War, from the founding father's forward. The more I read about Lincoln, the more I appreciate him as one of our greatest president's.
Enough of the history lessons . . . .
This weekend (Friday night to be exact) I volunteer drove for the Yellow Ribbon Foundation. A group of recovering veterans and their relatives went from Bethesda Naval Hospital up to Gettysburg for a BBQ and a ghost tour of the town of Gettysburg. I drove up with one of the Navy Corpsmen and Linda, a mother of a wounded vet, SGT Jason Ross. Jason is an Eagle Scout and a Marine Corps Explosive Ordnance Disposal Expert. He was blown up after he stepped on an IED in Afghanistan, losing both of his legs and shattering his right arm. He told his mom that he knew immediately when he stepped on the IED and that he was in trouble. He lost both of his legs above the hips and holds the record for surgeries (51) on the way to recovery. He was not expected to live past Germany, but he made it to Bethesda and is on month 3 of his recovery. His father, George, started a blog to let his family and community back in California know how things were going:
SGT Jason Ross - Marine
I was very inspired to hear his story.
At Gettysburg, a great family sponsored the families for a BBQ, letting them have the run of their vacation house for the night, including the pool and small pond for boating and some fishing. They were also hosted to a late night Ghost Tour of the city, pretty good night, I think most folks enjoyed it (except for the stories of the amputations at the hospital, that hit kind of close to home for George and Linda, I think). Many thanks to the great American's that opened up their house and generously put on a BBQ for the families.
On a much more personal and honestly insignificant note - - This week was the one year anniversary of my most recent bout of plantar fasciitis. In honor of that, I have started running again. I am up to 15 minutes a week now, taking it slow. My immediate goal is to be able to run 3-4 miles on Saturday with my friend's in the running club. This week was three 5 minute runs on the indoor track at the Pentagon. I will bump that up slowly over the next few weeks.
Movie update: We went and saw Meek's Crossing - - not the most dynamic and action packed movie, but if you are curious about prairie life in the 1840's on the Oregon Trail, this is a must see. The maker's went to great length to keep thing authentic and captured the tedium very well. The movie follows a settler group moving to Oregon as they cross the deserts to the east of Oregon. They are being guided by a mountain man that is quite lost, but too proud to admit it. They wander through the desert, looking for water for several days. The run into an Indian, capture him and try to communicate that they are looking for water. The movie ends before they actually find water, but some google research reassured me that they did eventually find water and make it to Oregon. Probably a movie you can watch on DVD.
