First Flight: Washington DC 1959

Only a year after my first road trip, I had the chance to go on my first flight. It was my high school's junior trip to Washington DC. In fact, in previous years, the trip had been by bus, and had gone both to Washington and New York City. But for some reason, this year, it was decided to drop New York (obviously that did not make me very happy), and to go by air (which both excited and frightened me).

We left on two TWA chartered planes. Of course, they weren't jets. There were no passenger jets in 1959. I believe that the planes were what was called "constellations". They were full sized, and at the tail had a short horizontal piece with a vertical piece on each end. They had four propellered engines, two on each wing (obviously).

You would think I would remember something about the flight, which I don't. In fact, my memories of the entire trip, as important as it was to me and even though I have a number of photos from it, are relatively meager. And, there are important things I don't remember, and meaningless things that I do.

Here goes:

First, I had a good time. I think we all had a lot of fun and, though we were shepherded everywhere, felt much more free than we did in suburban St. Louis. Of course for me, this was my first time in Washington (second real trip in my life), and I think this was the case for most of us.

Second, we stayed in two hotels on 16th Street, near Meridian Hill Park. Both are now apartments or condominiums, I believe, although one of them I cannot identify. The girls stayed in a hotel that was an all-women's hotel; we stayed a block away and across the street. By and large, we kept to our assigned quarters, although there were rumors (never verified) of unauthorized, after hours, through the windows visits. I know which building the girls stayed in, but none of the buildings in that location look like where we stayed. I have tried many times to figure it out.

I did not go into Meridian Hill Park. I assume we were told not to, but am not sure about that. We certainly did roam the neighborhood a bit, particularly around Crescent Place, which still had the "castle", an old house built by a 19th century Missouri senator and now the location of all of those townhouses on the west side of 16th Street across from the park. In addition, Eugene Meyer, the publisher of the Washington Post (and father of Katherine Graham), lived in a big house on that small street. So, as a neighborhood, it made for interesting exploration.

In addition to the government buildings, I was most impressed by three things. One was the tunnels. We went under the Scott Circle tunnel every day, and also went under DuPont Circle. St. Louis had no tunnels. They were a marvel. Another was what appeared to be ubiquotous black Cadillac limousines. I "knew" that they took diplomats from place to place, and were a sign that I was really in an important place. In fact, I have no idea what those Cadillacs were. I did not imagine them, but when I returned to Washington the next time (4 years later) they weren't there, and they have never re-appeared. Third, the Potomac. Comparing the Potomac to the Mississippi at St. Louis, they are so different that it is hard to realize they are both made of water.

It was very hot (not like spring 2005) and I did not like that. Even though I was used to St. Louis summers, I figured that if April was as hot as it was (in the 80s), Washington in the summer must be in the upper 100s, and not the place to be. The heat was especially oppressive, as I remember, on the Mall. And, as to the Mall, I thought it very unattractive and an extraordinary waste of space. Why did people always talk about the Mall, I asked?

Most of the things we saw did not mean much to 16 year old Arthur, whose knowledge base lacked depth or sophistication. I know I went in the Smithsonian museums (of course, Air and Space was not there yet; I am trying to remember if American History was there or not and can't. I gotta look that up.), but think that they left me cold, except that somehow we were in the Natural History Museum where they keep the insects, and someone who worked there showed by all of the drawers were there were dead bugs, and I realized that they had millions of dead bugs, all identified, formaldehyded, and stuck with stick pins in little box-like enclosures, and I knew that if they had all those bugs hidden away, they must have other things as well.

We went to the National Gallery (East Wing of course not built) and what really impressed me was the diaphonous painting of Salvador Dali's "Last Supper". I thought that was the greatest painting ever made, stared and stared at it to try to figure out how you paint something that is transparent, yet apparent. I even bought a print of it, feeling somehow that I needed to tell people that my attraction was artistic, and not religious.

On our way to Mt. Vernon down the Parkway on a beautiful day (on probably the prettiest drive I had ever been on), we suddenly heard sirens. Our first thought was that we were being pulled over by the police, but quickly we saw one of those black limousines, with flags in front, and various police escorts heading down the road at enormous speed. We were impressed, but couldn't figure if out, but when we got to Mt. Vernon, we saw that we were not the only ones there. King Hussein of Jordan (newly crowned) had decided to meet us there. We saw him, which was exciting, but there was a downside. They closed the house, and we could only see Mt. Vernon from outside.

[The juniors from Clayton High School, our neighbor and rival, took their trip a few weeks later, and chanced upon the visiting Fidel Castro, during that very brief period when he was persona grata, and talked with him, got their pictures taken and so forth. Hussein was not as forthcoming.]

On our last evening in Washington, we had our "banquet" at the Shoreham Hotel and, wouldn't you know it, the Jordanians (minus royalty) were there again. This time, a number of us did talk to some members of the king's entourage. One of the Jordanians seemed particularly attracted to one of the girls in our class (today that seems a bit far-fetched, since she was only 16, but.....), and spent a large part of the evening in deep conversation with her. Of course, he did not know that her (quite wealthy) father was the national chair that year of Israel Bonds.

I am sure we did more, but it is all a blur. I know we went to the Capitol, I think we got to have our two minutes in the House of Representatives gallery, I know we went up the Washington monument, and I remember a rather uninteresting White House tour (haven't been back there since). But I have no detailed memories.

The flight back was more memorable than the flight there. In part, this is because we flew back after dark, which upped the fear factor quite a bit. I was also amazed that there was a fair amount of smooching on the plane (and some of the couplings were unexpected) and the faculty advisors completely ignored it. The lights on the flight were turned off.

That's it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. They might trigger some long repressed memories.