First of all, it wasn't a vacation. I spent the summer of 1963 in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C., working two gigs saving money for my FIRST CAR. I had already finished my freshman year at a college which prohibited freshmen from having cars ... so I was ready for that first jalopy, and salted away some hefty hours to earn it.

Days were spent at a radio station in the District itself, serving as an apprentice engineer (UNION apprentice, mind you), wiring power supplies. (Years later, I would serve as Executive Producer of NCAA Final Four games carried over that same station ... probably using the same power supplies!) Nights were spent as the "Resident Manager" of the huge apartment highrise I lived in, about a stone's throw from the Pentagon. I was hauling in the BIG BUCKS. Well, enough for a used Simca driving machine.

But, now that I look back on that summer in DC, it scares me to think of what was going on right under my nose ... some of it known to me at the time, but most of it not. The White House was six blocks from the radio station. The Pentagon was one exit ramp down from my residence.

In the Summer of '63:  •  White House - President Kennedy departed for, and arrived back from Berlin, where he uttered, "Ich bin ein Berliner". He is still held in virtual "Sainthood" in Germany, even today.  •  White House, again - Communications workers, probably from MY union, were turning on the first ever "Moscow-Washington Hotline".  •  Pentagon - Defense Secretary McNamara sent the White House a message, "We need a way to get out of Viet Nam."  •  White House again - Papers were signed allowing the US to look the other way allowing a military coup in this place called Viet Nam. (In November, The President of Viet Nam was assassinated. Also in November, The President of the United States was assassinated.)

Still the Summer of '63:  •  DC Stadium - The Washington Senators played badly in their second year of expansion. They'd later become the Texas Rangers ... and continue to play just as badly.  •  Post Office Department Building - Inauguration of something called National Zip Codes.  •  Supreme Court Building - The striking down of laws allowing The Lord's Prayer and other bible readings in public schools.  •  Pentagon, again - Orders were issued to have troops remove Governor Wallace from blocking the doors at the University of Alabama.  •  CBS Washington Bureau on M Street - Had increased responsibilities as the CBS Evening News was EXPANDED from 15-minutes to a half hour.  •  Their resources were used heavily as a quarter of a million people entered DC to hear Martin Luther King say , "...I have a Dream," in front of the Lincoln Memorial.  •  All, mind you, right under my nose ... in the Summer of '63, just forty winks ago.

The used Simca lasted until the Summer of '64.

The memories will last forever.