Saturday, May 29, 2004
The Greatest Generation
Went with my mom and Callie to the new Air and Space Museum out at Dulles Airport. We saw the huge collection of airplanes and, more important, a large screen simulcast of the World War II Memorial inauguration down on the Mall between the Washington monument and the US Capitol building. The hangar-sized museum holds everything from the Crosley Flea to the space shuttle. We also saw Gemini 7, the Enola Gay and the Concorde.
Then in the evening we drove down to the Mall and, amazingly, found a parking space at 17th and D Streets, just two blocks from the Memorial itself. There were still thousands of people wandering in awe among the 50 columns of the memorial. In front of many of the columns--one for each state--visitors had placed red, white and blue ribbons as well as photos of deceased veterans. One veteran from Maine played a wartime tune on his trumpet. A family from New York carefully added a black and white photo of perhaps a grandfather or great-uncle to the side of a column.
Driving into and out of DC we listened to WAMU-FM, a big public radio station in DC, play music from the War era, including a recruiting song for the WAC (Womens Army Corps), in which my mom enlisted in '44.
Then in the evening we drove down to the Mall and, amazingly, found a parking space at 17th and D Streets, just two blocks from the Memorial itself. There were still thousands of people wandering in awe among the 50 columns of the memorial. In front of many of the columns--one for each state--visitors had placed red, white and blue ribbons as well as photos of deceased veterans. One veteran from Maine played a wartime tune on his trumpet. A family from New York carefully added a black and white photo of perhaps a grandfather or great-uncle to the side of a column.
Driving into and out of DC we listened to WAMU-FM, a big public radio station in DC, play music from the War era, including a recruiting song for the WAC (Womens Army Corps), in which my mom enlisted in '44.
