I am John B. McVeigh. I was born on February 10th, 1926. It was a very cold day to arrive on Earth. My father was a dentist. My mother was, as it was called, a housewife. My sister Mary is six years older than me, my other sister, Helen, is four years older. In 1930 my brother Bill arrived. That completed our family.We lived on East Capitol Street, just a mile from the nation’s Capitol. It was an interesting time to grow up. There were many young boys in the neighborhood and we never had trouble starting a baseball or football game. Outdoor sports were a big thing in the 30s. No tv to interrupt play. I remember when tv’s first appeared, the screen was 4 1/2 inches by 6 inches. Many people had a magnifying glass over the screen to enlarge the picture. It didn’t work.

On many Saturdays I, and a friend or two, would walk to the Capitol and climb to the top of its dome. The height of the Capitol is about 350 feet. At the top is a statue of an American Indian. He faces west signifying in which direction the country would grow. Below the statue is a door leading out to a walkway that circles the top of the dome. Within the circle is a round tower that supports the Indian. It has glass windows for light to shine out of at night.

We would then descend to Statuary Hall, a large circular area under the dome. Statuary Hall contains about two dozen statues of the famous early Americans. An interesting side light: If you stand at the right spot, you can whisper and be heard across the rotunda. I remember Statuary Hall, the rotunda, as being circular. But perhaps it is slightly elliptical because when one whispers at one “focus” of the ellipse, the whisper is picked up on the opposite side at the other focus, and only there.

After leaving the Capitol we would proceed west along the Mall to the Washington Monument, fourteen blocks away. The Washington Monument is 555 feet tall. A beautiful obelisk. There is an elevator that takes you to the top. However, it is more interesting to walk up the stairway surrounding the elevator. While climbing the stairs, one notices large blocks of stone on the walls of the monument. On many of these stones are engraved the location of the source of the stones, state mottoes, and the like.

I entered St. John’s High School in 1940. It was a military school. Our uniforms were modeled after those of West Point cadets. They were gray with a scarlet cape over the shoulders. By senior year I reached the rank of Cadet Colonel, the highest rank. I used to feel a bit uneasy riding the street cars to school wearing my cadet uniform when Washington was so full of sailors and soldiers wearing the uniform of the United States. However, no one seemed to mind.

While in high school I had an evening job at the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress is a beautiful building one block from the Capitol on East Capitol Street. On the other side of East Capitol Street is the United States Supreme Court. I sat in the Court many times. Between the Capitol and the Supreme Court, and a block north, is the Senate Office Building. There is an underground monorail running from the Senate Office Building to the Capitol for the senators’ use. I have ridden the monorail dozens of times beside many famous senators. I doubt it’s possible to do that now in these days of terrorists.

My job at the Library of Congress was in the Card Division. I would “pull” cards from the large files to fill orders for libraries all over. The cards were 3 x 5 inches. I would follow instructions to say, Library 1101 (Duke University) 4SAT + 6. “S” meant subject, “A” meant author and “T” meant title. I would pull 12 plus the 6, or 18 cards. These cards are obsolete now, being replaced by computers. Incidentally, Library #1 was Amherst. Amherst College is in the University of Massachusetts. The reason I remember Duke being 1101 is that Duke always ordered a huge number of cards.

There were many interesting things to do in those days. One could take a boat ride on the Wilson Line, sometimes at night. The teens would dance on the dance floor on the main deck to the music of big bands like Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, and Guy Lombardo. Unfortunately, the time of the big bands is gone. Between breaks in the music, couples would go up on the top deck and watch the stars. This trip was called the “Moonlight Cruise.” During the day one could take the same boat down the Potomac to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s Home. Across the river was Marshal Hall, an amusement park. The boat took you there and stayed an hour, and then returned the ten miles back to Washington.

Another fun thing to do was to rent a canoe at Georgetown next to Key Bridge for 50 cents. It was just about a mile’s paddle to the area of the Lincoln Memorial where you could listen to Watergate concerts. It’s hard to imagine anything nicer than being with your date, paddling down the river, and getting to hear the concerts for free. My piano teacher, Mr. Garcia, was the conductor of the Watergate concerts. He put up with my struggling on the piano.

There is an interesting configuration of a “cross” in D.C. The long part of the cross is formed by the line from the Capitol, through the Washington Monument, to the Lincoln Memorial. The short part is formed by a line from the Jefferson Memorial through the Washington Monument to the White House. The center of the cross is the Washington Monument.

There was much excitement one day in D.C. It was advertised on the radio and in newspapers that a legless man was going to parachute over Washington. His leg stumps were covered in leather. He jumped in an area where the Pentagon is today, just south of the city. He made it OK and was quite a celebrity for a day or two.

To be continued …