Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving - A special time of the year that causes each of us to stop and reflect upon all that we have for which to be thankful.  For many, Thanksgiving is about family. So it is for John's family.

John's sis has never missed a Thanksgiving at home.  His brother has missed several over the years, but only because he was deployed somewhere fighting one god-forsaken war or another or otherwise engaged by the U.S. Army.  John missed but one, when he flew out to San Diego with his brother to pick up his brother's car which had been shipped there after his brother was transferred by the Army from Germany to Ft. Huachuca in Arizona.

A photo from Thanksgiving, 2006 (John's last) is below.

Thanksgiving - painful yet still special, especially reflecting upon Thanksgivings past when John always made it a point to be home. We miss you, guy -- as much as ever.

To see how this special time of the year was handled the year JW died, click here.

Renewal / Demise

JW's Memorial 

The Bottomless Pool

John's parents went back to the Kennedy Center last night.  Due to scheduling conflicts, John's Mom & Dad arrived separately.  John's Dad walked from the Metro and thus crossed Virginia Avenue on the way to the Kennedy Center.  He walked past what is now a large dormitory for George Washington University. See photo below:

This building used to be a Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge.  John's parents and JW (and his little bro) stayed there in 1981 while John's Dad went to a training course at the Washington Navy Yard.  The below image from a postcard conveys how the motor lodge, which opened in 1962, was considered "ultra-modern" with a rooftop swimming pool overlooking the Potomac:

In any event, somehow, John's Dad convinced JW that the depth of the rooftop swimming pool went all the way down to the first floor of the hotel.  After that, we had a hard time convincing JW to jump into the pool again.

The District is just full of John Memories as indicated here and here.

btw -- this Howard Johnson's became famous when it was used as a lookout point for the Watergate burglaries back in 1972.

Birthday Images Redux

Celebrating his birthday yesterday with JW's niece and nephew, John's Dad sent some pictures halfway around the world to John's bro in Afghanistan.  Included was this one showing John's Dad planting a kiss on the head of JW's nephew and namesake:

Leave it to John's bro to make the following observation:

The above picture reminded me of the one from John's birthday at the house in Maryland out on the deck...I think Mom was kissing him on the head in the same pose!!  And I think John had the same look on his face that Bentley does in this picture.

Check out the below picture and come to your own conclusion:

... And the World Keeps Movin' On

Recall the earlier post which talked about the CVS in Adams Morgan being the last place JW went to in his old neighborhood just before he died. Inevitably, for better or worse, the world does keep movin' on as indicated in the pictures below -- the first being the CVS as it appeared back in 2007; the second as it appeared about six months ago; and the third as it appears today as the old CVS (which was actually a part of the old Ontario Theater on Columbia Road) has recently been razed for a new complex of condominiums to be built, as depicted in the fourth picture. Change ... destruction .... renewal .... among the few things in life you can be assured of.  Yet, while Adams Morgan may change, our fond memories of JW are forever.