MY LUNAR LANDING MEMORIES

MY LUNAR LANDING MEMORIES:
GEORGETOWN ANOTHER PLANET
FOR MEQUON BOY IN 1969

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By Michael Horne

When man landed on the moon, I was on another planet. I was 15 years old and spending the summer, unsupervised, in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

My uncle, then a graduate student at Georgetown University, was in Europe for the summer, and I stayed at his apartment at 1632A Wisconsin Avenue, N.W. taking care of his magnificent German Shepherd, Klaus.

The address was the only thing to remind me of home. Mequon, Wisconsin didn't even have a stoplight then, and the busy cobbled streets of Georgetown were a welcome world away. Klaus and I walked miles a day, past the Peoples Drug Store, where you didn't even have to go inside to get pharmaceuticals, over to Rock Creek Park, along the canal, to the top of the library hill -- we put on miles.

The apartment was above the French Market, a cramped, exotic store much favored by the worldly neighbors of Georgetown. Justice Abe Fortas and his wife, the cigar-smoking Caroline Anger were regulars, making the trip around the corner from their R Street mansion. I'd pitch in with bagging groceries for cash income and I guess I just charged whatever I ate to my uncle's account.

According to my notes, on yellow copy paper with a United States seal watermark, I would spend much time down at the Capitol, source of said paper, and of a great deal of experiences.

On May 24th I "went to Proxmire's subcommittee. ... Went to [Sen.] Ed. Brooke's office, on way saw Sargent Shriver and got his autograph ... got George McGovern's autograph ... Met [Sen.] Ed. Dirksen 'May I have your autograph? No, sir, I don't autograph in public. Could your secretary give it to me? No, sir, she doesn't autograph in public either.'"

Ha! Ha! He got his. Dirksen died on September 7th, and I was the last person to not get his autograph. I was present when Ted Kennedy made his first appearance at the capitol after the Chappaquiddick incident of July 19th, and I still have his autograph on the yellow copy paper. (God I was horrible -- I would frank my letters home using envelopes from senators' offices!)

On what I called "Sunday, Moonday, 1969," I "spent day going to 'Joe Egg' [at the Olney Theater] with Andre Glaser of Israel and Mary Swift. Then watched Moon landing at Joe DiGenova's house. Renovated rustic church on 33rd Street. Very rustic." [The home, pictured above on the left, was very Fachwerk and half-timber. It still stands in the historic neighborhood. Today I would be amazed if any college student could afford to live in such a sumptuous home. Even my uncle's more modest apartment would be a stretch.]

I don't remember Andre Glaser, who was presumably a friend of Mary H. D. Swift, who lived in a very large 1960's house at 3233 Reservoir Rd. just off of Wisconsin Avenue, right next to the Georgetown library stairs. She is and was a patron of the arts, and I had the luxury of swimming in her pool and walking her dog. I think there was a Robert Henri portrait of her mother in the dining room. The home didn't last 40 years; it was purchased by the neighboring Bass family for green space about 10 years ago.

Joe DiGenova was a law student then, and not the Fox TV pundit and former U.S. Attorney you see now. He had an operatic voice (hereditary) was a very popular fellow then. Another person at the landing party at the rustic house (it was as rare for Georgetown as was the '60's Swift mansion) was Bob McEvoy, a jovial cab driver who spent his spare time hanging in the capitol. Back then there were investigations of student activists, and I was present with him for Tom Hayden's testimony and much street theatrics. Bob did not survive to the 30th anniversary of the landing. Another student tolerating the presence of a 15-year old notetaker at the moon landing party was J., a student of a notable family from a troubled country. Dang Commies took his family home and turned it into an embassy! He has survived and is still with the government, working in an agency that deals with troubled countries.

I'm glad I kept the notes. I knew I'd have occasion to use them one of these days.