First, thanks for all the suggestions, and thanks for the invitation, brass. Now that I know you're up here, I'll give you some advance notice next time.
I left the Washington Hilton on Connecticut Ave. this morning, headed for Georgetown Tobacco, intending to take the bus, but then decided to walk instead, from Dupont Circle and P street, all the way to Wisconsin Ave. I lived up here in the late 60's and early 70's, so I was interested to see how things had changed.
The shade of P street and the old houses looked the same--a pleasant trip through the past. But when I got to Wisconsin Ave, and then M street, I saw the stark difference. In the 60's you could fine lots of good music clubs like the Crazy Horse and my favorite, the Cellar Door (there will never be another place like it) where in the early seventies I could see everyone from Peter, Paul, and Mary, to John Prine, to Bonnie Raitt (I actually got to hold the door open for her, and she smiled at me and said "Thank You", boom went my heart) to Neil Young and Miles Davis. I knew these places were long since closed, but I had to walk them and ride the memories for a few minutes.
With all of the changes, I decided Georgetown had become very boring since the 60's. No head shops blaring The Doors' music into the streets, no stores where you could find records by everyone from Son House to Sopwith Camel, no flower stands on the corners, no freaks on the sidewalks asking if you wanted to buy some illegal substances (I don't miss some parts, I guess). Now it's mostly just designer clothes shops and some restaurants like you can find in most cities.
Further down M street, just past Georgetown Tobacco, I couldn't pass up the temptation to intentionally jaywalk, just for fun, in the same place I once got a ticket for jaywalking in the early hours one Sunday morning (that's another story).
Inside Georgetown Tobacco the guy behind the counter was most cordial and invited me to help myself to any samples I wanted to try, and to pull up a chair and stay as long as I liked. I left with a couple of ounces of Old Georgetown blend and head uptown toward a guitar shop up beyond the zoo that turned out to be a disappointment, but it was worth the walk by Washington National Cathedral and through Woodley Place. I finished the afternoon with a smoke outside the Hilton while I waited for my wife to end her day at the conference. Now I've got to decide where to have dinner in this strange city that was once familiar to me. More hiking tomorrow!
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