Traveling at the speed of water

 

          Like so many other truths, you really can’t go home again. In my case, there’s no one there anyway and Arlington, VA is unrecognizable now – more like L.A. than the suburbia I remember, now full of traffic and tall buildings.

          Not only did they knock down my high school, they renamed it. Washington-Lee H.S is now Washington Liberty. I wonder what alums Shirley McLaine, Warren Beatty, and Sandra Bullock would have to say about that.

Washington-Lee at Henley

          And I doubt if the school’s boat house on the Potomac still exists; the school dances
there were memorable, everyone stamping to the beat on the wooden floor that sat over the water. I do remember the excitement when the 1964 (a couple of years before my time) crew team went to the Henley Regatta. (The crew guys had a pretty big profile in school, all being over six feet – no pun intended – since when the weather turned, they simply transitioned into the basketball team.)

          They competed there in 1965, too, but it was in ’64 that they won the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup.

          Why this rehash of the past?

          Our grandson Gabe just competed on Sunday in the Head of the Charles in Boston. He rowed in a boat of 4 for University of Delaware, and both his and the boat of 8 finished in the top half, which means they’re guaranteed an entry for next year. He’s a senior, but perhaps next year he can compete as an alum. Case in point, the team from Princeton that included members from class of 67 and 73.