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It's that time
of year (again)
By Susan Olling
Those of us who call the greater DC environs home can thank (or malign)
Mrs. Helen Taft for the annual looniness that goes on during the first
couple weeks each April. Her efforts in bringing all those cherry
trees here over 100 years ago has created “The National Cherry
Blossom Festival”. This DC area resident has another name for
this two-week ordeal: “The Festival of the Non-native Tidal Basin
Bloomers”. Whatever you choose to call it, it’s in full
swing. With those dratted trees bring all sort of interesting and
unprepared visitors, both at the Tidal Basin and along the National
Mall. As one local phrased it, we’re entering the “patience is
needed season”. Note well, this “season” extends until about
Labor Day.
Stories abound starting at this time of year about tourists who clearly
haven’t prepared for their DC trip. Recently, there were tourists
from a mid-Atlantic state (otherwise not identified) who wanted to know
where the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument were. Then,
one of them pointed to that big, domed building on the hill and asked
if that was the White House. Nope, that’s in the same
direction as Lincoln and the Monument.
I’ve volunteered at various DC sites over the past 30 years and
continue this volunteering at one of the smaller sites. Recently,
a lovely lady asked me where the National Mall was. I explained
Mr. L’Enfant’s 18th century design and swampland reclaimed in the early
20th century west from the Washington Monument. She looked and
said she thought it would be greener. I told her to walk a few
blocks west and she’d see the green.
A tour guide came in and told us she had 200 (ugh) school kids (double
ugh) and wanted to know how much time they should spend inside. I
was thinking a couple of microseconds would be sufficient (didn’t say
that though, filters stayed in place). Then the horde came
in. Of the 200, we thought that, charitably, perhaps 20 would be
interested in what was in the building. To give this school group
credit, the adults did gather the kids outside and asked for a page to
get the stragglers to join them. (Stories about school kids left
behind are legion, but I digress.)
Even our family members are exposed to tongue-in-cheek comments during
tourist season. My brother-in-law is a pilot for a major
airline. In the past couple of weeks, he’s had two 30-hour
layovers here. Both my husband and I told him that this isn’t the
time of year for 30-hour layovers, unless your idea of fun is to
ricochet off of school groups.
Our subway system tries to do its part by publishing, on their website
and in the local papers, help for visitors trying to navigate
Metro. Would that people read, understand and heed their
suggestions. Particularly the suggestion concerning
escalator etiquette. Memorize please: stand on the right and walk
on the left when on those moving stairs. When I encounter
standers on the left side, I do say “Excuse me, please.”
Not everyone is that polite when encountering out-of-town escalator
standers. When visitors say that they’re not from here, my
response is that there’s no excuse for not preparing for your
visit. A fellow Metro rider shared one of his favorite
tourist stories. A family got to the top of a Metro escalator and
stood there enjoying the view. No one behind them could get
off. (Thank goodness I wasn’t there, as my filters would not have
stayed in place. Something pithy would have been said.)
Fortunately, those dratted trees will leaf out, and it will be another
year before another weed fest occurs. Unfortunately, we’ll get
the question of the whereabouts of the cherry blossoms for a few weeks
into May. For some reason, people don’t understand that the
cherry blossoms don’t hang around for very long.
Yes, the “season” has just started.
Susan Olling is a Darke County native and Franklin Monroe graduate
currently living in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area.
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