Page 124 - REALLY What A time Book IX

REALLY SO WHAT
What A Time

FAMILY OUTINGS

1950’s Submarine testing under Admiral Hyman Rickover’s
leadership created the famous fish shape. We’d get to see
different ship’s hull models being tested in rough seas like our
World War II Battleship and Curser hulls. They would run the
length of the model basins.

Once in a while the Navy would bring a war ship up the
Potomac and we could tour it. What I remember from those
tours is how stark and gray everything was, ladders,
gangplanks, inside and outside of the ships, wheelhouses with
cannons as wide as my body, for powder and bombs.
Occasionally we’d go to Glen Eco Park, an amusement park in
Maryland near Great Falls. I learned early that roller coasters
were not for me. I didn’t like the feeling of weightlessness
from a quick drop, or the tug of gravity on a sharp curve. It
did have a swimming pool, so when we went it was for the
day.

Mom ran excursions during the summer, piling many
neighborhood kids into the car and going all over Washington,
to Museums, and art galleries.
A special place was Haines Point along the Potomac. It was a
large park filled with several fields, baseball and soccer, Tennis
courts a golf course, playgrounds, and picnic areas. I knew it
as Haines Point but it’s now called East Potomac Park.

It had quite a history. From the beginning of time the area
along Pennsylvania Avenue and the Potomac River was mostly

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