Saturday, February 26, 2011

I'M A US CITIZEN, BUT WASN'T BORN IN A STATE. WHERE WAS I BORN?

My parents, along with my older brothers and sisters, John, David, Karen and Linda, moved to the Washington DC area in 1945.  My Father, a civil engineer, worked for the Bureau of Public Roads (now the Federal Highway Administration) and had been transferred to the Washington DC headquarters office.  Dad had begun his career with the Bureau of Public Roads as a surveyor on horseback.  He moved up the career ladder in the federal government with assignments in San Francisco, Ogden, Utah, Seattle, and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada prior to the transfer to Washington.

My family lived in suburban Maryland when they first arrived in the DC area.  But according to my father, the area was less than desirable for a young family.  Early in 1946, they purchased a home in Fairfax County, Virginia, in an area called Franklin Park that was about seven miles west of downtown Washington.  Back then, it was a heavily, wooded rural area and the house was on a half acre lot. Today, you would have to drive quite a way outside DC before you could find anything that would be considered rural Virginia.

Even though my family lived in Virginia when I was born.  I wasn't born there.  I joined my family at the National Homeopathic Hospital in Washington, D.C.

And that's how I'm a US citizen without being born in a state.

Update:  My oldest brother told me that this house was on a full acre.  Because my two oldest brothers used to complain about have to care for the yard and property, my dad called it "Belly Acre" because the two boys were always "belly aching" about their chores.

2 comments:

  1. So am I...

    And how many people did we know together?

    As I recall, Hunter Edwards lived almost directly behind you, and Bobby Arnold was up the street from him, the Starks were around the corner, etc, etc

    :)

    ReplyDelete