Inauguration

Some time ago in January of 1956 when I was 8 years old, my mother decided that she would take me on a trip to Washington D.C. It was January 1956 and Ike was soon going to be inaugurated for his second term. I liked Ike because he reminded me of my grandfather. I guess he was so popular because he reminded everyone in the country of his or her grandfather. So even though I had to go to school my mother said “that I would get a better education by seeing history up close then sitting in Miss Mahoney’s 5^th grade class.” I certainly wasn’t going to argue about missing school for a whole week. “Don’t worry about it Ira, when we get back I’ll write a note saying that you were sick.” If I was missing a week of school, then my mother was going to miss a week of toiling in my father’s luncheonette, and that was fine by her. I don’t know what she told him, but he couldn’t stop her, as she was determined to take me on this trip. So one cold day in January of 1956 we packed a suitcase and took the train to Washington D.C. We didn’t have a hotel reservation but my mother just said “We’ll find something once we get there” I had never taken a trip like this before, and neither had my mom, so we were both excited as the big train pulled into the old grand Penn Station and the conductor called out “all aboard for Washington D.C. We found seats and soon my mother was talking to a young woman and her infant daughter. My mother was very outgoing and friendly and would talk to anyone so this did not surprise me. Smoking and yakking my mother and her new friend told each other of their lives as I sat and stared out the window at the unfamiliar landscape that flew by the grimy train window. At one point the young woman told my mother that she was a cousin of the actor John Payne and my mom got all excited. “Ira did you hear that? Jeanette’s cousin is John Payne.” I had to think for a minute who John Payne was, and could vaguely recall him as the boring actor who was in some musicals with Betty Grable that I had seen on the TV. Since neither of them were favorites of mine I most likely didn’t show much excitement over this. “Oh John Payne is nice,” my mother said. That was one of her favorite things to say if she liked a movie star, he or she was nice, as if she had just had a long conversation over coffee and cigarettes with them. Barbara Stanwyck was nice, so was Ann Sheridan and Bette Davis. Now if Jeanette had said that she was a cousin of Clark Gable or Doris Day or even Tab Hunter now that would have perked up my interest. Some years later Vincent sent me a very hot sexy photo of John Payne that I am using in this piece, and I guess I can now say that John Payne was” nice”. Before I knew it we were pulling into Union Station and my mother and Jeanette exchanged phone numbers, which they would never use and said their goodbyes. Taking my hand my mother and me made our way out of the train into big old Union Station. “Lets go to Travelers Aid and see if they can recommend a place for us to stay.” “We need to find a inexpensive hotel to stay for about a week.” My mother told the gray haired lady sitting in the Travelers Aid booth “How inexpensive?” She asked us. “Well I’m on a tight budget so it has to be cheap.” Well the lady gave us the name of a hotel and warned my mother not to expect too much. “Oh don’t worry we can make due.” Yeah well let me tell you that this place was beyond making due. It looked like what I thought one of those fleabag hotels that used to line the Bowery must be like. We took one look at the peeling paint, the dirty bathroom at the end of the hallway and the smell of urine and we were out the door. “Now what” I asked? “Let’s walk a bit and maybe we can find something better.” “Anything would be better than that dump,” I said. My mother laughed as we started our walk through the city. Finally we saw a large hotel across the street from The White House that looked real nice. “Oh let’s check out The Roger Smith” My mom said, and we did. It was a real hotel as I had imagined a hotel to be, and we both liked it right off the bat. The man at the desk asked if he could help us and my mother said she was looking for a room for us for about a week.” Well we can offer you a room for 4 days, but we have a convention booked after that and I’m afraid that you’ll have to leave after 4 days. “Fine we’ll take it she said” And so with that we began our visit. The city was getting ready for Ike’s big party and there were wooden bleachers going up everywhere. Everything in the city was white and big, and I couldn’t wait to start visiting all the famous landmarks that I had read about in school. “Maybe we’ll run into Ike and Mamie at the White House,” I said as we made our way with the rest of the tourists into the mansion. Right before the tour we had our picture taken by a photographer who peddled his photos on the street outside of the White House, and I thought it turned out pretty nice. The old good for nothing camera that I brought with me took lousy photos that were mostly too light or too blurry. I also brought with me a drawing pad, a brand new box of Crayola crayons, the 64 box please, and a Hardy Boys book, and I was all set to go. After the White House tour, we went to the Capitol, The Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial and The Jefferson Memorial. I loved all of them, but The Lincoln one was my favorite. Old Abe looked so real that I thought he would get up out of his chair. We were both pooped so we made our way back to the hotel and a nap after which we might go to a movie and of course dinner. Since we were luncheonette people we tried to find a nice one in the downtown area for dinner and before long we found the perfect 50’s diner all pink and gray and shinny with Formica and stainless steel. We got a booth that had one of those cute little jukeboxes that were all the rage in the 50’s and I started to drop nickels in to hear my favorite songs. Of course I played Doris Day, but I also loved the song from “Bus Stop” that was a big hit for The Four Lads. Sitting across from us in a both by himself was a strange looking young man with thinning hair and terrible skin who kept looking at us. Finally my mother said hello to him, and asked him if he would like to join us for dinner. “Oh thank you that would be so nice” He squeezed into the booth sitting next to me and opposite my mom and he was even weirder looking up close. “Oh you have a drawing pad with you” he said. “Yes I love to draw.” “He’s very artistic my mother chimed in.” “Oh I’m a artist also, well actually I’m only a commercial artist, but I do love drawing also. I like to draw angels,flowers,cats and shoes. Can I look through your sketchbook? “Ok, sure have a look.” “Oh these are nice, and how unusual, drawings of cigarette packs.” “Why do you draw these?” “Well there always around the house, so I draw them.” “And who is this a portrait of” he asked. “That’s a drawing of my favorite movie star in the world, Miss Doris Day, I love her. My uncle Natie took me to see “The Man Who Knew Too Much at the Paramount Theatre in Times Square, and it was great. “Have you ever been to New York City?” I asked. "Oh sure, I want to move to New York as soon as I can. I came to Washington from Pittsburgh, but I really want to live in New York.” “Me and my mother love New York, we go to the movies there all the time.” “Oh I love movies also, my favorite star is Marilyn Monroe. Have you seen Bus Stop yet? Its playing downtown, you should go.” “I don’t really care much for Marilyn Monroe, my mother said but maybe tonight or tomorrow night we’ll go see “Giant” I hear its very good” “Oh yes it is but it’s very long.” “I’m sorry my mother said, but we haven’t introduced ourselves, I’m Rosalind Haber and this is my son Ira.” My name is Andrew Warhola.” “Well Andrew, it’s been very nice talking to you, but we really should get a move on.” “Yes it’s been nice, thanks for inviting me over and good luck with your drawings Ira, maybe we’ll see each other in New York.” “Well it’s a big place but you never know,” I said. After Andrew left we got the check and walked back to our nice smelling big hotel that was across the street from The White House. “Mommy I thought he was nice, but weird looking.” “Well maybe he has a skin disease of some sort, but yes he was odd looking, but nice.” “Did you like your pot roast dinner Ira. “Yes but you make it better.”

Illustrations used in this post are:
A brochure that I made when I was a kid for Washington D.C. The very nice John Payne and
Me and my mother in front of The White House