The White House: Glynn Wilson

The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson – 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — It seems only fitting that my last dateline Washington column is about the White House and falls on Father’s Day.

It feels like the end of another era.

How many of those milestones may a person experience in a life? In a time when change is coming on so fast in society it’s hard for the average human to keep up, these changes seem to come along way more often than is psychologically healthy. But that seems to be one hallmark of the times we live in.

There is some good news to report. Some things happened here in the past month that made me feel like I was joining the rest of the human race in finally getting past the isolation of the Trump-Covid era.

What’s next? I don’t fully know yet, but I have some hints. For today, however, I want to focus somewhat on the past.

Thanks to the generosity and connections of a couple of National Park Service rangers, and the relentless and enthusiastic patriotism of a lady friend traveling the country with a dog in an RV, it turns out my final weeks in Washington involved one last visit to the White House.

As I sit here in an amazing campsite in a national park campground and contemplate the scene and everything that’s happened here over the past decade, now thinking about what I saw in the nation’s capital city in my final weeks here, a couple of memories stand out.

As we entered the East Wing and studied the pictures on the wall, a couple of moments come to mind. My dad did not live to see Atlanta Braves home run slugger Hank Aaron break Babe Ruth’s home run record, who hit number 715 on May 1, 1975. And he was not alive to see Aaron meet with President Jimmy Carter in the Oval Office.

President Jimmy Carter meets with Hank Aaron in the Oval Office: Glynn Wilson

My dad, Eschol Wilson, died on March 5, 1973, after the Washington Post broke the story that the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, met with President Richard Nixon in the Oval and volunteered to act as a spy for the FBI on the hippies protesting the Vietnam War on the National Mall in Washington. Nixon thanked Elvis but demurred on the spy gig. He did get the White House staff photographer to snap a picture that is now the most requested photograph from the National Archives, believe it, or not.

President Richard Nixon meets with Elvis Presley in the Oval Office: Glynn Wilson

My mom loved Elvis, but dad took me to many baseball games in Atlanta back when Aaron was breaking Babe Ruth records.

My dad, Eschol Wilson, died on March 5, 1973 at the age of 47. I was 15: Scan by Glynn Wilson

This is a picture of me when I was about his age when I was teaching journalism at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville: Glynn Wilson

Carter is now on his deathbed in hospice care in Georgia and could die any day now. It will be a sad week in Washington. I will be long gone.

Presidential Portrait of Jimmy Carter in the White House: Glynn Wilson

Of course Eleanor Rosalynn Carter died on Nov. 19, 2023 at the age of 96, one of the great First Ladies in this country’s storied history.

Eleanor Rosalynn Carter died on Nov. 19, 2023 at the age of 96. This is her official portrait hanging in the White House: Glynn Wilson

Old Ebbitt Grill

After the White House tour, my companion and I split a classic burger at the historic Old Ebbitt Grill down the street, and topped it off with a Bloody Maryland, a Bloody Mary with a big Chesapeake Bay shrimp.

Bloody Maryland – Old Ebbitt Grill: Candi Frank

Our bartender’s name was Drew, and he went above and beyond the call of duty to serve us.

Old Ebbitt Grill – Washington, D.C.: Glynn Wilson

Old Post Office Tower

The Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C.: Glynn Wilson

Next we did something else I’ve wanted to do for a long time. We visited the Old Post Office Tower, the second highest tower in Washington next to the Washington Monument, with a clock and bells that are still rung when Congress goes into session. It’s a separate entrance behind the government owned building which is now a Waldorf Astoria hotel, once the home of the Trump International Hotel, where people who wanted to curry favor with Trump used to stay for inflated prices and hang out with the likes of Rudi Giuliani.

Trump lawyer and former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuiliani hanging out with the tourists in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. Seen here with Rebecca Seekford of Arlington, Virginia.

The view from the tower is pretty amazing. That’s the Environmental Protection Agency across the street.

The view from the Old Post Office Tower in Washington, D.C.: Glynn Wilson

Jazz in the Garden

Jazz in the Garden in the Sculpture Garden by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.: Glynn Wilson

After remaining mostly isolated in forested campgrounds over the past three and a half years, the past month has seemed almost like a coming out party. A few weeks ago I heard from Candi Frank, who was planning to visit Washington to see the sites and camp in the Greenbelt National Park Campground. We met here two years ago, but that trip for her got cut short and she finally made it back to see many of the things she wanted to see in the nation’s capital.

Thanks to her, I did one of the most interesting and fun things I’ve done in all my years here. Every Friday night in the spring and summer, the National Gallery of Art holds an event in the adjoining Sculpture Garden called Jazz in the Garden. We paid the $35 for a pitcher of Sangria on ice and listened to a great jazz band on a fine spring day.

A view from behind the jazz band in the National Gallery Sculpture Garden: Glynn Wilson

It will have to serve as the last party I will attend in Washington, and it was one of the best. We will be breaking down the campsite and packing up on Sunday and heading out Monday for the Catoctin Mountains for a few days. There are a couple of options on where the media camper van will head next. As they like to say on the Tube, stay tuned.

Related: My first visit to the White House when Trump was the occupant.

Photo Essay: A White House Tour

More Photos

President Joe Biden taking the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2021: Glynn Wilson

A picture of the Washington Monument from inside the East Wing of the White House: Glynn Wilson

A painting from Yosemite National Park in the White House Red Room: Glynn Wilson

The White House Library: Glynn Wilson

They rolling up the red carpet for us in the White House, not out but up, so the tourists don’t trample it: Glynn Wilson

Another great First Lady, Michelle Obama: Glynn Wilson

President Obama’s presidential portrait now hangs by the Grand Staircase leading to the West Wing: Glynn Wilson

More photos may be added…
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