An article by Victor Davis Hansen reminded me of visiting Washington when I was ten.
Our family was standing in front of the Old Executive Office Building (where I ended up working in the the U.S. Budget Bureau in 1965-66).
Across the street is Blair House, where visiting dignitaries stay.
Jauntily walking across Pennsylvania Avenue, complete with black cane in right hand. was President Harry S. Truman with other men.
How often does one get to see a President?
Here is what Hansen wrote that spurred the memory in his piece about what various presidents have done to change the White House in response to the reaction to Donald Trump’s tearing down the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom:
For years, decades, maybe over a century, people have complained that the world’s superpower has nowhere at its capital, i.e., its executive branch, at the White House to entertain people. And usually, tents are constructed when there’s diplomatic or state dinners or there’s festivities…
President Harry Truman came in and said: You know, this White House is creaky. I don’t feel that it’s up to code. I’m gonna move to Blair House for four or five years and gut the entire White House. And they did.
