Friday morning found me meeting Bob and Kay Kern and Todd Luoma for breakfast at Bob and Edith’s Diner on 23rd in Arlington. Good breakfast food and a great time continuing to catch up with my friends. Not as good as Hale’s in Trump-Cities or Roosters in Pendleton, but acceptable.
After breakfast, Bob and Kay and I headed to Arlington Mational Cemetery to visit the final,resting place of mybrother-in-law, Donald J. Masters, and first dad, JC “Chris” Klinedinst. Todd, who had attended both funerals in full Navy dress in 2009 and 2011, respectively, wasn’t able to make it due to that malady of aging - a bad knee in need of surgery. As usual, Arlington was a somber yet inspiring place.
Back to the Hotel Marriott Crystal Gateway (Recommended) to get ready for Pat Mullarkey’s retirement reception at What we knew as “Main Justice” back in the ‘80s, now it’s known as the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building. Bob, Kay, Todd and I took the Yellow Line into DC, getting off at Archives.
The National Archives
Down Pennsylvania Avenue
FBI Building. We used to eat lunch in the Courtyard
That was during a different era
Crossed Pennsylvania Avenue and walked down to 10th Street. We'd been instructed to enter through what is known as the Attorney General's Entrance, at 10th and Constitution.
Getting through security was easy. I've had more issues with TSA and even courthouse security. Made our way to the Great Hall. During the day back in the '80s I'd attended various functions here, as well as Jerry Fridkin's retirement back in the early 2000s. Factoid - The Spirit of Justice is a statue that graces the stage in the Great Hall.
In 2002, during the Bush administration, word had it AG John Ashcroft was offenced by the bare beast on Spirit that he had curtains hung to hide the statute. Truth. That's how it was when I attended Jerry Fridkin's retirement reception.
The reception was well attended. I'n no good at estimating crowd size, but I'd say there were 150 or so people there, including a number of folks from my days at DOJ - In addition to Bob and Todd, there were Deb Stefanik, Jerry Brost, Dave Dickieson, Joanne Rutkowski, Sue Postwistillo, Joe Camarrata, Dan Houlf, Jeff Kaplan, Steve Lyons, Deb Meland, Terri Schapiro, Merrell Green and Bridgit Rowan. If I missed anyone, sorry.
It was a great tribute to Pat, who started at DOJ in 1966, the same year I was a Freshman in HS. All told, he put in 52 years at DOJ.
The Deputy AG, Rod Rosenstein, spoke and gave a good tribute to Pat's service.
I made sure to introduce myself to the Deputy. Never know, he might not be there too much longer. I didn't get a photo with him, but Todd and Bob did.
To be continued. . .
No comments:
Post a Comment