[January 28th] - I'm often asked by my Idaho neighbors what part of my suburban Washington neighborhood did I miss most.

My answer is always the same. I miss the part where the Washington "poor" lived.

This is a photo of the Culmore Shopping Center, just a mile or so north of Bailey's Crossroad, and a mile or so south of Seven Corners. It was a middle class neighborhood, perhaps just a tinch below middle class. Behind the shopping center was an endless maze of tiny two-story brick apartments, built in the early 1940's to handle the influx of war workers into the the area. By 1972, when this image was taken, the residents were working class families just trying to make it to their next paycheck. In the distance were Skyline Towers, high-rise, high-income apartments that supplanted the local piper-cub airport. They were just steel and concrete skeletons at this point. Behind me (I was the photographer), Leesburg Pike began to climb until it reached Seven Corners at the top of the hill. With the exception of a small patch of those same WWII brick apartments, Seven Corners was an upper-income area as well, with stores such as Lord and Taylors and Woodward and Lothrops dotting the landscape.

I spent most of my time in and around this region in between the "money" areas of Falls Church. The people were nice, average and carried no aires about them. They were truck drivers and cement workers and assistant managers, people with little money but a lot of decency. Their cars were older and their clothing simple, but they were fun to be around.

My high school (J.E.B. Stuart) was a mix of the very rich and the very middle-class, and social cliques were stratified and almost impossible to join if you didn't "belong." Although I lived in an apartment building that was home to one senator and three congressman, I tended to hang out with friends who lived in and around Culmore.

Today, I'm sure that this part of my old neighborhood has been rebuilt and revitalized and the middle-class can no longer afford to live there. And that's sad, because from this financially struggling part of suburban Washington came many great and important people, high school friends who are today doctors, lawyers, career politicians and members of the military. They proved that you didn't have to have a great deal to become a great person.

# posted by Farid Rushdi @ 1:25 PM 1 comments

[January 8th] -- I haven't worked since shortly after the 9/11 attack. Oh, I haven't been sick or anything. It's been by design. I had been pondering a return to school for several months prior to the September 11th tragedy, and I guess the attacks made me realize how fleeting life is. I decided to follow my dream before I joined the list of those who died having not enjoyed life to its fullest.

I have been attending Idaho State University since January 2002. It's been a great experience. Unlike many colleges and universities today, there is no liberal bias here on the Pocatello campus. Oh sure, the great majority of my professors are liberals right out of the '60s, and they enjoy rattling the cages of their mostly conservative, Republican students (hey, this is Idaho remember). But these professors allow for differing views. They judge the students on their ability and not their politics. I have enjoyed hearing from the "other side" in a forum other than "screech radio."

I should have graduated this spring, but my daughter's death two years ago forced me into a dark place that took me too long to break out of. I've lost two full semesters sitting at my desk and staring out the window, allowing at first hours, then days, and finally weeks to pass without regaining consciousness. I'm better now, however, and I'm ready to rejoin the real world.

I'm going to be a high school history teacher, something I've always wanted to do but was constantly talked out of by both family and friends. I'll begin my teaching career at the age of 50, earning the grand sum of $27,500 per year. I haven't earned under $30,000 a year since the mid 1980's. But you know, money means nothing. There were times I was making $60,000 + per year, and would wake up at 4:00 in the morning in a cold sweat, unable to handle the idea of going to work that day. I'll be poor, but I'll be happy.

So, tomorrow I have a math and an economics class. I hate math and I despise economics. And I can't wait to get started.

# posted by Farid Rushdi @ 1:12 PM 0 comments