People's District

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

“I was born down in Carolina…Fayetteville, North Carolina, to be exact. I came up to Baltimore when I  was only 13 with my mother and sister. Baltimore was real nice and there was more opportunity there than in the south. We never had no problems with anything and I got along with everyone up there just fine. Things were good until I started running out of Baltimore. Place got kind of small, so I came to D.C. in 1965. This was before the riots when the city was still all nice and beautiful.

“When I got here, I started driving for Tastykake Bakery and my route was from Pennsylvania to Virginia. Man, I was always in a truck, driving up and back, and back and forth. I knew those routes like nobody’s business. Then, I got promoted and started delivering printed materials. You won’t believe some of things that I delivered. Know the blue print for the first American space ship? Well, I was the one who first delivered it to the National Security Agency from Baltimore. Was right after Sputnik when everyone was worried that we was going to fall behind the Russians, and there I am driving this stuff to the people who were gonna help build it.

“In my job as a driver, I went to every government building between Pennsylvania and Virginia. Sometimes, I knew what I was taking and sometimes I didn’t. A few times, I would get woken up in the middle of the night and have to drive out to the airport to fetch things. I just did it and didn’t ask no questions. Other times, I would know and take things like the money printing plates down to Treasury’s Bureau of Printing and Engraving. I liked the excitement of the job, but got tired of spending all of my days and nights driving.

John caught this catfish using a hotdog as bait.

“In the 1980′s, I took a trade in plumbing and went to work for myself. Now, I take jobs all across D.C., Maryland, and Virginia fixing pipes and doing what needs to be done. Of all the places, I like coming through D.C. the best because I can sneak down to Hains Point to take in some fishing. I love it here because it reminds me of when I was a kid and would fish in Carolina. Now, it’s been going on ten years that I spend my days here trying to catch bass, cat, stripes, perch, and carp. There’s a nice community of folks out here and we all get along just fine.

“Sometimes, when I am on a run, I can catch 14 fish in a day. Other times, I will catch none. While it’s always nice to catch something, I am just happy when I can get out here and fish. See, my wife, she won’t come down here because she prefers the salt water fishing. For me, I like to do all of it. Any type of fishing, I just love it.”