The Answer: Virginia, snow, 39 years ago and the CIA.
The Question: Where was I in Feb 1971?
I watched the weather channel and saw the snow come down in the east coast -- especially on the Washington, DC area. It brought back memories of 39 years ago this week when I left California to take a job with the Central Intelligence Agency in McLean, VA. Not knowing anything but a little fog and temperatures not below 50, I foolishly packed my bags with polyester pant suits and promptly froze when I landed at Dulles Airport.
It took two months to get my first pay check from the CIA -- because I had to undergo an intense security clearance -- so I had to wait to get warmer clothes and by then the snow turned to icy rain.
I was just 21 and it was quite an adventure. I wound up working in the North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Cambodian section proofreading intelligence reports sent from those countries on the war we were waging. I lived in a duplex with 4 other people for $50 a month who also worked at the CIA. We were all clerk typists and I was the only one from California. The other applicants from California were promptly dismissed when it came out that they used drugs.
That duplex was a pit. The owner's idea of cleaning it was to put new varnish on the furniture which captured a couple of cockroaches in the process.
After several months of going to work at 5:30 in the morning so I could catch the appropriate public buses, I saved some money and bought an MG midget. That was great fun to drive -- especially on the New Jersey Toll Pike on my way to the Army Navy game in Philadelphia. All that on $3900 a year.
I left the CIA and came back to the warm weather of California to finish college. Went off to Peru to do research and write a paper. Graduated in 9 months with honors and promptly drove back in the summer in my VW to DC and stayed back there through rain, snow, humidity and low wages as I completed my graduate degree and worked in the US Congress for several years.
The City Manager of Long Beach recruited me to come back to Long Beach in 1977 to become the City's first Public information officer and the rest they say is history.
I don't miss the snow or the humidity. Sure do miss my MG Midget and the view of the US Capitol lit at night.
