MOM'S THREE WISHES SAGA 2:

We verified all known locations, even finding the actual words in one of the shots on the inside of the Jefferson Memorial.

A house, fronted with water, had us stumped until Ed and I traversed the entire Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and identified it as a lock house! 

Every day we each would have assignments, looking for this or that. (I rather enjoyed the driving as I had just gotten an old Jag and loved motoring along—adding about 500 miles to its overused odometer.) 

When I told Mom what I was up to, she was delighted saying, "I've had three wishes all my life: One was to have nice children and I got that. Another to live in a house no one else had ever lived in, I got that and I always wanted to go to Hawaii". I redoubled my efforts.


Only one submittal was allowed per name, so I called the magazine to ask if I could use the names of friends but take the trip myself. Their reply that the winners could do whatever they wanted to do. So when I was getting close (only two left to identify), I begin to ask friends if I could use their names on the entry blanks. I told them that if they won, I would give them $100 and pay any taxes. Many agreed. Some said no, that they would enter themselves. But after seeing how difficult the contest was, they allowed me to use their names.

With only three days to go, Ed and I still had to Identify the fence post. I had already pegged the style to Mid-19th Century, so the probability was that it was either in Georgetown or Alexandria. We crisscrossed every street, no fence post. We searched old locations (our antebellum jail, an old cemetery and several Potomac plantations). While going on an errand, I excitedly discovered it on the campus of Gallaudet College, our 1866 school for the deaf!

Wow! Now I had all 15!