The trip to Washington, D.C., wasn't planned to be historic. It was just a consolation prize for kids who didn't get a promised beach vacation back in the summer. But it happened to fall during a difficult moment in the nation's life that will stay in Helen Gricks' memory forever.
Teacher in-service days at her kids' Ross school gave the Gricks family a long weekend -- the first in October -- to spend in the nation's capital. Upon noticing the four-day break a couple of months ago, Gricks called Patrice Lee, a college friend now living in North Carolina and home schooling all four of her children, to see if the two families could meet in Washington. Then she e-mailed another college buddy -- U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart.
"We were all sorority sisters at Delta Gamma," Gricks explained. They graduated in 1984 from Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pa., and through the years have stayed in touch.
Although Hart's office needs three months' notice to give constituents the deluxe Capitol tour, they promised an intern-guided version, tips on must-see attractions and a little face time with Hart.
"With everything going on in the world I really wanted my kids to see D.C.," Gricks said.
"I was there as a child, and I went once as a young adult, but I think that was pretty much to party in Georgetown. When I was in my 20s, it didn't mean as much. I would never have gone to the Senate and listened to a debate."
But that's what she did with her two sons, Torey and Kyle, and their friends from North Carolina. The debate they heard was over President Bush's desire to use military force against Iraq. And the whole trip unfolded as a sniper was beginning to terrorize the capital's suburbs.
"We considered not going," Gricks said. "Our husbands didn't want us to go, but we thought we'd be downtown and the sniper hadn't gone there. You have to look at the odds. You can't let people hold you hostage."
Upon their arrival Wednesday night, the group headed straight for the reflecting pool and contemplated the monuments to Lincoln and Washington at either end. Thursday morning was spent at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where postage stamps, White House invitations and money -- "$472,000 an hour!" -- are all produced.
Thursday afternoon found them for the first time at Hart's office. An assistant told them that Hart was at a House vote, but the Senate was right then debating war with Iraq. They decided to visit the Senate. Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, had the floor.
"Even though we didn't agree with his politics, it was interesting," Gricks said. "He was passionate about his feelings -- about not wanting the U.S. to be the agressor." As they listened, someone interrupted the Senate proceedings to announce that the House had just passed the resolution in favor of using force against Iraq. The moment felt weighty.
The group returned to Hart's office just as she arrived.
"She was very official," Gricks said. "Patrice said to me later, 'I just wanted to say, "How are you?" ' Patrice still calls her Missy. I said, 'Patrice, no one calls her Missy anymore.' We just talked politics. But we wanted the kids to hear that, too. And it was such a historic day that we wanted to talk about it."
As their quarter-hour with Hart wound up, a clock with flashing lights and loud beeps tracked the minutes left before Hart would be required back in House chambers for another vote. Hart's pager kept going off as well, but she ignored it. Finally, her staff came in when there were six minutes left and hustled her off.
The travelers packed the Smithsonian, the Aerospace Museum, the American History Museum and the White House into a whirlwind Friday. "There were no lines," Gricks recalled. "I think the sniper scared them away."
Most of the "unbelievable" security has been in place since 9/11, though -- so much that it would be hard to know what extra measures might have been taken to protect tourists from a lone sniper.
Men in full SWAT gear patrolled the White House, their weapons ready in front of them, not over their shoulders. "We were disappointed that the White House was closed. In a way they are holding us hostage and taking away our freedoms, and that's frustrating."
"They," terrorists foreign and domestic, precipitated the historic events that Helen Gricks, her sons and her friends witnessed just two weekends ago in the world's most powerful city. The terrorists did not, however, prevent her from experiencing those events firsthand. They did not prevent her from visiting an old college chum whose vote affects our lives and theirs. And her children can say they were there, too. That's something, isn't it?
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