Mark and Joe (and Becky and Gary) at play in Kansas City

In the summer of 1974, I worked as a Congressional intern in Washington, D.C. for my congressman, George E. Brown, Jr. of the then-36th District of California. It was impeachment summer and the last weeks of the presidency of Richard Nixon. I arrive in early July, and set out to find a roommate. I ended up rooming with 4 other summer interns from Missouri. While I became friends with all of them, I became particularly close friends with Mark Silvermintz, pictured with me above. Perhaps it was because we both knew all the lyrics to Tom Lehrer and would sing them in the most inappropriate times, or that we shared a common love of American history and politics. We had wonderful times that summer, doing road trips into the Virginia countryside, visiting the D.C. museums, going to the lavish reception for congressional interns offered each summer by the Nationalist Chinese ambassador, and attending the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the day that impeachment articles were voted against President Nixon. It was a memorable summer.

He returned home to St. Louis, and I stopped to visit on my way back to California. The next year we were both off to law school, he to George Washington in DC, I to Wisconsin in the heart of the Midwest. We visited again in DC in 1976 and 1977, and kept in sporadic contact through the mid-1980’s. But we were both working extremely hard in our legal careers, and had the pressures of starting and supporting a family, and drifted out of contact.

Mark was able to find me on the Internet about 10 years ago, and we’ve been in touch ever since. I was thrilled when I was offered a space in the workshop I’m attending, not simply for the contact, but because it offered us an opportunity to see each other again after all these years. Mark’s daughter Becky lives in Kansas just outside Kansas City, so I got a change to meet her for the first time. Mark’s partner Don had business this weekend and was not able to join us, but I’m looking forward to meeting him soon, I hope.

This is also the first time I’ve had a chance to meet the adult children of close friends of mine, and it was such fun to discover that Becky and her husband Gary are just as dear and fun as Mark is. This post doesn’t contain much of serious material, just old friends getting together and laughing and enjoying each other’s company. The pictures are happy and silly, and we’re delighted to share them with our friends and family.

Mark said something very funny just before Becky took our picture…muy típico.

Here’s a better one with Mark and Harry and me enjoying each other’s company. At least Harry didn’t say otherwise and kept smiling.

Here’s Mark ‘splaining things to Becky:

Mark vamping:

A really nice moment of father and daughter together:

Just outside the replica of the Oval Office, there’s a passageway with a niche and a bust of Harry. I thought Mark deserved his own niche:

 

Finally, Mark and Joe, together again after all the years: