I’ve lived here all my life. Well, practically all my life. I lived 10 years in Texas. So then I came back, and I started having a family. So you could say 60 years in DC because I'm 70. [I wouldn’t have guessed that!] Everybody says that, and well, you know, “black dont crack." I just take care of myself.

DC was like one big family, you know. Especially where I lived, and I'm from a large family too. Its 12 of us; I got 9 sisters 2 brothers. On our street, we had about 75 children. So when we went out and played, it was like recess. And growing up, we kept that family unity because, five, six, seven blocks away, everybody knew each other. You know, everybody was family. If I got caught doing something three blocks away, my neighbors would spank my butt, right? And then I got home and got another spanking! It was that level of respect. Young people today seem like they dont respect elders, you know. Back then, pshht, it didn’t even matter who it was; you didn’t even have to know the person. It was because they were older and they told you to do something, or you were doing something in front of them that they didn’t like. Yeah, that's how it was. And it was the same way with the school.The school system was the same; all the teachers was like parents. Every teacher had paddles. Our woodwork teacher made paddles for every class. And the teacher had that paddle, and if you get out of line in school... [In front of people?] Yes! Yeah, that's why my generation is more disciplined. You can barely holler at children no more. They teach them to call the police on their parents. My mother would’ve killed me! I didn’t even have the thought! But yeah, that's what DC was like. I'm not trying to be racist or whatever, but they saw that, and the people who didn’t like the unity of black people worked to break that up. Marion Barry he’s the lifetime mayor, the best mayor ever. They came after him because he was for the people. My opinion for the mayor now? Pfft. Marion Barry was the last good mayor we've had really. But yeah, that's what DC was—just like a big family. [I'm glad you’re saying that because that's one of my main goals with Humans of Chocolate City—to try and get back that unity and bring that sense of community back to the city.] Yeah, I think we lost track of ourselves. Black people had their own identity; we had the Afros, and you know all of that. And just like GoGo, GoGo was a big part of that. I used to go to a GoGo seven days a week! It was one every day. And on Sundays, we went on the boat ride. They had a big boat; they called it the Wilson Boat Ride. And Chuck Brown would be on the boat; sometimes we’d have outside guests like Kool and the Gang. Every Sunday! The boat had four levels. 2 were for dancing, and then 1 was for food, and at the top level, you could just cool out. Lounge and smoke a little bit or whatever. And then we would ride down to the amusement park called Marshall Hall. Everybody would get off the boat and go to the amusement park. And we would have 2 hours before the boat horn would blow, and you had to get your butt back. Somebody would always get left! [How would you get back if you got left?] It was about maybe 20 miles from DC, so I guess they would have to get a ride. We would always be looking to see who was gonna get left. It was all fun, but those days are gone; it's all political now. It's so tight—not so loose anymore. [Do you ever think we can get back there or somewhere close?] Oh yeah! Yeah, unity! That's what they took us out of, and that's what we have to get to to bring it back. Unity. Yeah. That's why they called it Chocolate City; it was really a chocolate city. [I wish I could’ve seen it in full effect! We have to get that back because there is nothing or nowhere like DC.] It was beautiful, Howard University and Howard Theater—you know all those landmarks. It was just nice, and we would have big festivals, like something like this right here, and we would have it in Rock Creek Park or Dupont Park, you know, just massive and just everybody just partying and whatever. It wasn’t a lot of violence like it is now; it was a lot of shooting, maybe a fist fight or 2. Now everybody got guns, so. It's like day and night now. If I had stayed away longer and come back, I would’ve thought I was in a different country, not even a different city.