Douglas J. Bell:
CLASS OF 1977
Anacostia High SchoolClass of 1977
Washington, DC
Kimball Elementary SchoolClass of 1971
Washington, DC
Patterson Elementary SchoolClass of 1971
Washington, DC
Leckie Elementary SchoolClass of 1971
Washington, DC
Thomas Elementary SchoolClass of 1970
Washington, DC
Douglas J.'s Story
Well, there was that time I took my first trip to Germany, in 1984. I was in the Air Force, and my brother was stationed in Germany at the time. He was in the Army. I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to spend some time with him and also my nephews. As it turned out, my duty station was in southern Germany and he was north and west of my location about 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours away.
It was February when I arrived and there was a snowstorm predicted for the first weekend I had off. In talking to my brother, he suggested I take the train to his city and he could pick me up from the station. Well as it happened, this was one of the worst snowstorms to hit Germany in almost one hundred years. The trains in Europe are known for being on time, so I figured, get to the station early, so I would not miss the train.
Well it is good that I got there early because just about all of the signs were in German. Imagine that! It took me a couple of moments to figure things out, and get to the correct track to catch the right train. I made it to my train and figured it would be smooth sailing from that point. I'd meet a couple of German cuties on the train to help pass the drudgery of the train ride, and have some fond memories from this adventure.
Well, what had happened was, this was about the time of the Iranian hostage situation, and there were a lot of Middle Eastern passengers on the train. In fact the last hour of my trip, I spent in a berth with four on one side of the berth and me on the other. We spent the entire ride looking at each other, with them conversing in some dialect I could not understand, and me responding with my best Bogart impersonation, with my hand in my coat pocket and a smirk on my face, with my hat cocked just a smidgen above my eye.
When I reached my stop, I had never been so happy to be some where I had never been, in my life. My brother was there to pick me up and I spent the weekend in the German country side of Heidelberg. It was great seeing my brother and my little nephews again. Boy they had really grown so fast. It was one of the best times of my life to that point, until the train ride home...
THE WILDEST THING I DID IN HIGH SCHOOL...
The wildest thing I did in high school was probably engaging in a snowball fight with the shot putters on the track team after practice one winter day. Indoor track season is usually tedious because you can't really go outside and work on your form and technique. You have to run what seems like more laps in practice to make up for the shorter distance of the indoor running area. If you noticed, I did not say track, but running area. We ran around the halls within the school building for practice. Can you say shin splints?
Anyway, on this day the coach had left early, just before practice was officially over. The sprinters had been teasing the shot putters because the shot putters seemed to have been struggling more than usual during the warm up laps. The shot putters decided they had taken enough teasing from the skinny little sprinters. The shot putters had gone outside after the last lap of practice, and made some snowballs. They brought the snowballs inside, and just as the sprinters were heading to the locker room, we were surprised with a barrage of snowballs. Of course, the shot putters could throw snow balls about as well as they could run laps that day. They missed us completely. They did however give us some ideas, though.
So now, a couple to three sprinters went outside and made our own snowballs. We came inside and surprised the shot putters with our own barrage. We had far better luck because they were not able to run away from us, as we were, when they tried their surprise attack on us.
Of course they were now really aggravated to the nth degree! They recruited some more culprits to their side and tried another ambush attack. This time they had us almost surrounded in the hall, with the only escape route, a mad rush to the locker room door. As sprinters, we took our chances on the mad dash. As I was running to the door, I made it just as a snowball had found the back of someones head that had made it to the door ahead of me.
This person had slowed down to actually push the door open with his hands. This I noticed was a tactical error, that lead directly to a snowball in the back of the head. So, as I got to the door, I decided not to break stride, and just run through the door with a well placed foot. Well, in theory it seemed like a good idea, but what had happened was, I had built up too much speed. When I hit the door with my well placed foot, instead of the door opening wide, I was propelled upward. I hit my forehead on the door jam, opening a half inch gash and knocking myself out, momentarily.
As I tried to gather my wits, I could hear the shot putters labored breathing getting nearer and nearer. They were upon me before I could scramble completely to my feet. When they got there, they cocked their arms ready to let fly with the snowballs, until they saw the blood oozing down my face. I thought it was perspiration until I saw their reaction. I was able to stem the flow of blood a bit with the help of some well place snowballs, until the ambulance arrived to whisk me to the hospital.
I thought the story was over and the shot putters had forgotten all about it, once I got stitched up, and returned to school after the weekend had passed. That is until the track team went on it's annual college tour trip to Virginia later that spring, and the sprinters got into a pillow fight with the same shot putters...
THE WEIRDEST JOB I EVER HAD...
...that has to be the time I was a guard at a bank, without a weapon or even a flashlight, for the summer. Can you say Otis from the Martin Lawrence show?The things you do to try to generate funds to get you through college. The bank was Washington Federal, located in Fairfax Village, no less! The LORD looks after babies and fools! What can I say...
WHAT ABOUT ME WOULD SURPRISE EVERYONE AT THE REUNION? WELL SINCE IT IS DIFFICULT TO SURPRISE EVERYONE I'LL SETTLE FOR JUST THE FEW THAT FIND THIS HARD TO BELIEVE...
Would you believe I have been on television several times, with a couple of occasions in front of millions of viewers? Once when I returned from the first Gulf War in 1991. It was April 3, 1991 to be exact, at Andrews Air Force Base. CBS did a tribute to the troops, and we got to meet Howie Mandel and Reba McIntyre, and...Expand for more
I sat up front as they both performed during the telecast. The next opportunity that afforded itself was the 53rd Inaugural Parade for the 42nd President, William Jefferson Clinton. Although the latter was more work, it was the more rewarding experience for me.
But the incident in my life that I find the most implausible is when I had the misfortune of seeing my high school sweetheart at the same movie theater for the same showing of the movie "Endless Love" with Brooke Shields. This would be the same shorty that I mentioned in the best date story. Part of why I wanted to go out celebrating that night was I was going away to school on a track scholarship with my boy Byron. We were heading west to Texas and going to teach those country boys a thing or two.
I guess what I failed to consider was the effect my leaving would have on her, and our relationship. Needless to say, the relationship did not withstand the challenge of being half the country away from each other.
So, anyway on this rainy, summer afternoon, my latest attempt at replacing my first love and I were in the concession line, when I smelled that scent. It was musk oil, and not many people were wearing it at the time, having moved on to the more popular perfume fragrances. That is what made her stand out from the crowd to me. She had her own mind, and style, and was comfortable with who she was. I instantly turned just in time to catch her walking by, alone, and our eyes met. She flashed that smile at me and it was on. I could not resist the urge to smile back, but the smile did not come from my face, it came from my HEART! "OUT OF ALL THE GIN JOINTS IN THE WORLD...", no, wait, this was not a movie, this was real. This was my life. I was quickly reminded of how real it was by the reactions of my latest attempt to replace my first love, when she started with the questions. You know the questions. "Who was that?" Why was she all up in your face?" "She must not know who I am." Complete with the neck roll and finger snap!
Well to wrap this up, for those that remember the storyline of the movie, this young couple finds love together, only to be separated, and fate has their paths to cross once more. I spent the remainder of that afternoon, on into the night, sounding like a Lionel Ritchie song. "I want to share my life with you, because no one else will do" You mean the world to me, and you will always be, my Endless Love...Of course me and latest attempt to replace my first love, soon there after broke up, but not before she tried to kill me...
BIGGEST VICTORY IN HIGH SCHOOL CAREER...
Well, my best race in high school probably was my last race at Franklin Field, and the Penn Relays. I ran the first leg on the 1600 meter relay team, and at the Penn Relays, the first leg runners are put in two bunches of 4-5 runners, spaced about 5 yards apart. This is called a staggered start. The idea is to prove the first law of nature, "only the strong survive."
Often what happens is someone gets crushed in that mass of young humanity, with raging hormones, steel spikes, and a metal baton to boot. This occassion was no exception. As the starter went through his routine of runners take your mark, get set, and what always seems like the longest second known to mankind, GO, or actually the bang of the starter's pistol.
We all took off as if we had just heard a gun shot! I guess some of the runners had actually heard the sound of gun fire before and reacted just a bit quicker than others, because, someone always seems to get trampled in these situations. In this case the young man went down in a heap when he had his heel stepped on, while getting whacked upside his head with a baton, all within the first two seconds of the race. The race was halted while someone came to scrape dude off the track.
Out of the 25,000 voices in attendance, all I could hear at that point, was Mr. Pryor, or fat man as we called him, yelling "...you see dat Bell, you gotta get out da blocks...aint no time for messing around." When the starter called us back to the staggered positions, I knew what I had to do, thanks to the timely reminder from da fat man. There was no way I was going to be like that dude, so I had to be in front of everyone else, or run the risk of getting crushed by that mass of young humanity.
I got a good start as I was off and running with the sound of the pistol. The Penn Relays has this big screen that allows everyone in the stands to see the runners up close, and I tried to use this to my advantage. As I entered the first curve, I heard what sounded like a bunch of wild stallions chasing me. I also heard fatman's guidance and I tried to do just that. As I came out of my lean into the first curve, we were advised we could all break for the pole, or the inside lane.
I made certain, I was the first to break for the pole and tried to put some distance between them and me, or bust some hearts as it was called back in da day. It must have worked, because the wild horse's noise started to sound farther and farther from me as we stormed down the back straight away.
Going into the last curve, I could hear the sound of the crowd and that unmistakable roar that signals their approval of someone's efforts. I still had not been passed and actually did not feel threatened as yet either. Could the roar be for me?! As I came out of the last curve, and into the home stretch, I took a peep at the big screen and saw the most wonderful sight a runner could imagine. It was me leading the pack. I also noticed the official clock ticking off the seconds. I thought I was seeing things when the clock was still in the low 40's. I had the chance for a personal best time if I could just maintain my form and not get tight during the last 50 meters to the finish line.
It was at this point that I felt all of my practice laps and wind sprints finally had a purpose other than to make me sweat and tired. I reached deep inside and pushed with all I had left, and crossed the finish line in a time of 47.9 seconds...wow! So that's what running a sub 49 second 400 meter split felt like. As I passed the baton to my boy Byron, who was running second leg, I could not help but wonder if the rest of the team had any personal bests in them this day. If they did, I had staked us to a 15 meter lead and I was hoping this one time, they would hold on to it, so we could bring back the plaque to the school for all to see and share in our personal bests.
Register for Free to view all details!
Reunions
Register for Free to view all events!
Photos
Register for Free to view all photos!