Valerie D. Gibbs
Hi Everyone,
I composed this description of Robert's fishing escapade last week and thought today would be a good day to share it with you, on the anniversary of his death.
Robert’s Fishing Escapade Under Chain Bridge On The Potomac River In 1956
One day my brother, Robert, and his friend Steven decided to go fishing on the Potomac River. They were either juniors or seniors at St. John’s College High School in Washington, DC in about 1955 or 1956.
They thought they had planned their escapade down to the last detail. Robert got dressed for school in his St. John’s uniform that he wore every day to school. He took a duffel bag with his clothes he needed for after school football practice. He told our mother that he might be late, as he had football practice.
Everything almost worked out. Robert went to school and since school let out early that day (which he already knew would happen), he and Steven went fishing as planned up on the Potomac River. They rented a rowboat at Fletcher’s Boat House and rowed up the river near Chain Bridge where the fishing was better.
The one thing Robert didn’t plan on, was his grandmother. She and her friend, Freda, went out every Thursday for lunch and a drive and this Thursday she and Freda had been to Virginia and were returning to DC, and were driving across Chain Bridge, which crosses the Potomac river. Our grandmother looked down from the car window and spoted Robert and Steven in the rowboat.
A few hours later, our grandmother phoned Mom and told her that she saw Robert and his friend fishing in a rowboat on the Potomac river near Chain Bridge.
When Robert came home that evening, dressed back in his school uniform, he was dumbfounded when his mother asked him what was he doing fishing up under Chain Bridge, when he was supposed to be at school.
What are the odds that Robert would go fishing under Chain Bridge on the very same day and time that his grandmother would be riding across the bridge?
Valerie D. Gibbs, Feb. 3, 2022 on the first anniversary of Robert Didden's death.
