“We enjoyed our conversation so much that we both thought there had to be a way to find more people at Greenspring who grew up in D.C. We invited people to meetings, and before long we outgrew our meeting room.”

Within a year, the group extended invitations to those who had graduated from suburban D.C. high schools.

“I grew up in suburban Maryland,” says Cumbie. “Washington, D.C. was also very much the center of our lives. It was where you went if you had to go shopping or to the theater. We always said we were from the D.C. area.”

Sharing stories
Comprised of amazing people with spectacular stories, the D.C. area High School Grads group does more than merely reminisce. At each monthly meeting a predetermined program is led by one of the group’s members.

“It’s a big job to organize a group of our size,” says Cumbie. “We look to our members to take an active role in planning activities and programs.”

Recent programs have addressed a wide variety of topics including American Indians living in Northern Virginia; Washington, D.C. theaters; famous people who went to your high school; and George Washington our neighbor.

“We have wonderful historians in our group who love researching,” says Cumbie. “They provide the substance for many of our meetings.”

On the road
Located less than ten miles from the heart of Washington, D.C., Greenspring is the perfect “starting point” for many D.C. area High School Grads field trips.

Recently, the group visited the Fairfax City Museum. Other popular trips have included visits to Glen Echo Park, a former amusement park, and the renovated Building Museum.

“Our trip to the Building Museum was wonderful,” says Saalbach. “Prior to the trip we enjoyed a slide presentation by one of the architects involved in the restoration of the Building Museum, who happens to also live at Greenspring. We truly got a sense of what a wonderful addition the restoration is to our city.”

Collective memory
With the Washington, D.C. area growing and changing almost constantly, Greenspring’s D.C. area High School Grads club helps maintain a sense of history that goes far beyond what any history book could tell us.

“After former President Gerald Ford passed away earlier this year, it really made me start to think about how much the concept of neighbor has changed,” says Cumbie. “Many of us had children the ages of Ford’s children, and many of them even knew friends of the Ford children. That is what Washington, D.C. used to be like. We were all neighbors who lived in a sleepy southern town and we all enjoy being neighbors together here at Greenspring.”

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