Dangerous Hilarity: The Great Adventures of the Jackson Twins, Their Family and the Dogs in Their Lives, A Novel for Teens and Young Adults and All Those Who are Young at Heart. Sioux Dallas

their new home.

       Chapter Three

      The next morning Irene had blueberry pancakes and sausages ready for breakfast. Everyone ate, laughed and talked, happy to have Herb back with them. After breakfast Herb waited for the children to brush their teeth and then called the twins to him.

      “I bet you guys can’t guess what I’ve planned for your birthday,” he grinned, pleased with himself.

      “But Dad, our birthday was yesterday,” Tom giggled. “It’s okay, Dad. You do a lot for us all the year.

      “I know it was yesterday, and I’m sorry I couldn’t be here. I owe Anna a special day, also. That won’t make your surprise any less exciting though.”

      He grinned at them as he put an arm around each twin’s neck and hugged them close. He gave Irene a quick kiss and hugged Anna.

      “What surprise, Dad?” Tim questioned as both boys danced around him. Galena jumped with them sure she was part of whatever was going on.

      “Let’s go outside and you’ll see.” Herb placed a hand on each twin’s back and went toward the front door. Tom and Tim jumped out the door ahead of him and stopped in surprise. In front of the house was a chartered bus filled with friends who were yelling at the twins out of the windows.

      “Hurry up, slowpokes”

      “You’re holding us up.”

      “Will you get a move on.”

      “Come on the day is rushing by.”

      “Why? Are you expecting us to get on that bus with you?” Tim yelled half laughing and half serious.

      “Happy birthday,” eighteen voices chorused.

      “But all of you were at our party yesterday and none of you said anything about this.” Tom said looking at his dad with a puzzled expression. Looking past Herb the twins saw Irene and Anna waving at them.

      “Ole big mouth, Dan, almost spilled the beans yesterday,” Mark yelled out of a window. We knew it but were all sworn to secrecy.”

      “Get on board my suspicious sons. We’re off on an adventure. It’s part of your birthday surprise.” Herb laughed and urged them to board the bus so he could get on.

      “Yip! Yip! Yipee!” the twins clambered aboard the bus calling goodbye to Irene and Anna.

      “Come get Galena,” Herb called. “She thinks she’s going, too.”

      Anna ran and took the protesting Galena by the collar. Galena cried all the way back to the house and drug her feet trying to convince Anna that she should be on that bus. Once she was in the house with the door shut she calmed down and ran over the place on her inspection tour.

      Twenty boys sang, told jokes, wrestled and laughed loudly on their way to Washington, D.C., their nation’s capital, fifteen miles away.

      “Hey, Timmy, your dad is the greatest. None of our dads would have thought to bring our crowd into D.C. for the day.” Jimmy Dodd spoke loudly as he walked through the Smithsonian Museum with their group.

      “None of our dads would have been brave enough to try it,” Mark Tully laughed and hurried over to see the furniture used in Archie Bunker’s house in the famous television show, ‘All In The Family’ and the set of ‘Star Trek’. Fonzie’s jacket from ‘Happy Days’ was there, also.

      “The rest of our dads probably couldn’t have afforded it,” Alan Begley muttered, but no one paid any attention to his comment. Truthfully, he was having a fabulous time.

      “Yep, isn’t it rad? I’ve always liked the Smithsonian but never had time to see as much as I wanted to,” Tim answered.

      “Maybe your dad’s doing this to make up for dragging you off to Alaska,” Alex said with a crooked grin.

      “Maybe,” Jason Horn interjected, “but dude! I was totally wiped out to see Lindberg’s plane and all that first exploration stuff. And I never thought I’d get to see a real space ship. Besides,” he turned to Tom, “you guys are going to have a great life and be back before you know it.” In the Natural History section they were all standing beside the huge stuffed elephant looking up with open mouths and wide eyes.

      “Dad always does something special for us and our sister on our birthday,” Tom explained

      Herb gathered the boys and took them out to the sidewalk where he had made arrangements with food venders to have their carts there at noon. A young woman stood with a calculator and totaled the price for Herb to pay.

      “Whoo hoo!” Herb laughed with hands over his ears. “It sounds like feeding time at the zoo,” he laughed as the boys shoved and shouted their selections. Herb thanked the vendors, and the girl, as he took time to grab a sandwich, chips and a soft drink. He paid the bill and included a generous tip.

      The boys wolfed the food down and boarded the bus again for a tour of the city. They were impressed with a big statue of Abraham Lincoln sitting in a chair at his monument. The statue of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his little dog were admired. Some of the cherry trees still had late blooms on them. The boys were surprised to learn that the first trees had been a gift from Japan.

      The bus driver talked over the speaker as he drove them around. “On July 16, 1791, Congress approved a location for Federal buildings. As soon as George Washington agreed, Major Pierce Charles L’Enfant, a French engineer, laid out the plans for the new city. L’Enfant was a friend of Washington’s and had fought with the Americans during the American Revolution. On September 18, 1793, the cornerstone of the Capitol was laid, but the government didn’t move to D.C. until 1800. He drove on and stopped at the Mall.”

      “Whoa. Are we going to walk all the way up there?” Benji Morrison leaned back, with his mouth open, to look at the top of the Washington Monument.

      “You can if you wish,” Herb answered. “The monument is five hundred fifty-five feet tall and has eight hundred ninety-eight steps to the top. There’s an elevator if you don’t want to walk up.”

      A chorus of, “I’m walking,” came from all of the boys.

      About half way up Herb had to sit down because he was laughing too hard to continue. About a dozen of the boys were gasping for breath and three of them had gotten down to crawl up on hands and knees.

      At the top they were welcomed by a Park police who told them, “The Washington Monument is made of white marble from Maryland. Construction on it began in 1848 when James Polk was President and was completed in 1884, but it wasn’t opened to the public until 1888. George Washington had died on December 14, 1799, so, he never knew of this dedication to his memory.”

      “Why did it take so long to build it?” Aaron Langley asked.

      “The marble was mined and polished by hand which took a lot of time. Then it had to be transported by mule-drawn wagons and put in place. This naturally caused the work to go slowly. In 1848 James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. A lot of the workers went west with the dream of becoming rich. Can anyone tell me what happened in 1861?”

      “I can,” several voices rang out at once. “The War Between The States.”

      “Right,” the policeman was pleased. “There was no work going on during those four or five years.”

      “Don’t you mean the Civil War?” Alex asked.

      “No,” the policeman said. “They gave the correct answer. Here young man read this card from the Library of Congress. It’s official. Please read it aloud.”

      Alex reluctantly took the card and read. “The Congressional Record of March 2, 1928 reports Senate joint resolution No. 41 wherein Congress recognized the title, War Between The States as proper. A war was waged from 1861 to 1865 between two organized governments.