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Hello, today is May 18th. We are here on Africa on the Avenue. And to start, could you tell me your name? Hi, Denise Abrams. It's nice to meet you, Miss Denise. How are you doing today? I'm fine, thank you.

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You're welcome. Could you start by telling me a little bit about yourself? Well, I grew up here in Washington, DC, and I actually lived in Northeast for a while. Uh, and then we moved up. My father remarried. My mother died when I was six years old, so my father remarried when I was twelve. And we moved up to this area in Northwest on Longfellow Street, one block over from Kennedy Street on the five hundred block. So we had our own rooms because the house was like a four bedroom house, and it was six of us. So some of us had our own rooms because they had—we had basements and we had back porches. So it was very large, because we loved it, because we were living in a smaller house in Northeast. So we always lived in DC, but—from Northeast to Northwest. So from Northwest, my father still had the house until he died back in 1994 or '96. That's right. I get my dates a little bit mixed up. But he was like, he wasn't that old. He was only like about seventy six years old. And, um, we had the house around until like the 2000, two thousand and like four or something. [Two thousand and] three? And then we, uh, kind of like, lost it, but because we all were moved and doing different things and we had our own houses and homes. I live in Silver Spring now, but now I live. I've been living in Silver Spring for the last like eight years or so. So it's different. I'm really enjoying it. I love DC because it's different, because they have so many things that people can do, and see, and visit. You never get bored here, you know? So I was just back over here, uh, looking for something. On, my—its my birthday was—no Mother's Day. Last weekend, my son took me out to Capital Grille ,downtown Washington on Pennsylvania Avenue. But I noticed, uh, the Museum of Art. And I have a grandson that's three. And I said I wanted to take him there. You know, when the weather, you know, breaks again, and it's warmer. And clearer. And drier. So, yes. So, you know, that's some of the things that you can always rely on. You could go I used to take my kids to like the Air and Space [Museum] and you know, I haven't got a chance to take my nephew—my grandson yet. But yeah, we used to go there and to to, uh, Spy Museum and everything. There's so many different things you could go to. And I actually, on Mother's Day, the day before that, Saturday, I went to the Lincoln Theater that's, you know, been here for so long. I, I passed by, I saw the Howard Theater, where I went to see Junior Walker and the All-Stars back in the day, uh, talking about, uh, the song was something about "grape—I heard it through the grapevine. How much longer would you be my baby?" So, yeah, it's always something to do in Washington, DC, and I still love it because I still come back to it all the time and all the chance. I still come over here to eat. And during the week, you know, and find the restaurants that I like, the foods that I like, you know. So, yeah, I've been enjoying my life here. It's a nice place to live. And now it's getting so much better and bigger because of the new apartments they have and condos and the upgraded housing and but it's expensive too. So yeah. So you have to look at all of that. So. Well what are your—what are some of your favorite places here in DC? Um, well I would like to say Capital Grille, but they're too expensive. Uh, and, um, but I, I like, uh, what I like maybe—I used to work at Ledos. I come back for the Ledo's pizza on Georgia Avenue. Further up [the street]. I come back for that one. And I still go to Twin Dragon on Third Street Northwest, not too off of Kennedy Street for the Chinese, and that's a carryout. And, um, as far as restaurants, like we found, uh, my sister and I went looking for, uh, the hamburger place, and we found, uh, sir, Capital Grille, but not the 'the' Capital Grille. It's a Grille that's down on Seventh Street before you get to the court buildings. And we went in there and had some hamburgers. I—we went there back before, and we sometimes go back. We want to go back. I thought about going back there last week, but I didn't. And let me see where else we—I just usually eat carryout, you know, something like that when I'm in the city back in DC and I. Oh yeah. And we go to, uh, during when it gets warm, we go to get our ribs from Johnny Boy's. Yeah, over in Northeast. And I think that's Northeast. Or it might be Southeast. I'm not sure, I forget. My son does. He knows. But anyway, yeah, we do that and that's about it. Sometimes I like the grocery stores like Giant, too in D.C., as opposed to out in Maryland. Yeah.

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Well, what led you to move out to Silver Spring? Well, I just got tired. Well, I had been teaching substitute teaching in DC for, like. It's like I— miscalculate. I think it's ten years to twelve years. All the different schools, all the way. It's pre-K to high school, and I taught and so many of them. But they used to trick me, right. And keep me there longer because you have to push—once you put your name in for assignment so you locked in, it might be—I might, I might stay somewhere a week, but when my weekend would be up and I'm telling the people in the the office where I say "it's been great. You know, I talk to y'all maybe next year." They said, oh no, you you know, you're supposed to come back Monday. And I'd be like, uh, it was for a week. She said, oh no, you need to check it again because we have you for thirty days. So I'll be stuck because you can't change. I mean, you don't want to call your office and tell them, well, I'm not going to be, you know, unless it's a real emergency. I guess you could or would, but. And I just go ahead and just stay the thirty days. I used to do a lot of long term subbing, like, sometimes there'd be three or four months. I did that, like, twice. Yeah, you had to grade them papers because the people, the kids want their paperwork to see how they doing. So you got to grade them. You got to keep it. And then that becomes a lot of work. But you know, all in all, I made it through. So it's—it's rewarding too, because you meet parents that come, I'm a substitute, and they say, well, you know, you're doing a great job. You know. And we appreciate you, you know, so you get your rewards out of it. And then if you enjoy it, it's not a big deal really. So yeah. What are some of the ways that you stay connected with your community. Well I watch a lot of news. Sometimes I—I go to meetings, you know, like HOC or at the housing authority, if they have something going on like that for the community, I do stuff like that every now and then, you know, or whatever. Then I still go to church in DC at Union Temple over in Southeast, where—it used to be [Pastor] Willie Wilson. Now it's his daughter, Anika. I forget her last name. She's married. I think it's Johnson. I'm not sure, but yeah. So yeah. And you know, when you go to church, they usually talking about what's going on in the community also. So that's how I stay connected.

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That's awesome. Well that's all the questions I have for you. Is there anything that you want to touch on that I didn't ask you? No. Uh, I don't know. No, no. It's nothing. I'm good. Alright. Thank you. Mhm.