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It is May 30th, 2026. We are at Petworth Porchfest. My name is Erin Gantz. First, do I have permission to record this interview? Yes you do. All right. Can you tell me your name? Wanda Drew, D.R.E.W.

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Nice to meet you. Um, is this your first time at the Petworth Porchfest? No. It's not. And then. So can you tell me about your relationship to Petworth? I practically grew up here, my family moved to on New Hampshire Avenue in June of 1952 uh, and I've practically been here ever since. Um, I went to--that was before integration, so I started out at Parkview, spent two years there. Then when the school system or schools became integrated, I attended Petworth Elementary, which is now the police um, headquarters and the Boys and Girls Club is housed there. Then I went over to McFarland, which is now, uh, it's, I'm not sure if it's a charter school, but it is a middle school there. And then I didn't want to go to college, I went to the Vocational High, which is at 13th and Allison, which is Burdick Vocational, which is now a charter school. Oh.

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Um, so after high school, I went to work, in fact, that I graduated in June and by August, I had a job and I worked in D.C. public schools and our manpower development program for providing job training for individuals who needed skills building for employment purposes. And then after that, I went into the Labor Department, and after, I stayed there until I retired in '97. But, um, during that time, I earned a degree from D.C. Teachers, I was the last graduating class from D.C. Teachers, 1977, which is now UDC, and I attended, uh, I did some graduate work at A.U., and, yes, so I've been in the neighborhood all that time. Wow. What are some of the most memorable moments growing up in Petworth? Growing up in Petworth, um, being able to like, well, my family, my parents are rather strict, okay. My mother was born in 1905, my father 1894. So they were older parents, though they were in their in mid-life when they had us, there were three of us, three girls, uh, so we could play on New Hampshire Avenue and we could play on Upshur Street, but we were not allowed to play in the alley because, as my mother said, young ladies did not play in the alley. So we were never allowed to do that. But we had fun. I learned skating, we would go up to rock, um, not Rock Creek Park up to Grant Circle and play in the trees. When I got older, much older, we used to, um, my sister and I would go down to Rock Creek Park and we would jog in Rock Creek Park. Uh, but that was after the kids had come along and all that. Um, but growing up in, in Petworth, it was fun. It was lively. We could sit on the porches. We could--The rule was that you had to be in, or near the house, uh, by the time the lights came on. But we could, you know, stay on the porch. As we got older, I could I would take naps on the front porch. Um, it was a, it was a fun neighborhood. Now for us, and I say us, I mean, my sister and I, my neighbor and her brother, we would walk from here down to Banneker for swim lessons and we would walk down for 9:00 lessons, come back home, eat our lunch, then we would walk back for evening swim. And then it got to the point we were on the swim team, so they would let us just hang out all day long so we could get there at nine, leave at six, and that's how our summers basically went. You know, for, you know, for in the neighborhood, um, when I graduated from, uh, sixth grade, for some reason, I volunteered to go to summer school. Back then, you could volunteer if you wanted to and I went to summer school with my family. My sister thought that was the silliest thing for me to do, but, uh, so she started, we were like, I was about 13, she was about 11.5, 12 years old, so she started her swimming much earlier and thought that I, everyone in the family thought I wasn't going to learn how to swim because I never liked water to get in my face. So the day before my swimming lessons, I filled the tub with water and practice dumping my head and that's how I got, I got the fear out of me. Uh, the libraries, uh, the Petworth Library would be the place after school, we would go there and study. And when I go there now and take my great-grandkids, it's a different environment in the library. It is noisy. What the kids are allowed to get away with now, we could never. Everything was hush hush, it was study time, so we would study until it was time, you know, to get, to get home. Um.

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Yeah. Um, kind of on that, is there anything else that you notice have changed, like, majorly in the neighborhood? Okay. Right where, right where the activities have taken place. There used to be a row houses there, large row houses on the corner where it's now a church that used to be the Safeway. Uh, and then they moved over there on, um, Georgia and Randolph. And then. That Safeway has been remodeled since then. Down there where, um, uh, what is, is that Whole Foods or what is the grocery store? You are not familiar with the area? Okay. Well, it's it's not, what's the other one? Whole Foods? Trader Joe's? No, not Trader Joe's is another one. Right, but right there, Georgia and, um, and Eighth, Georgia and Taylor, there's a little grocery, it's a grocery store. It's one of the it's not, it's not, it's a Fresh Fruit? Anyway, whatever it is, because I don't go to that one anyway. But, um, that used that used to be a car dealership.

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Oh. Yeah and um, see what else has changed. On Upshur Street where the stores are those little stores, it wasn't as commercialized then. There was a high store in the, uh, where I think where the little thrift store is, um, where, where it used to be. But then they moved to the corner where there's a little restaurant, it became a larger high store. Um, and there were homes along that area there. Where that new apartment building that used to be a Kilroy's Cleaners. I think it's a, it used to be the Kilroy's Cleaners. I think it's a it's a Mama. See, I don't go down there that often now, but there's a there's a carryout. There's the Danny's Carryout. Wait a minute. It was kil--, it was Kilroy's, now it's carryout, and then it's Danny's. Yeah. The, uh, braiding salon has been there, it wasn't always a braiding salon. There used to be, um, just a regular beauty shop. Uh, there used to be a post office around the corner, which is now, um, has to do with the patrol, uh. The criminal justice system, that's what's there. Um. These lights up here, New Hampshire and Taylor, they just put those in this, this year, just a couple hasn't been six months they've been in. At, uh, Fifth and Taylor, Fifth and, uh, Illinois, they installed traffic lights after an 18 year old was working and he was in this heavy duty truck, and it flipped over and after that, they put traffic lights there. Uh, we didn't have all the bike lanes that we have through here now, all that's new and fast, but 25, 30, no more than that, probably about 40 years, I guess, now maybe longer than that. Um, in terms of the, of the block that I live in, uh, from '52, there are only two families that have been there since '52. My family and the house next, the family next door, another family came in no, three, Patty's family, they were there, but everybody else is practically new. Less than 30 years, less than that, really. It's a different neighborhood totally. Yeah. Yeah. I guess. Last question. Is there anything you'd hope Petworth like return to or how do you envision Petworth in future years?

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Well, I'm sure it's going to the way, the way I see it, because there are more families moving into the area, so there's going to be a lot of kids. That's the way it was when I was growing up. Uh, but, but what I do know is that, uh, it's not in my particular block, it's not as community oriented as it used to be because my mother was like the block club leader, and she would collect for Red Cross, the Heart Fund, anybody who had a death in the family, she was the one that was designated. They had neighborhood meetings in the house. But, um, it's not like that now. They all have the ANC meetings and, you know, it's more open, that's the way I see it. But in terms of the future, it'd be good if they, as far as I'm concerned, be a more close knit. And I don't mean like being nosy, getting into one's business, all that, but just speak to people, you know? Um, look out for the kids if they see them do--but you don't see kids playing like we used to play because we used to skate around the block. You don't see that now because they're in the house playing on the games like my great grands, you know. You have to take them away from, take the phones and the devices away after a certain time. Um, that's, that's about it. Is there anything else you'd like to say? I enjoy, I enjoy D.C. even when I go away. I can stay away for about a week, after that, I'm ready to come back, back home, I enjoy--and in the springtime, when the flowers are blossoming, I think the city is really beautiful. Um, and I enjoy living here, I'm like a fifth generation and I love it. I really love this city. Thank you. That was great.

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Thank you so much.