My Favorite Fellas

I mentioned the other day that the Metro Hero and I took young Patrick Brockenborough to Washington, DC, last week for Pat's spring break. Patrick is 11 now and officially taller than I am. It's a little disconcerting that someone one-fourth my age can tower over me, but there you go. He is, by the way, totally sweet and funny, and I always love being around him even though I can no longer see the top of his blonde head. One of Washington highlights (for me, anyway) was our visit to the World War II Memorial. I remember my dad being very excited about this memorial when it was in the works. He was in World War II and... ...when you type Bill Thorsby into the computer kiosk next to the memorial, his very handsome photo appears. His brother, Walker Thorsby, also is included, as is my mom's brother, Newton Collinson. When I was in San Antonio recently going through my dad's papers and memorabilia and such, I found a huge folder containing all his notes and the various articles and letters he'd been saving about the memorial. We'd all gone to see it with him a few years ago. He really didn't talk about the war that often, but after seeing all the things that he'd kept in files and footlockers, the war definitely played a much larger role in his life than I'd thought. He was really proud to be included in that memorial. And I was happy to get to see it again. I was also happy to see Jon Wright — he's the curly-headed hottie with Bruce and Patrick, above. Jon's from Paducah, he's 27 and he's done all sorts of interesting things in his young adulthood. A few summers ago, he wanted to work for Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco. So he took off in his car and called the mayor's office from each state to let them know he was on his way. There was no job, mind you. But Jon Wright was determined to work for the mayor of San Francisco. And he did. (We have more on that story in Jon's iDate interview.) He parlayed that into work on a number of political campaigns, including a big win for President Barack Obama. Jon's now living in DC and, like lots of folks, interviewing for jobs. I'm a big fan of Jon's. He's got that energy, enthusiasm and initiative that you always like to see in young people. I have no doubt that he'll land some plum gig before long. I just hope he remembers those of us back in Paducah when he starts handing out ambassadorships. One last thing about Washington, DC: the Newseum. It's the coolest museum ever.

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