On February 18, 1873, a child was born in the 2900 block of Georgetown, Washington D. C. , in the home of Robert Isaac Middleton. This child grew and lived to see the Nation change from the horse and carriage, through the steam age, and to see the first man in space.

Robert Isaac Middleton, an engineer, and machinist was comfortably well off, and Harry, his youngest, child is reputed to have bad financial advantages which generally exceeded those of others of the family. They were as I remember them, Alice, Tillie (Matilda), Emma, Edward and Robert, So, some of the tales I heard about him may have been tainted a bit.

I must admit that I have no factually chronological data for the events and facts that I am attempting to record here, I do make some assumptions of my own.

As a boy he went to a local school for a while. It seems that on one occasion when on his way home, one of his school mates, the son of an Italian storekeeper, undertook to beat him up with the empty stalk of a banana plant. So badly that Harry showed the results of the assault.

That evening, at the dinner table, his father made inquiry, and demanded an explanation for his appearance. Upon hearing of the afternoon’s events, he told his son to finish his dinner.

After dinner he took Harry out and they went to the home of the lad who used the banana stalk. Granddad told the boy’s father what had happened that day and asked that the young man come out. Young Harry had been told that if he didn’t beat this kid up he could expect a whipping when he got home. Apparently, things went the way they were supposed to because I was not told of Dad being punished for his performance that evening.

The family apparently attended the Methodist Church on 30th Street, now 5th Church of Christ Scientist, naturally Dad attended Sunday School. It was not uncommon for the Sunday School to have picnics. On one of these occasions, they went down in what is still called “Foggy Bottom”, when they were attacked by a group of stone throwing negros. The members of Dad’s party were running to get away from them. Young Harry took a position behind a telephone pole and using a sling shot dropped the nearest one with a shot right on the forehead. The Sunday School party was not disturbed after that.