Troop of Middle Schoolers

As I was coming home Wednesday evening, walking from the Pentagon City Metro station to my preferred bus stop, I fell in with a troop of noisy young people, middle schoolers at a guess. While waiting for a walk signal, I had a few words with an adult lady, who told me that they were a school group, come here from New York. I asked whether they were here to see the Capitol, and she confirmed it. I told her that I was one of the federal bureaucrats who work in the area, specifically a patent examiner.

She said that that must be interesting, and I told her that sometimes it is. Then the light changed, and we crossed the street. The early teens continued north, while I cut across the torrent of them to go west, and catch the bus. I’ll give them credit: they may have been loud, but a few of them did stop to let me go on my way.