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From YouTube: Tell Arlington's Story: Kitty Clark Stevenson
Description
Everyone has a story to tell. Arlington is a community of people with compelling stories -- whether you've been here generations or just a year or two. Take time to look at the many stories featured here ... then share your own!
A
My
name
is
Kitty
Clark
Stevenson,
three
names,
no
hyphen
I'll
be
my
father's
daughter
until
the
day
I
died,
I'm
very
proud
of
being
a
Clark.
The
thing
that
I
also
love
about
my
name
quite
frankly,
is
that
Kitty
is
my
given
name.
I
father
named
you
didn't
like
Kate.
He
didn't
like
Katherine,
you
didn't
like
any
of
that
stuff,
but
he
loved
kidding
and
I
like
to
tell
people
when
you
grow
up
with
a
name
like
kitty
in
order
to
fight
at
a
very
early
age.
A
It
comes
from
this
here
kitty,
kitty,
kitty,
okay,
I'm,
older
now,
I've
socialized,
greatly
I'm,
actually
a
great
grandmother.
Now
some
multi-generational
so
we'll
be
fine.
I
am
the
owner
and
the
president
of
my
own
consultancy.
It
is
a
HR
human
resources,
consultancy
and
I'm,
actually
going
into
my
32nd
year
of
business,
so
I'm
very
happy
about
being
able
to
share
my
passion,
share
my
knowledge
and
my
ability
and
to
do
those
things
with
people
that
care
about
doing
the
right
things
for
the
right
reasons.
You.
A
A
Our
parks
actually
began
to
integrate
in
1967
and
my
father,
Alfred
Warren
Clark
was
the
first
Negro.
We
were
being
called
Negroes
back
in
those
days,
Negro
fire
captain
in
the
competitive
service
of
arlington
county
government
and,
as
I
recall,
the
Commonwealth
of
Virginia,
so
we're
very
proud
of
that
particular
piece
of
history.
It
was
also
at
that
time
that
they
integrated
halls
hill
station
aid,
the
Negro
station
house-
and
so
we
begin
to
deal
with
that
and
the
races
with
regard
to
that.
A
The
playground
that
I
grew
up
on
was
there
in
north
arlington
on
North
Dinwiddie
street.
That
was
the
parade
ground.
That
I
knew
that
I
grew
up
with
and
everything
we
kind
of
did.
We
did
around
that
way
when
we
had
to
do
recreational
activities.
One
of
the
places
that
I
could
recall
going
was
to
the
Arlington
chapter
of
the
Red
Cross
and
they
would
open
up
their
building
and
a
lot
of
the
things
that
we
did
and
we
learn
tap
dancing
five
years
of
ballet
to
a
tap
okay.
A
Those
are
the
kinds
of
things
that
we
are:
the
dead
in
Langston
elementary
school
now:
I'm,
Langston
brown,
community
center,
but
lights
in
elementary
school
and
the
thing
about
growing
up
in
that
nucleus
of
community
and
people.
You
kind
of
knew
everybody
and
everybody
knew
you.
They
kind
of
knew
your
people,
you
knew
their
people
and
it
was
the
kind
of
thing
that
I
don't
think
that's
going
to
happen
in
any
society
in
a
country
today.
But
if
you
showed
off
a
mrs.
smith
street,
not
only
did
mrs.
Smith
have
permission
to
spike.
A
You
got
another
spike
when
you
got
home,
so
you
really
behave
yourself
in
the
community
was
not
like
going
out
on
another
Street
and
acting
out.
The
other
thing
that
are
also
recalled
us
that
we
all
kept
a
key
under
the
pot
on
the
porch
by
the
front
door.
So
you
could
go
into
anybody's
house
when
I
was
growing
up
in
Orange
County
in
our
neighborhood.
A
That
first
transition
piece
for
me
I
think
in
Arlington
County
happened
to
quite
a
swan
cir
junior
high
school
male
swanson
middle
school
integrated.
We
were
the
second
school
in
the
county
that
actually
did
the
integration
at
the
junior
high
school
level.
You've
probably
heard
the
Stratfor
story
already
from
different
people
that
live
that
experience.
A
That
was
a
real
eye-opener
for
me
and
to
sort
of
ponder
you
know
it
must
be
more
this
stuff
than
I
really
I
can
also
remember
sure,
when
we
were
having
the
discussions
in
the
community
different
parents,
different
associations,
Arlington
branch
of
the
n-double-a-cp,
for
example,
meeting
with
the
school
kids
that
were
about
to
move
into
this
thing,
called
integrated
schools
being
with
other
races
and
being
with
teachers
and
counselors
who
were
not
of
our
community.
Who
did
not
know
us
who
did
not
know
our
people
and
how
we
couldn't
succeed
in
that.
A
How
are
we
gonna
survive
in
that
and
how
we're
going
to
have
success
in
that
and
then,
on
top
of
all
those
agendas?
How
we're
gonna
learn
how
we're
gonna
prepare
for
what
we
want
to
do
and
I'm
glad
that
it
happened.
I'm
curious
is
that
if
we
had
to
go
through
that
kind
of
experiment
today,
how
would
we
fail?
A
A
The
other
thing
that
I
think
was
interesting
about
this
once
in
junior
high
school,
it's
also
the
high
school
were
Warren
Beatty
and
children.
Mcclain
went
to
school
in
Arlington,
and
the
thing
that
I
just
delighted
in
is
that
more
baby
and
I
had
the
same
home
at
teacher,
ok
different
years
clearly,
but
that
whole
idea
and
the
question
was
back
in
that
generation.
A
The
boys
took
shop
and
auto
mechanics
and
the
girls
all
took
home
economics
and
how
to
change
a
baby's
diaper,
but
be
that
as
it
may,
you
had
to
learn
to
do
these
things,
and
I
can
remember
the
home
egg
teacher
talking
about.
Do
you
know
that
Warren
baby
this
was
such
as
the
easiest
a
ever
had
to
get.
He
was
a
joke.
He
was
an
actor.
He
really
didn't
have
to
be
smart,
so
they
say,
but
be
that
as
it
may,
it
was
like.
A
Oh
one
didn't
have
to
bake
a
cake
because
there
was
a
girl
in
the
class
that
would
make
it
for
him
and
war
never
had
to
finish
his
apron
with
the
apron
time,
because
a
girl
would
finish
that
thought
up.
First
time
I
had
to
do
with
inequity
when
it
comes
to
gender
and
trying
to
see,
but
why
I
mean
I
would
have
loved
to
have
known
how
to
break
down
a
copper
ale
and
put
it
back
together
too,
but
those
opportunities
just
were
not
available
to
me.
Surely
and
I
had
the
same
math
teacher.
A
Okay,
do
me
is
different
years,
but
to
hear
the
teacher
talk
about
Shirley
MacLaine
and
how
her
whole
idea
was
dance.
She
loved
ignis,
that's
what
she
was
all
about.
That's
what
her
family
supported!
That's!
What
her
family
would
make
sure
that
she
had
the
opportunities
and
she
had
to
be
out
of
school
for
performance.
A
So
be
it
just
that
much
insight
into
how
different
people
dealt
with
things
and
their
children
differently
really
begin
to
open
up
something
for
me,
because
then,
when
we
had
the
situation
where
some
of
the
children
in
the
school
would
not
be
in
class
because
of
yom
kippur
war,
all
of
a
sudden
I
had
to
deal
with
differences
on
religious
spaces
on
ethnic
macys
things
growing
up
in
the
Negro
community.
I
just
didn't
have
to
deal
with
often
as
I
talk
about
it.
Now.
A
What
I
think
about
the
changes
that
I
had
to
deal
with,
particularly
when
it
comes
to
religious
beliefs,
only
had
to
do
what
Christians
and
Jews
that's
all
I
knew,
okay
and
the
only
time
they
had
to
deal
with
Muslim
was
after
Malcolm,
X,
K
Morsi.
You
know,
I
need
you
to
understand
that
I
think
the
Arlington
County
voices
are
so
much
richer,
are
so
very
different
and
those
opportunities
that
they
are
better
for
children
for
our
grandchildren
and
even
for
a
great
grandchildren.