This week for Georgetown Time Machine, I thought I’d share a photo bursting with the joy of spring. It comes from the DC Historical Society.
According to the attached record, the photo is from Emil Press from May 1967. The text accompanying it says “Georgetown balloon pedlar. His cry: make the children happy, make the ladies happy!”
He looks to be peddling his balloons at the corner of Wisconsin and N St. The Little Tavern burger shop (which, many tenants later, is Dig) sits behind him.
Nothing much more to say but to enjoy the happy scene!
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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I remember him very well, he often waited outside The Parlor ice cream parlor near the corner of Wisconsin and Q, probably because he knew children would be coming in and out of that establishment. He had a deep, resonating voice. I often wondered what became of him. Thanks for the memory!
“See the Ba Loooons, they are big, they are Beautiful. Make the ladies happy, make the children happy”. I hadn’t thought about this guy in decades, but was a constant feature on Wisconsin Ave in the late sixties when I was a teenager. Some random memory made me google “Georgetown, see the balloons” , I scrolled through half a dozen entries for a hot air balloon festival in Georgetown Texas and the voila, there he was. Thanks
I’m an old guy and knew of the Georgetown balloon man because of a WHFS station ID that used his patter (he added the obligatory legal ID at the end).
But when I heard that recording I realized this was the same man who had a left an indelible impression on my childhood self as a hot dog vendor at old Griffith Stadium. The lilt was the same but he called “they’re delicious, they’re nutritious…”
We loved him and “it’s delicious, it’s nutritious” became a “thing” in our family for decades.
Can anything he sold have given as much joy as the sound of his voice?