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Pat Collins Snow Stick ~\n\n"My career sort of morphed into two things, okay? I cover murders, and I measure snow. I have the official Pat Collins Snow Stick. It\u2019s the only way to officially measure snow in Washington. I\u2019m more accurate than National Airport, you just ask people."\n\nPat Collins - Award Winning Reporter - NBC4\n\nA Ockershausen:\tThis is a special day for me for a lot of reasons, which I'll get into, but News 4 viewers know this man as the guy with the yardstick. I know them as the consummate professional, the go to guy to get the real story behind the story. The reporter that you lean into to really listen to what he has to say. He's an official member of Our Town, a native Washingtonian, a good Catholic. There's no such thing as a bad Catholic. He graduated from Notre Dame. He's a Vietnam vet. Not to mention that he's a Silver Circle winner. He has ten Emmy's, two Clarion awards, and he's the winner of the Chesapeake AP Award for the best featured reporter. I'd love to welcome my very good friend from Channel 4 and WRC-TV, Pat Collins. \nPat Collins:\tThank you. It's great to be here. \nA Ockershausen:\tDid you know, Our Town started as a story about Our Town, because we did a TV show that was short lived but it was popular at the time. So, Janice says to me, why don't we bring back some of the people and give them a view to the public of people we grew up with. And the names you'll know, and we're so delighted that, Pat, everybody has felt something about Our Town is on this show. And this is tour Town, 'cause you were born here.\nGrowing Up on H Street NE - Swampoodle - Washington DC \nPat Collins:\tYeah, I love this city. I grew up on H Street NE, they call it Swampoodle.\nA Ockershausen:\tWonderful place though.\nPat Collins:\t324 H Street NE, I grew up in the house that my grandfather had. My grandfather was an engineer on the B&O railroad.\nA Ockershausen:\tWow.\nPat Collins:\tAnd that's why we live so close to Union Station. My grandfather ...\nA Ockershausen:\tCould walk to work.\nPat Collins:\tCould walk to work. And then my father, he went to school, and he became a doctor. And so what he did, is he set up his office on the first floor of the building, and then we lived on the second floor of two row houses. And that's where I grew up, 324 H Street.\nA Ockershausen:\t H ...\nPat Collins:\tIt's a Giant Food store now. In fact, if you go to that Giant down there, and you walk into the produce section, you'll be in my bedroom. It was H Street, you know, it's not ...\nA Ockershausen:\tWhere are Little Sisters of the Poor?\n Pat Collins:\tThey were right down the street ...\nA Ockershausen:\tYeah, they were on H Street.\nCottage Industry: Steal Pat Collins' 2 Watchdogs for Reward\nPat Collins:\tThey were patients of my father, Little Sisters of the Poor. And you know, it wasn't all that fashionable back then. It was pretty rough back in ... you know, we had two watch dogs. They were stolen three times. It was sort of a cottage industry: steal the Collins' dogs, wait an appropriate time, knock on the front door, and you get a 20 dollar reward. I mean, we bought those dogs back so many times, it was sort of funny. And then we park in the back, there was a parking lot back in the alley. I used to play in the alley.\nA Ockershausen:\tNow they're called rear driveways. But you and I know them as alleys.\nPat Collins:\tOr muse. They call them muse. They actually put homes in them, call them muse. We call them as alleys. I'd rollerskate back in there, but ...\nA Ockershausen:\tTrash.\nBack When Trash Pickup was done with Burlap\nPat Collins:\tOh, the trash. And how they picked up trash back then, they didn't have those big ...\nA Ockershausen:\tThey hustled about, didn't they?\nPat Collins:\tThey had these big burlap cloths they'd put down, and they'd dump the trash onto these burlap bags, and the men would have to hoist it up into the big trash trucks, and take ...\nA Ockershausen:\tThey were hard working guys.