I WAS BORN and raised in the shadow of the Capitol, in prefix = st1 /Washington,D.C., as were my parents and my mother's parents.  Our row house was on a tree-lined street just blocks from the building that was the heart of the federal legislative branch. When I was a child, in the 1940s, friends and I would pack a lunch or ride a streetcar to the Capitol. If we roller-skated, we hid the skates in the bushes in the park across the street before entering the building.  I knew every corner of the Capitol. We'd play hide-and-seek and pretend we saw ghosts in the halls and stairways. I don't know how we got away with it.I remember the beautiful ladies' rooms, with their marble floors and sinks. I pretended that I was a fine lady in them.  In those days, you could walk around the Capitol dome , which was a little scary for me. I loved the wonderful paintings and statues and the subway rides to the SenateOfficeBuilding. It was like an amusement ride. I even used to sit in the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives--until I became bored with all the talk and went on another adventure.  Whenever I ran up the steps to the huge bronze doors of the Rotunda, I would look back to the world below like a hero. As soon as the doors were opened, the sense of history surrounded me, and I knew it was someplace special.  Those were lucky days, when an American citizen could wander in the Capitol and be a part of history.  Once war was declared, some things changed in the nation's capital.  Because of concerns that Washington might be attacked, as Londonhad been, everyone prepared. Kids at my elementary school wore dog tags, and each of us was fingerprinted.  My father, a pipe worker, became a civil defense warden . During an air raid, his job was to turn off any leaking gas. Since he always had a cigarette in his mouth, maybe that was not a good choice, but he had a gas mask and flashlight hanging in the rafters of our basement...the mask looked like a monster in the ceiling. My 15-year-old brother was a junior civil defense warden. During air- raid drills, he knocked on doors and asked people to put out their lights. I remember huge searchlights that crisscrossed the skies during the drills, looking for enemy planes. By telling the childhood experience, the passage suggests that   _  .
the writer is a daughter of a member of Representatives. the Capitol used to be open to the public in history. London was attacked during the war, as well as Washington. the writer's father and brother joined the army during the war.