We love NBC4’s Pat Collins. Our coverage of the legendary and unforgettable local news figure says as much.

But did you know he grew up along H Street NE? Indeed he did, as the Post reported today in an article on a Heritage Trail set up by Cultural Tourism along the city’s hottest new nightlife destination:

“Hey that’s where my childhood bedroom was!” called out Pat Collins, who accompanied Lyons on the H Street walk. The descendant of Irish immigrants who lived and worked in the neighborhood is now a reporter for NBC4 Washington. He was pointing to a vast construction site at Third and H streets NE, where a Giant Food supermarket is being built. “And over there, that’s the five-and-dime where I bought a parakeet, and the sandwich shop that had a chocolate milkshake where the straw would stand straight up,” Collins said, pointing to what is now a string of trendy bars and an Ethio­pian coffee house­ where young residents are hunched over their laptops sipping lattes.

Parakeets and chocolate milkshakes? Classic Collins.