Comments on: July 28, 1979: The Long Way Home

By: Serfincyberspace

Serfincyberspace — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:12:48 +0000

Great post Sean. Brings back all the classic memories. excellent time and place to be a kid. few more thoughts… walking through the woods a half mile every day to school with no parents frantically chasing us to make sure we were safe (no just a bunch of kids looking out for each other as we walked through the projects of Carter Lake) – those memories could be a post themselves of Restons struggle for the haves’ and have nots’ to live together in harmony, Mount Reston on snow days and the hill next to your house where you could jump the road of you had massive speed, The Roman Cave restaurant!, concrete fountains and the pyramid at Lake Ann, flashlight tag, and the all time classic… Getting busted eating your dads cookies from the cookie jar late night (sounds even funnier now when I write that out).

By: Bethanie Downes

Bethanie Downes — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:33:50 +0000

Thanks for this. Just wanted to say that reading it brought me home to the old ‘hood for a few minutes. You’re so right, it was nothing less than an amazing privilege to have been there. Lots of great memories….love all of the old photos!

By: Marc

Marc — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:25:22 +0000

Hey Sean, this was amazing. That pic of the VA Gentleman plant was , for some reason, almost haunting. The near exponential growth of our area is in some ways sad and in others just a sign of the times. In my hood, which wasn’t quite as far along as Reston was, there was literally an abandoned farm complete with a barn, a loft, a creek, and miles of overgrown land. What had happened was the farmer had died and they couldn’t find a next of kin, so before the county could claim the land they had to wait a certain amount of time to make sure nobody was going to pop up and claim it. The Fairfax County Parkway runs through where it was now, but back then all that ran through it was a tribe of boys who never grew tired of hunting with bb guns, leaping out of the loft, and investigating the old tools and stalls that stood waiting for the old farmer who wasn’t coming. They finally got it cleared when I was 15, but just that recently we had roller rinks, movie theaters, video arcades (Flippers) and the like rubbing up against the agricultural roots of the area. Pretty amazing. A short ride past Fair Oaks on route 50 and youa re kinda back there…I wonder how long it will last