And I'm never going back to my old school

So it's starting to look like we may not be living in the DC area much longer. This shouldn't be too much of a surprise, as we've wanted to get out of DC for a while, and that was part of the reason of quitting our jobs last summer. Anyway, it got me thinking about all the different times and places I lived while in Maryland, ever since I was 3, from time to time. So I thought I'd drive around and put together a photo blog. First, I need to warn everyone that my memory for things more than 2 days ago is horrible. Therefore some of the things I say below may be completely false. If so, please leave a comment and I will fix it. Second, after I looked over these pictures I didn't think they were that good. I should have gotten some farther away shots on some things, and many are through the windshield which may have some streaks on them. But it's the best I could do. Also, Blogger stinks when it comes to formatting text around photos, so I apologize in advance if this looks really crappy. (All photos taken on March 8, 2007--note the snow.)

My family moved to Maryland around 1972 or 1973 from New Jersey, and we lived here until we moved to New Hampshire in 1981. I was 3 or so, so I just about remember the move in bits and pieces. We lived in this house on Penn Shop Rd. in Mt. Airy. I'm not sure if this picture shows how small this place was, but it was tiny. It had a finished basement, and somehow we got 7 people to live in this house and kept the wars to a minimum. There used to be shrubs in front of the bedroom windows on the right that went up to the windows, but I guess they ripped those out. There was a small hill to the right of the house where we would sled in the snow, and if there was enough ice we could get all the way across the backyard, the Fulford's back yard (next door), and to the field behind the houses. And if I had pulled back the camera a bit, you would see a tree on the right. I'm not sure if it's the same tree as when we lived there, but if so, it's gotten smaller.

Next door is the Fulford's house, who still live there today. The huge garage/shed in the back is an addition since the 70's, but otherwise it looks pretty much the same.

When I got old enough for school I attended Green Valley Elementary School, shown here. Believe it or not, I still remember (or at least I think I remember) the school song:

Green Valley is our school,
We always try to go by the rules.
We do our best and try to win,
And if you think you’re good enough we’ll let you in!
Green Valley is number 1,
We do our work and then have our fun.

There were two more lines to the song, but I can’t remember them. Anyway, I went to school here from K through 5th grade, and it looks exactly the same. The last time I was in the school was in 1992, when my official residence was Reyburn Ct. (see below) and Green Valley was the polling place for the the elections.

Between the house on Penn Shop and Green Valley was the "Kemptown Mall", as we affectionately called it. Kemptown wasn't a real town, just this 1 store and some houses clustered around it on Rt. 80.

For some reason I remember the weirdest things from when I was a kid. And one of those things was that my brother Tim used to work at a gas station at the intersection of 80 and 27, just between Mt. Airy and Damascus. No longer a gas station, I think it's a furnace repair place now.

Another thing I remember is a pizza place in Damascus that either Lucy, Tim or maybe both worked at for a while. No idea if it was good pizza or not, and it's now a "beauty salon", though I think that place is now out of business as well.

We seemed to spend a lot of time in Damascus, as we went there for church all the time. This is St. Paul's Catholic Church, which I remember burning down when I was a kid, and we had to go to church in a middle school. It was rebuilt, but I'm not even sure they're using this one still, as there was a lot larger and newer church right behind this one that looks to be the main church for the parish now. Site of my first communion, which I recall having to go to the bathroom so bad that I forced my father to take me outside to use the facilities during the middle of the mass. One in the long line of classy moments in my life.

Another Damascus landmark is the Druid Theater, the first place I saw Star Wars back in 1977. I also remember seeing Close Encounters of the Third Kind and plenty of those Disney movies of the 70's like That Darn Cat and Candleshoe. It's all closed up now, but I guess they haven't gotten the gumption to tear it down yet.

Any trip through Damascus can't be complete without a stop at Jimmie Cone. This place still packs them in during the summer months, when the lines are 20 deep in the early evenings. It looks to be closed for the winter, but it should be opening up soon.

During those summer evenings of my youth there was always a constant sound while playing in the back yard. The 75-80 drag strip wasn't that far away, and the rev of the engines would carry all the way to our house. I believe the drag strip finally went under a couple years ago, but the Wilcom Inn, located right in front of the strip, still looks to be going strong.

After Green Valley I went to New Market Middle School for about 1 1/2 years, grades 6 and part of 7. I remember that somehow I got talked into playing the tuba for the band there. I think I had a friend in the band, and they had no tuba player. I had never played anything beyond a recorder, but I said I'd give it a try. I must have picked it up pretty quick as I made the band and even played in a school concert before we ended up moving to New Hampshire in the middle of 7th grade. I remember having to haul that thing on the bus on the way home once or twice too. The middle school shared the bus with Linganore High School, and I'm pretty sure I got razzed trying to carry that tuba. Which might explain why I only brought it home once or twice.

Speaking of Linganore, I never attended there, but everyone else seemed to, including Tim and Lucy who both graduated from there. It looks in real bad shape these days, and they definitely need to build a newer model for the kids up there.

The old football/soccer field at Linganore is still in the same place. I played on this field a few times for LAYAA soccer, and also worked some of the high school soccer games as a ball boy while Vince played for Linganore. I also remember this as the location of another one of my good ideas as a kid. During halftime of a soccer game that Vince was playing in, I had left the stadium with some friends to run around and generally be annoying. Instead of just walking back into the stadium, we tried climbing over the chain-link fence, where I somehow got the back of my hand stuck on the top of the fence. Being 10 and completely clueless I decided I should just pull my hand away real quick, and of course my skin stayed on top of the fence. A lot of screaming, my father driving me to the doctor's office where my mother worked, and 20 stitches later, I ended up with a scar on my hand in the shape of an anchor. Or a "W", which is what I told kids I was "trying to do all along".

So we moved to New Hampshire in the fall of 1981, and then my parents moved back to Maryland after I graduated from Concord High School in 1987. I was on my way to Blacksburg that fall, but my official home residence became this place on Log House Rd. in Damascus. We rented it while my parents had a new house built back up in Mt. Airy, and I don't remember staying here that much.

After a year or so, my parents moved to the Reyburn Ct. house in Mt. Airy, and lived there for about 10 years. During that time I believe almost everyone in the family lived there for some period of time. The basketball hoop that Vince and I put up is still on the side of the driveway, and considering it's been less than 10 years since my parents sold it, I'm not surprised that it still looks pretty much the same as I remember it. I spent my summers here for the most part, and also a year while I was "taking a break" from Virginia Tech. (During that year I spent a total of 6 days working at a local Arby's before I couldn't take it anymore, walked in one day and quit. Even to this day I can't believe I lasted that long. And the irony is that I hate roast beef.) After graduating in the summer of 1992 I ended up moving back to New Hampshire, and that was pretty much the end of my time at this house.

Another view of the house, from the far corner. It looks like the neighbors have a swing on the two nice trees in the lot next door.

Finally, this last photo of the house next door to the Reyburn house. This is looking toward our house (which is behind the visible house) from the intersection of Reyburn Ct. and Browland. When the neighbors in this house moved in (I think it was around 1989 or so) they planted all of those trees. I couldn't BELIEVE how huge the trees have all become, and it's almost as if the neighbors have their own private forest right next door.

So that's my photo blog. My parents moved out in 1999 or so, but I just remembered that I actually lived there once more. When Sage and I moved back to MD in 1998 from Tampa, we both lived here for about 3 weeks before we found an apartment in Germantown. So it just goes to prove: You can go home again.