Remember McLean when the Giant was still a farm? Remember the Big Blue House in the center of town that was a Real Estate Office? Remember when McDonald's was only a walk-up; hamburgers were 15 cents and french fries were a dime? Remember the bowling alley, Eleanor's Town and Country, Highs and the Teen Club?
McLean, Virginia was a GREAT place to grow up!! Some might say that any place you called "home" was a great place to grow up...but McLean really was great!!! Millions know it today as an international suburb of Washington DC, home of the CIA. Well, when I grew up there, the population was about 10,000, the CIA was hidden behind a little sign that read "Bureau of Public Roads," and life was simple through the eyes of a child. There was a blacksmith, a hobby store, and the sweetest corn I've ever tasted.
There are a few images in life we'll keep forever, and waiting for that corn to come in from the field is one of them for me. Taste is largely driven by smell, and smell is closely associated with memory, so, maybe that is why we remember the corn so well. We'd get a dozen ears and an extra was stuffed in the bag for good measure. Shucking made my hands so sticky from the sweet corn sugar that they were covered with silks when I finished. From field to mouth was less than an hour. It doesn't get any better than that.
I purposefully left out the name of the family and the location of the corn fields on their McLean farm. Do you remember? How good is your Memory of McLean? Let me know.
To lots of you, I must sound ancient....blacksmiths and farms in McLean....right!! But whatever you live today, will be your memories tomorrow. And I love my Memories of McLean.
So, join me on a nostalgic trip down McLean Lane. I'd love to hear from you!
McLean, Virginia was a GREAT place to grow up!! Some might say that any place you called "home" was a great place to grow up...but McLean really was great!!! Millions know it today as an international suburb of Washington DC, home of the CIA. Well, when I grew up there, the population was about 10,000, the CIA was hidden behind a little sign that read "Bureau of Public Roads," and life was simple through the eyes of a child. There was a blacksmith, a hobby store, and the sweetest corn I've ever tasted.
There are a few images in life we'll keep forever, and waiting for that corn to come in from the field is one of them for me. Taste is largely driven by smell, and smell is closely associated with memory, so, maybe that is why we remember the corn so well. We'd get a dozen ears and an extra was stuffed in the bag for good measure. Shucking made my hands so sticky from the sweet corn sugar that they were covered with silks when I finished. From field to mouth was less than an hour. It doesn't get any better than that.
I purposefully left out the name of the family and the location of the corn fields on their McLean farm. Do you remember? How good is your Memory of McLean? Let me know.
To lots of you, I must sound ancient....blacksmiths and farms in McLean....right!! But whatever you live today, will be your memories tomorrow. And I love my Memories of McLean.
So, join me on a nostalgic trip down McLean Lane. I'd love to hear from you!
