Invitation...

I promised my next post would be about a great band - Eddie from Ohio, but I'm going to sneak a in quick post to say HI!! to all my McLean Facebook friends who may be dropping in here for the first time. Glad you stopped by, hope you'll read some of the old posts and leave a favorite Memory of McLean - a Great Place to Grow Up!! I know we'd all like hearing from you!!

Facebook Friends of McLean, Virginia

Facebook is an amazing place!! I can hardly call it a web site. It's a gathering place - guess that's why it's called a social network. At times I feel like my past and present are "Face to Facebook." I've found so many of my Langley friends and more are joining every day. Some I've known all my life and and all for most of my life!! So here's to each of you!! I see your faces, hear your voices and feel your spirits with me each time I log on!!

Thinking about the McLean members of Facebook, I decided it was time to resurrect my challenge to list the stores in Salona Village. Those of you who've been with me a while, go back and take another look at the old post and see what you can do. And to any new visitors....HELP!!! There is an old post that describes my "challenge."

Maybe one of the McLeanites new to this blog will step up to the challenge....some still live in the area and they can go check it out and tell us what's in Salona Village today. Remember.....I'm ONLY asking for the list of stores (in order) that were in the strip across from the Safeway - from left to right as you face the strip - Circa the late 60s. And don't forget - there is still that terrific prize waiting for the first one to get the list right!!!

Since we're talking about a shopping center, tell us what your favorite store was in Salona. For fun, include a memory or let us know why the store was/is your favorite.

I'll go first.....At different times in my life, my favorite store probably changed, but mostly it would have to be Mesmerelda's!! What a neat shop! There was always so much fun stuff to look at and occasionally buy for that special gift. I loved going in there!!

Here are a couple of other McLean shorts (not from Salona) that might trigger a memory in you.

Junior year at Langley, I worked at Eleanor's Town and Country in the Giant shopping center...(as did someone who recently joined Facebook...). The liquor store was next door and occasionally I was sent over there to get change. One day...TRUE STORY!!...Eleanor's window displays were being changed just as a man came out of the liquor store clutching the top of a small brown bag like he was holding a chicken by its neck. He saw the naked mannequins, his eyes got big and as he swaggered by, he chucked his bag into the trash can and kept going as if nothing had happened. I told the story at the dinner table that night and all my Dad said was that I was not to go in the liquor store any more! I thought it was funny....guess his sense of humor switch was not on. All he could see was his little girl in a liquor store and what would people think!! (I was only 16 and could probably have passed for a couple of years younger.)

How funny it is today to think about what folks thought of liquor stores back then. Fathers are protective of their "little" girls, but maybe some of Dad's attitude came from running liquor in southwestern VA during prohibition...but that's really another story!!

The summer after my freshman or sophomore year at VA Tech, I convinced my Mom to get me a bottle of rum. We went into that same liquor store, which still had a counter with a clerk who got what you wanted - no self serve. Mom asked for the rum...but was stumped when the man asked her what kind....she turned to me and inquired, "What kind?" You know how the rest of that story goes....the funny part was that it was her first time in a liquor store. Teachers weren't real people - it was not "appropriate" for her to be seen in a liquor store. We never went anywhere without hearing some young person call "Mrs. Parker....Mrs. Parker...." She may have slipped in and out of the liquor store that day without being "caught," but, I'll always remember it with a chuckle.

I look forward to hearing your stories!!

July 4th Fireworks and Evans Farm Inn and Stuff

Thanks for the comments about fireworks in McLean and what you all did on Sunday night. But I still hope someone else reads the post about fireworks - I sure wish I knew where there were local McLean fireworks - we had to have had them....and parking on Dolly Madison and watching from there (other than DC and Wolf Trap) is all I remember.

On another note, it got so cold here in Blacksburg this evening that we ended up going to a bar to watch the *Hokie* football game vs Duke even though it was here in Lane Stadium. It was a sloppy game, a really sloppy game - and that may be kind, but a victory none the less.....The stats (except for fumbles) will make it sound a whole lot better than it was. But as I said - a win is a win in the BCS and ACC standings.

Anyway, we were sitting at the bar of the Rivermill on Draper Road in downtown Blacksburg and I met a Saxon....she just happened to be sitting next to me...a '92 LHS grad who lived in Great Falls - you know who you are and if you read this, I expect to hear from you...so you 90s grads - leave a comment. I'd like to hear from you...all though I initially said this blog was for those of us who grew up in the 50s - 70s, I would like to hear from you younger McLeaners. (I'm trying out some of the possible names for McLean residents.....)

I've been promising to get better at this blogging thing and so I'm going to try to add some pics - scans of postcards from Evans Farm Inn. So, you'll either see the pics or an apology. These vintage postcards could be yours.....I'm setting them aside for the contest prizes....dont lose out...go back to the contest postings and win one or more of these choice collectibles.

Thanks to you faithful readers for being here!!! But we need more.....the more folks out there reading and commenting, the more fun this will be, so please pass this along to your McLean friends - young and old!! Keep us going!!! I've got lots McLean balls to toss up in the air, but juggling with a partner is more fun!!

Nostalgic Memories of McLean, Virginia

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!