imported post
LEO 229 wrote:
...SNIP
Just curious how things were back in the day....
I can't remember ever meeting anyone when I was growing up who could not speak english very well. I do remember one family who had a heavy Spanish accent, but he was from Spain, and had been Naturalized. There were immigrants in the area, but not really that many, and most were from eastern and western Europe. Asians of any variety were not common, but Koreans were the most common of those here in the suburbs, as late as the mid 1960s. In DC there was a fairly robust Chinese community.
In the early 1970's that started to change with a lot of Vietnamese, who came in with the evacuation of the US at the end of the war. Most settled along the length of Old Dominion drive and Glebe road east (North) of Mclean, and out through what is now Balston. There were also immigrant communities along Wilson Blvd. in Arlington.
Most of the immigrant communities were in Washington DC, and Alexandria, with some in Falls Church, and parkington (now Balston). In those days the import docks in Alexandria were still a very active international trade area. As a result Fairlington was one of the first places to begin to change over to an ethnic immigrant community. Most of the service industry was populated by people who commuted OUT to the suburbs from DC, and they were predominantly Black.
In the early 50's Falls Church was considered to be in the Sticks. Mass transit consisted of bus routes, and a streetcar system in DC itself. You can still see some of the tracks in Georgetown. Ten cents took you anywhere in the city along the street car lines. In the early 60's fairfax City, Oakton, and Vienna were WAY out in the burbs, and well separated by wooded country and farms. WO&D railroad still ran through the center of the area, and bisected Vienna with an at grade crossing.
When they first built the Beltway, it was 2 lanes in each direction. People used to drive all the way around for FUN! It took a little less than 90 min to do the whole loop. For the first few years I don't remember ever seeing traffic actually stopped on the beltway. It would slow down sometimes to around 35-45 but that was as bad as it ever got unless there was a wreck.
The area did not really explode until the Nixon administration. He brought a lot of Californians with him that never left. Before then people came in with an administration, and left when it ended.
When my family moved into the McLean area, it was in the sticks, cheap to buy into, and it was still legal to shoot in your back yard. We moved there because the construction of route 66 took our house in the Oakton area. Next time you go to McLean, drive over to the intersection of Springhill road and Old Dominion Drive. Today there is a community of $1M + town houses kitty corner from the 7-11 there. 40 years ago, that corner was an auto graveyard.
I learned to drive at night, sitting in my Dad's lap, on the Dullus Access road before they opened the airport. At that time there was NOTHING along the entire length of that road. When they built Reston, it was an experimental concept city. Sterling was mostly fields, but it was under construction.. It was in the middle of nowhere, and it took 30 years for civilization to catch up. Great Falls was a tiny rural village with almost nothing but the firehouse and Bucks General store.
Oh yea, All these HOV lanes people keep claiming were built for car pools. Not so. They were originally express lanes, open to all traffic, but reversible to accommodate rush hour. They turned them into carpool lanes in the 1970's during the fuel shortages. Route 66 was supposed to be open to all traffic all the way to the Roosevelt Bridge, but money talked and everyone walks.
Up until about 1972, this was a very nice place to live. It started getting crowded fast around then and it has not stopped since. But it was not until the early 1980's that it started being a handicap trying to get by in my native language of English.
It is all a little different now.
Regards
EDIT: One last thing. I was born here, and grew up with others who ere as well. All those bad drivers you see are NOT born and raised here. Most true locals, are NOT the fanatics you see in traffic every day, and locals DO know how to drive in the snow.
