1st day of summer...

happy astronomical, first day of summer and happy friday readers! we are in the beginning of our summer solstice and i have one lingering question: what ever happened to long john silvers?

i mean really do they still exist? fast food seafood? really? thats like saying drive through root canal or get an acl surgery in 30 minutes or less or the surgery is free......i digress.

i took the liberty and saved a notepad on my desktop to jot down things to write about today so i'll do my best to stay on point and not scattered. i'll also try and stay in chronological order read: Monday to Thursday.

monday afternoon the area was hammered by a random storm as i was on my way to dicks sporting goods after work - all the traffic lights on the "Pike" went out and of course friggin' idiots were blazing through intersections. in fear for my life, i decided to take a back road and get home before someone killed me. i felt for someone as i saw a huge oak tree laying on a red honda civic; the thing was smashed to hell - i was mad i didn't have a camera because i guarantee it would have made DCist picture of the day. so the power was out all over arlington so i met a friend for some drinks in dc. i had chopin on the rocks and i'm sad to report that it is much better than grey goose and at only 50 cents more per glass. i'm sad because at one point i was the official grey goose ambassador and i think i'm going to make the switch.

oh the usher cd is good, have a listen to i think my favorite song from the album:

most of the evenings this week i've been trying to catch up with the dvr. in particular anthony bourdain's no reservations on the travel channel. i hit "record series" on the dvr and i had like 10 episodes to watch - so i've been hammering through them every night. i really like this show and of course, i tend to like all the asian trips he takes - very traditional, great looking food, and some intense history.

not to ruffle any feathers but let tim russert rest in peace and leave his family alone. he wasn't an elected official, he was a well-liked member of the media. lets respect him and his family and quit having 24 hour, 7 day a week coverage. peter jennings never had this type of coverage; thank goodness.

i laughed at myself this morning as i changed in my works locker room after biking in. busted up brown shoes, very casual khakis, and my old roommates hand-me-down polo shirt. i remember a friend telling me once "dress for the job you want, not the job you have..." what if i don't want a job? what if all i want to do is chill out and have fun? what if all i want to do is rent snorkels and masks on the beach somewhere? i'm just sayin'...

anyway, thats pretty much it for the week but i wanted to leave you with a little history lesson. i love my neighborhood. i love south arlington. there is a bit of history that i randomly read on one of those blue, historical-marker signs the other day and its the Nauck Neighborhood which is right across the street from me. the following is from a press release on arlington county's website and i think its pretty interesting. have a great weekend...

Nauck: A Neighborhood History

The Nauck community has a long and diverse history. The area that now comprises the Nauck neighborhood was originally granted to John Todd and Evan Thomas in 1719. The land was later acquired by Robert Alexander and sold to John Parke Custis in 1778, becoming part of the Abingdon Estate. Until the Civil War era, the area remained farmland with few structures. Free blacks, such as Levi and Sarah Ann Jones, who built a house in 1844, owned land prior to the Civil War in what is now Nauck.

After the war, the area attracted several families from Freedmen’s Village (located near what is now Foxcroft Heights) and other locations. In 1874, John D. Nauck, Jr., a resident of Washington, D.C., bought 46 acres of land in south Arlington and began subdividing it; and the neighborhood of Nauck as it is known today began to form.

In that same year, land was purchased for the relocation of the Little Zion Church (now Lomax AME Zion Church), a congregation that was first organized in the Freedmen’s Village in 1865-66. The church building at the new site, which also served as a public school, first opened in 1875 (later known as the Kemper School). The School Board built a one-room school in 1885. In 1893, a new two-story brick school was constructed at South Lincoln Street and was later replaced by a larger building, now known as Drew Elementary.

It was the electric railway, which came to Nauck in 1898 that spurred the development of the neighborhood. The Nauck line of the Washington, Arlington, and Fairfax electric railway ran parallel to what is now South Kenmore Street and there was a station located south of what is now the intersection of 19th Street South and South Kenmore Street.

The 1902 Virginia Constitution that restricted the rights of black citizens halted the expansion of the neighborhood. The Nauck neighborhood continued to subdivide the land already owned by blacks so that more people could be accommodated, but the neighborhood boundaries remained relatively unchanged.

World War II brought about significant changes to Nauck. Dunbar Homes, located at Kemper Road and Shirlington Road, was built during the war on a tract of land that was once owned by Levi Jones and his family. The construction of the Pentagon and its surrounding roads resulted in the destruction of several predominantly black neighborhoods in Arlington thereby displacing many people. Some of these people relocated to Nauck as did the Lomax AME Church now on 24th Road South between Glebe Road and Shirlington Road.

Maps from 1952 reveal that a few blocks were still vacant and others were nearly built to capacity and appear much as they do today. The neighborhood of Nauck continues to develop along the lines established many years ago and is a community rich in history.