Rockville Pike aka Route 355

We discovered Miller’s NJ Alehouse in Paramus, on Route 4.  They have a fantastic chicken cheesesteak.  As it was, I found there are two Miller’s Alehouses in the DC area:  one in Sterling, Virginia, the other on Rockville Pike (355) in Rockville, Maryland, where Shakey’s Pizza used to be (so far as I know the only remaining Shakey’s is in L.A., and I went there in summer 2010).   Anyhow.  Here’s a blog which serves as a HEY YOU to my readers from Montgomery County, Maryland, and former classmates at St. Martin’s. 

Wishing to visit my mom in Frederick, I decided to avoid 270 and take the long way, up 355.  At this point in its life, 355 is called Rockville Pike.

Rockville.   This is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, and the location of its courthouse complex.  The old red brick building is still there, a “newer” concrete block dating from the 1930s (the former District Court), a brand new District Court building across the street, and a newly expanded Circuit Court building next to that.  The original courthouse was Hungerford’s Tavern, a real tavern.  Imagine if the local Hooters or Buffalo Wild Wings served as a courthouse.   Mind.  Blown.

Wisconsin Ave./Rockville Pike/355.  What we think of as 355 is actually VERY old.  It used to be called Rock Creek Main Road, and stretched from what became Washington, DC, all the way to Frederick.  In June 1863, Confederate forces stopped by Rockville on their way up to get their asses kicked at Gettysburg.

It starts out under the Whitehurst Freeway in DC as Wisconsin Ave., goes up the hill, and proceeds northwest to Friendship Heights, in Maryland.   Further stops:

1.         Chevy Chase.  Not the actor.  No idea why they both have the same name.  This is a densely developed urban area with lots of fancy stores, including Mazza Gallerie and Saks Fifth Avenue.

2.         Bethesda.  Home of the Naval Hospital, where I was born in January 1969.  The Chinatown bus stops here, on its way to/from Arlington, VA to NYC, and we stayed here for a bit in summer 1990 waiting for our sea shipment to come over from Paris. 

3.         White Flint Mall.   Now it’s kind of run down and half empty.  I took my LSAT prep classes there in fall 1989.  There seems to be a mattress store every block around here. 

4.         Downtown Rockville, including the courthouse complex.  Rockville Mall was closed in 1994.  There’s some new development here and a movie theater.

5.         Gaithersburg.  Where we used to live (actually, Montgomery Village) and includes Lakeforest Mall, still alive.

6.         Germantown.  Home of Clutch.  The Cider Barrel is still there, but it has been closed the last few times I went past it.  Check out “Opossum Minister” on From Beale Street To Oblivion, as it seems singer Neil Fallon used to live in Montgomery Village.

7.         Clarksburg.   Here the road is two lanes and winds through old houses and no particular development.

8.         Hyattstown.   Likewise.  Now it’s a country road, going up and down hills with farms on either side.  And it’s 2016.   

Leaving Montgomery County…

9.         Urbana, first stop in Frederick County.   75/80 Drag-A-Way is closed down.  I brought my Firebird Formula here several times in the late 1990s.

10.        Frederick, passing by Francis Scott Key Mall, and ending at Route 26. 

Of course, driving this way takes time, but it’s also extremely calming and therapeutic.  Part of the fun is remembering what something used to be.

1.         Drive-in Theater on Hungerford Drive.  Gone.  The Giant across the street used to be a Hechingers.  My dad was big time into hardware, so whereas Best Buy and Barnes & Noble are my current favorite stores, Hechingers (old days) and Home Depot (more recently, up to his passing in 2004) were his temples.

2.         Burger Chef gone.   Now it looks like they’re ALL gone.  If they can bring Roy Rogers back from the brink of extinction, why not Burger Chef?  Or Red Barn?  Yeah, I know – all those horrendously unhealthy burgers and fries we used to eat back then.  Now everything is “gluten-free” and “healthy”.  We’re still dying, though.  Why is that?

3.         King Pontiac is now just King Buick GMC.   The King farm is still behind it, and my dad told me stories about their family.  I bought my first new car, a 1992 Firebird there, on November 22, 1992.  Reed Brothers Dodge, across the street, is still around, and is apparently one of the older car dealerships in the area. 

4.         Montgomery College is still around.  However, I had no occasion to go there, we went to UMCP.  Why no Montgomery County campus of University of Maryland?

4.         Lots of Asian food places too, almost as many as mattress stores.  Is there a connection?

5.         Chafitz – the TV and appliance store - is gone.  It’s a mattress store now.  Or a liquor store.

6.         Phineas, a prime rib restaurant, is gone.  That’s were my parents revealed to us, in September 1978, that by January 1979 we’d be living in Paris.  And my Dad wouldn’t have to mow lawns anymore.

7.         Congressional Plaza.  Now it’s fancied up, but that is apparently one of the older shopping centers.

8.         Shakey’s.  As noted, it’s gone, now a Miller’s Alehouse.  The Toys R Us across the street moved down to Nicholson Lane, and Montrose Road and that area is getting a huge development of high rises to make the older condo building (the Forum?) look small and lost by comparison. 

9.         St. Martin’s Catholic Church & School.  It’s at a crossroads with Summit Ave. – who figured that thing out?  We went there as kids, and I remember many Christmas masses there.  I still go there occasionally, out of sheer nostalgia.  Mind you, it’s a church and not a cathedral.  The pastor joked about reading it called that in the local paper, and remarked, “I missed the part when they made me a bishop…”

            I went to school here from first grade until fall semester (1978) of fifth grade, as did my brother.  At the time we left for Paris, January 1979, my sister was too young for school.  The first and second grade building is now closed up and used for storage.  The third through eighth grade building is completely gone, replaced by a different one.  Now my memories of recess and playing at the school are receding into oblivion, but I can remember the church, its basement, the school buildings, and the rectory across the street with its large field in front.  When I passed by they were selling Christmas trees on that lot.

10.        Corner with Montgomery Village Ave.  The Holiday Inn is still there, as is Lakeforest Mall.  Gaitherstowne Square is still there too.  The A&P is now something else.  For that matter, the A&P in Fort Lee, NJ only recently turned into an ACME, as did the Pathmark in Edgewater.  I point this out because ACME doesn’t sell beer, but A&P did.  At least the one in Fort Lee.  GF would refer to it as “The A and the P”.

11         From Gaithersburg up through Germantown and most of the way to Frederick, as noted before, are incredibly rural, and at that point the memories drop off from the past.  By the time we were kids 270 (70-S) was in place, so our few trips north of Gaithersburg were on the highway.  Besides which, 355 had long since stopped being called Rockville Pike, i.e. Hungerford Drive north of downtown Rockville.

Enjoy it up and down, thankfully as Montgomery County’s main commercial road it is unlikely to disappear any time soon.

Back Country Roads

On my most recent drive back from Fort Lee, ultimate destination Frederick, Maryland (hi Mom!) I varied the route even more.  Normally I’d take I78 west, continue onto I81 west past Harrisburg, follow that all the way to Hagerstown, Maryland, and then loop back east on I70.

However, my travels on Route 30 through Pennsylvania, particularly from York to Lancaster and back, put me across the Susquehanna River at Wrightsville/Columbia.  Route 30 crosses the river on the Wrights Ferry Bridge, a modern 1972 four lane bridge.  Yet parallel to 30 is 462, part of the old Lincoln Highway, and crossing the river on the Veterans Bridge, a much fancier old bridge dating from 1930.  Imagining the traffic across this bridge being Model T’s and A’s is not hard at all – at least not for me. 

The map also shows that Route 30 continues west of York all the way to Gettysburg, where it hits Route 15 coming up from Frederick.  BINGO.   I took this route.  However, while Route 30 is 4 lanes with a median from York to Lancaster, and fairly rapid transit, west of York it zips down to another two-lane country road:  scenic but none too fast.  Two towns along the way have roundabouts, though.  From Gettysburg to Frederick, Route 15 passes through blue mountain scenery, a good complement to the turn-of-the-century small-town route of 30 from York to Gettysburg.  

As it is, Route 30 continues further west of Gettysburg to Chambersburg, where I81 passes through on its way up from Hagerstown.  And Route 15 continues northeast of Gettysburg to Harrisburg, where I81 likewise comes up from Carlisle.  All these roads are connected?  Amazing.  I had no idea.

FARM ON THE FREEWAY.   Sometimes you’re in a hurry.  You don’t have time to take the scenic route.  In that case the freeway is better.  But it’s a rare freeway that gives you any kind of view.   The New Jersey Turnpike is probably the most efficient at bringing you from Delaware to NYC as quickly and directly as possible, but no part of it is attractive.  I70 between Frederick and Hagerstown, and I78 between Allentown and I287 in New Jersey, are the nicest freeways I’ve seen in awhile. 

Bypasses.  Every now and then a major highway passes through a city center.  I95 passes close by downtown Baltimore and Richmond, and right through the center of Providence, Rhode Island.  I91 in Connecticut cuts right through downtown Harford.   Also many newer, modern interstates often seem to run parallel with older, slower routes.  In New Jersey, I80 follows Route 46, I78 follows Route 22 (continuing west into PA), and along the East Coast I95 closely parallels Route 1.  The newer highways tend to bypass the big cities while the older routes run straight through.   It all depends on how much of a hurry you’re in and how much you want to see. 

Other things to consider.  (A) Tolls.  I mentioned in a prior blog, the fastest route from DC to NYC and back has the most tolls.  Driving through PA has no tolls up to NY and only $1 going back.  Modest 4 lane state routes and two lane back country roads almost never have tolls.  (B) Traffic.  Much of the speed of freeways is compromised by construction delays, accident delays, and plain old rush hour traffic.  Theoretically, the NJTP route to NYC is 4 hours under optimal conditions, compared to 5 hours toll-less through PA.  But traffic delays can easily erode that advantage by 30 minutes or an hour, completely negating it.  (B) Night-time.  The picturesque views of the countryside are almost impossible to see at night, so the aesthetic advantage of the back roads is almost nil if you’re travelling then. 

Back Roads Part II – A Vast Conspiracy

If I were inclined to believe that totalitarian dictatorship, despite its dismal track record to date, nonetheless remains the optimal choice of government for a modern society, I could find a clever way of introducing it.   Naturally, Americans and Europeans intoxicated and addicted to this hazy notion of freedom, as abstract and meaningless as it might be, therefore resist vehemently and stridently any overt efforts to restrain said liberty.   Thus subversion and misdirection are necessary to achieve the desired outcome.

My fellow travelers of the so-called Pinko Persuasion, though their motives be pure, nonetheless fall prey to the easy siren song of mass transit.  Buses, trains, light rail, etc.   If we can’t control how people think – though that remains a work in progress on our campuses across the country – at least we can control where they go.   However, America is a huge country.  Adapting the entire country to mass transit on the interstate, intrastate, county, city, and neighborhood level is obviously impractical.

No.  The better solution is this:  adapt the interstates to computer control of otherwise privately owned vehicles.   Upon entering the freeway, the vehicle’s computer links with the Traffic Computer to disclose passengers, origin and destination.   The Traffic Computer coordinates this with all the other vehicles on the same road.  The Traffic Computer takes complete control of each and every vehicle.   Not merely speed, but also steering, braking, and lane changes.  New vehicles will be equipped to allow this; older vehicles can be retrofitted at no expense to the vehicle owner.  A condition of travel on the freeway is the express consent of each driver to relinquish manual control of the vehicle to the Traffic Control computer until the vehicle exits the freeway at its appropriate exit and rejoins the local roads.  

Doing so would allow traffic on the interstate to flow much more rapidly and safely.   55 mph?  Consigned to the horse and buggy era.   Try 100 mph.  That’s more like it.   Drivers can sit back and read, sleep, consume intoxicants, perhaps even engage in more pleasurable activities (monitored by the Traffic Computer – for purely safety reasons, of course) without any fear of loss of control or accidents.   The end result?  Faster traffic, less accidents, and immensely improved monitoring of the travel patterns of America’s private citizens.  

Why not add police stations to the freeways?   “Drivers” or passengers identified as having outstanding warrants could find themselves diverted to the proper authorities by the ever-cooperative Traffic Computer.  Since all drivers relinquish control of their vehicles upon entering the freeway, the Traffic Control computer could theoretically take them anywhere – not merely their intended destination.  If our immediate goals are less ambitious….then others, merely under surveillance, can be observed easily and records retained.  The only way to avoid scrutiny would be to either stay home or remain on the “small roads”.   And our goal is a step closer….

Hagerstown, Maryland

I had a divorce case in Washington County, Maryland, this morning and had to go to the county seat, Hagerstown, for the hearing.  There’s something odd about this village.

The city is 30 minutes west of Frederick on US 70.  My first trip there was December 2004 when my father suffered a stroke.  A chapter 7 bankruptcy hearing, a minor traffic case, and now this divorce – all work-related issues - were the only reasons to go back there again.

US70 west of Frederick passes some incredibly scenic areas.  Huge valleys open up and you can see for miles on end; unfortunately that part of the drive lacks a “scenic view” stop, so you have to take in the view as you drive.  I can’t say it’s “breathtaking” (e.g. Elaine Benes or ugly baby) as I suffered no respiratory lapses due to the view.  But it’s nice to see, which isn’t something you can usually say about a drive on an interstate.

The town itself is fairly small and OLD.  Very few buildings appear to be newer than the 1960s, and the majority seems to date from the Civil War or turn of the century.

History.  Founded in 1762 by Jonathan Hager as Elizabethtown, renamed Hagerstown in his honor in 1813.  As it was not only a road and railroad hub but on the way from the Shenandoah Valley to Gettysburg, the city was a frequent target during the Civil War.

Many towns in the US date from well before the Civil War, but in most cases the “downtown” area has been developed and surrounded by so many later buildings that the CW era portion is practically nonrecognizable.  NYC is a clear example of this:  the Wall Street district, despite its irregular streets, is mostly modern skyscrapers, e.g. the World Trade Center.  DC, Boston, and Philadelphia are the same.  I couldn’t identify an “old town” Los Angeles, apart from some residential neighborhoods north of Wilshire Blvd. which obviously date from the 1920s. When the filmmakers made “The Last Samurai” (Tom Cruise movie) which takes place in Yokohama, they had to literally recreate the 19^th century Yokohama on a set, because modern-day Yokohama was far too developed and modern.

So the challenge becomes to find the city which is the least changed from its 19^th century format.  Paris, France, actually is a good example of this, as even the Eiffel Tower is an 1889 addition, with very few modern elements:  the Pompidou Centre and the Tour Montparnasse.   Richmond (Virginia!) also comes close to this, but its Broad Street still has a fair amount of new, big buildings; that’s another city which I’d like to visit at my leisure, but so far I’ve only been there on business and pressed for time to return home.

What makes Hagerstown unique is that the old part of town is largely unmolested and sits by itself in the valley.  You don’t have to drive though a modern city to find it, you drive up Route 40 and...there it is, the OLD, NAKED, CITY.  Voila. 

Frederick vs. Fredericksburg

[Revised on 10/26/21]

I’ve actually had a fair amount of experience in both cities, which are not too far away from each other in distance as well as spelling (I can’t comment on Harrisburg, PA vs. Harrisonburg, VA).  They both have Civil War angles.

 Frederick, Maryland.  By modern, contemporary internal combustion engine motor car traveling northwest from DC by 270, this town is approximately 1 hour, with Gaithersburg as an approximate halfway point.  It is the second largest city in Maryland, after Baltimore, which tells you how small Annapolis is.  270 comes up from the southeast, then splits to 70 west to Hagerstown (and eventually to California) and east to Baltimore, 15 north to Gettysburg, PA, and south to Leesburg, VA, and 340, which goes down to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia – so it’s very much a centerpoint.

            I recall when we were children, still living in Montgomery County, MD, before our big move to France in January 1979, our parents would take us to Frederick occasionally, mainly Frederick Mall, which had a “Time Out” (video arcade).  I’ve been back to that mall, which is pretty small, not particularly upscale (they have a NASCAR store and a beauty supply store) and set up on a cross format.  As of 2021 the mall seems to be closed, but Francis Scott Key Mall is still there. 

            The Civil War angle is two battlefields: Monocacy and Antietam, of which the latter is a crucial battle in 1862:  McClellan’s rare victory against Lee’s early incursion into Maryland persuaded Britain & France not to recognize the Confederacy, sealing its eventual doom.  In Turtledove’s timeline, Lee manages to smash McClellan at Camp Hill, PA, and the Confederacy wins the Civil War.  Monocacy is a battle dating from 1864, in which Lee attempted to draw off Union forces from their attack on Richmond by a CSA excursion up into Maryland which could threaten either Baltimore or Washington.  But Union commander Lew "Ben Hur" Wallace managed to delay the Confederate advance by a day, giving the Union enough time to reinforce Washington, which made the excursion pointless - and thus Monocacy was a Union victory.  What passes for what remains of the battlefield straddles 355 as it runs up to Frederick, a series of markers and a Second Empire House.  My brother and I visited the battlefield recently with our high school comrade John, another excellent meeting with him.  

            Frederick has a large supply of old houses and buildings dating from the Civil War and earlier, but not nearly as run down as Winchester.  The downtown district is very nice, including Evil Tower Park, a pedestrian river zone, and even Cafe 611, a club where I've seen a few stoner rock shows including, but not limited to, Corrosion of Conformity.  back in 2007 I saw Blue Cheer at Krug's Place, getting my picture taken with Dickie Peterson (Facebook profile picture of me and him, RIP).  

            In 2003 or so, my parents sold the three-level single-family house we grew up in, in Montgomery Village, and moved to a similar sized apartment in Frederick.  This forced us to drive another half hour northwest to visit them and more to the point, instead of being in Montgomery Village, where we grew up, we’d be in Frederick, of which we had the merest memories (as noted above).  However, Frederick is not a bad place, and we’ve yet to exhaust its potential.

 Fredericksburg, Virginia.  Many confuse the Maryland town I just mentioned with this city, more or less due south of Washington and half way between Washington and Richmond, right off 95.  Unlike Frederick, which has no river (judging by all the water towers, it must be sitting on an impressive network of natural springs) Fredericksburg sits on the Rappahannock.  The rivers in Virginia all seem to run from the mountains in the northwest (West Virginia) southeast to the Atlantic Ocean, and the Rappahannock is no exception. 

            The Civil War angle:  various battles at the city itself and around it, as Union forces attempted to batter their way down to Richmond. 

            Ages ago, probably the early 90s, my best friend’s sister Kathy briefly went to Mary Washington College (now University), which is located in Fredericksburg.  However, our treks here were solely to either move her in, or move her out, and we didn’t venture forth into the old town itself.

            Later on, back in 1997-98, my car was being repainted – color change from blue-green to black – at a body shop in Falmouth, which is south Stafford, on the north bank of the Rappahannock across from Fredericksburg.  Tim, the painter dude, and I would sometimes go into Fredericksburg and have a beer at some of the taverns in the old town.  However, as with Frederick, this is a town whose antique charm and sights have yet to be fully explored by yours truly, another task to accomplish when surplus time allows.

             I had my 76 Firebird in an outdoor lot at Falmouth for some time before bringing it back up here.  

 Finally, I have driven from Frederick to Fredericksburg (or rather, Richmond); the trip from Frederick to Richmond is 3 hours.  

Maryland

Odd, I’ve done blogs on New Jersey, New York City, Colorado, Paris, Bucharest, Rio de Janeiro, but have yet to write about my home state, Maryland.  I guess watching Clutch DVDs drilled it back into my skull; time to address that oversight.  Since it’s my home state, I can ramble on quite a bit about it, so bear with me.

 Basics. The name is, oddly enough, pronounced “Marilynd”, even in official contexts.  Pronounce it as “Mary-Land” and people will look at you funny.

            The state is named after Henrietta Maria, the Queen consort to English King Charles I.  Being Catholic, she was ineligible to be Queen of England.  She was the aunt of French King Louis XIV. 

            Maryland was a slave state during the US Civil War, but did not secede from the Union.  As a border state, its loyalties were divided between pro-Union northwest and pro-CSA southeast.  A major battle, Antietam, took place in 1862 close to Frederick in northwest Maryland.  McClellan’s unique victory over Lee persuaded the British and French to pass on recognizing the Confederacy. 

            The flag is actually unique.  Most states cop out and simply put their seal on a dark blue field (e.g. Virginia).  Maryland combined the black and gold banner of the Calvert family with the red/white cross of the Crossland family.   The Crossland segment was used by Maryland secessionists during the Civil War; the combined flag dates from 1904. 

            Maryland’s highest ranking politician in US politics was Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s Vice President.

            Fort McHenry, near Baltimore, came under British fire during the War of 1812, but somehow managed to survive.  Francis Scott Key was inspired to write “The Star Spangled Banner”, which became our national anthem.  Personally, I prefer “America the Beautiful.”

 Geography.    On the East (Atlantic) coast of the United States, on the Chesapeake Bay.  To me, Maryland is as important, if not more so, for where it is as what it is – like our equivalent of Belgium, which finds itself conveniently located between two countries which hated each other (Germany and France) and had no less than three wars, of which two put Belgium in the crossfire.  Similarly, Maryland was a thoroughfare for CSA forces invading the North.  It’s surrounded by two more important states and two less important states. 

            The northern border with Pennsylvania is better known as the Mason-Dixon Line.  Pennsylvania is a big state with Philadelphia to the far east – across the river from Camden, New Jersey – and Pittsburgh in the western, mountainous section. 

            To the south, the District of Columbia (DC) is a diamond cut out of the state.  Clearly, our nation’s capital is far more important than anything in Maryland, in fact more important than most of the rest of the country with the possible exception of NYC or L.A.  Sorry, Chicago.

            Across the Potomac River is Virginia.  It’s hard to tell how important Virginia is these days; its major deal is being a relic of the Civil War, like South Carolina.  Its capital, Richmond, used to be the capital of the Confederacy.  Many of the Founding Fathers, most notably George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, were from Virginia; TJ’s home, Monticello, is part of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.  And most of the top Civil War CSA generals, like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, were from Virginia, as was the CSA’s major arms works, the Tredegar factory in Richmond. 

            To the west is West Virginia.  To the east: Delaware.  West Virginia’s major distinction seems to be seceding from Virginia and giving that state a more aesthetically pleasing shape, at the expense of its own.  Delaware is forgotten except by students of corporate law (as I was) or anyone who wants to incorporate a business. 

 Roads.  Take DC as the center of Maryland’s road network, with the Beltway surrounding DC’s diamond shape and providing a useful ring from which to send forth various major highways.  

            Shoot northwest from the Beltway with 270, which passes Rockville, then Gaithersburg, then Germantown, and winds up in Frederick.  From Frederick, 70 goes east to Baltimore and west to Hagerstown.  What you thought of as 270 continues north as 15 and takes you to small-town Pennsylvania.

            Shoot northeast from the Beltway with 95, which goes up to Baltimore, up into Delaware, and eventually all the way up to Maine.  95 is the easternmost north-south highway in the US highway system which starts with 5 in California. 

            Shoot due east from the Beltway, as Route 50 which heads to Annapolis, crosses the bay, and then winds itself across the Eastern Shore to Ocean City.

            Roughly parallel to 270 is 355, which starts in DC as Wisconsin Ave. and continues all the way up to Frederick, where it ends.

 Clutch.  Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other major rock band from Maryland.  These guys are from Germantown, and fly the Maryland flag on stage quite often.  They even refer to “Montgomery Village” in one song.  The singer Neil Fallon now has a bushy beard, but short hair, making him look vaguely like Tsar Nicholas II.  The lyrics are all over the place, and the rock is groovy.  I can even hear a fair dose of Frank Zappa in the mix.

 Montgomery County.  Just as Fairfax County is Virginia’s wealthiest, most affluent (and liberal) county (Death Star or not), Monkey County – as I call it, as opposed to Pig County (Prince George’s) – is Maryland’s elite county.  The county seat is Rockville, but it also includes Gaithersburg and Germantown.

 Montgomery Village.  This is where I grew up, from 1970-79, right next to Gaithersburg.  It’s a suburban planned community which dates from the late 60s.  We had a single family home on Lake Whetstone, but there are townhouses, condos and apartments as well.  Unfortunately the Village Mall is long gone. 

 Rockville.  Take 355 southeast from Montgomery Village and you’ll wind up in Rockville.  This is where the Montgomery County District Court and Circuit Court are, and Rockville Pike is the main commercial strip going all the way down into Bethesda.  I still love driving through Rockville on my way back from court.  Unfortunately Shakey’s (the pizza place) is long gone.

 Bethesda.  Just south of Rockville.  This is the home of a large Navy center, where I was born in 1969 (my mom was in the Navy at the time).  It never occurred to me to wonder what a naval base is doing far from any river or ocean, but we went to the PX and enjoyed it anyway; it’s the Navy’s equivalent of Walter Reed.  JFK’s autopsy was performed there in 1963 – after he was shot.

 Baltimore.  Easily the biggest and most important city in Maryland.  The funny thing is, when we lived in Maryland from ’70-79 we had no reason to go to Baltimore.  I ended up going up far more often years later after graduating from law school.  A few times we went to the Inner Harbor, a few trips to Hammerjacks, and a few shows at the Otto Bar and the Side Bar; and quite a few shows, far more recently, at the Ram’s Head Live.  And every now and then I have cases in the Baltimore City court (downtown) or Baltimore County up in Towson.  I recall back when we were kids and our family would travel up to NY (NYC, Long Island, or Glens Falls) we’d go through the Harbor Tunnel.  That’s a long tunnel.  The Inner Harbor area is well built up with lots of skyscrapers, an excellent mall, and by now several large clubs.  The US District Court for Maryland is close by, as is the immigration court at 31 Hopkins Plaza. 

 Columbia.  This is another planned suburban community, midway between DC and Baltimore.  If you think of Montgomery Village as being 30 minutes northwest of DC along 270, Columbia is 30 minutes northeast of DC along 95.  Montgomery Village has Lakeforest Mall, Columbia has Columbia Mall.  But Columbia’s major attraction is Merriweather Post Pavilion, a big ampitheater type concert venue across 175 from Columbia Mall.  My friend from University of Maryland, College Park, Ken used to live in Columbia – then moved to New Jersey after graduating from UM.  Edward Norton, the actor, is from Columbia; he actually went to Ken’s high school, Wilde Lake, at the same time Ken did.

 Frederick.  Now my mom lives there.  It’s an hour northwest of DC at the end of 270.  It’s pretty small, but it’s the 2^nd largest city in Maryland after Baltimore (which tells you how small Annapolis is).  When we were kids we’d go up to Frederick Mall, which is fairly small too.  The downtown area is kind of cool – old but classy.

 Annapolis.  This is the capital of Maryland, about 15-20 minutes east of DC via Route 50, right on the Chesapeake Bay before the Bay Bridge.  It’s the home of the US Naval Academy, which of course is colloquially referred to as Annapolis.  My occasion to visit this place is rare:  a few shows at the Ram’s Head On Stage, swearing in to the Maryland State Bar in December 1993, and that’s about it.

 Eastern Shore & Ocean City.  If you take the Bay Bridge across the bay, and follow Route 50 all the way to the Ocean, you find Ocean City.  I haven’t been there since an aborted trip on Memorial Day weekend of 1990 (when it rained nonstop and we left just about as soon as we got there).  When we were kids growing up, my family would go there, and stay in some hotel – the Decatur (first trip, but long gone) and later the Carousel.  This was the “beach trip” for us before moving off to France.

 University of Maryland.  I went to the flagship campus, College Park.  Worldwide, UM-University College (UMUC) is one of the largest in the US or the world.  I know there is a 2 year campus in Munich and they offer courses across Germany at the US bases.  The College Park campus is the largest of them, very spread out, which is what I wanted.  Their sports teams, the Terps, play in Division I – we even won the NCAA basketball tournament back in 2002. 

 Edgar Allen Poe.  The famous 19^th century poet lived in different places, including Richmond, Virginia, but he’s most known and associated with Baltimore.  “The Telltale Heart”, “The Cask of Amantillado”, “The Murders on the Rue Morgue”, and “The Raven” are his most famous. 

 Sports.  Colts/Ravens.  The Colts started off in Maryland, and were in Baltimore until 1984; before Peyton Manning, there was Johnny Unitas.  For a long time they were the football team in Maryland aside from the Terps.  I never really considered them to be direct competitors to the Redskins.

            Eventually the Browns relocated to Baltimore and became the Ravens, to take the name from Edgar Allen Poe’s famous poem.  With the Browns resurrected in Cleveland again, the Ravens are out of that shadow.  Plus, they’ve won the Super Bowl, which no Browns team can claim.  Now the Redskins are technically in Maryland at FedEx Field, but we still think of them as from Washington and not a Maryland team.

 Orioles.  They’ve been around for awhile.  Recall that episode of “Seinfeld” where George got them into the Yankees box and Elaine insisted on wearing an Orioles cap.  I’ve been past Camden Yards dozens of times – it’s right next to where 95 dumps you off into Baltmore, so you can’t miss it – but have never been to a game there.