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.

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.