Arlandria Days - Part 13

Arlandria Days
Part 13 - Tom “Windshield” Bowden, Jalopies, and the Sunset

Austin had many good friends while growing up in Arlington. Besides the omnipresent Jim Campbell and others, Austin liked to hang around with Tom Bowden. He attended Wakefield initially, but graduated from cross-town rival, Washington-Lee High School. Bowden lived on North Tazewell Street, which Austin notes was “one of the first streets that were converted to townhouses and condos.” Currently living in Maryland, Tom and Austin remain good friends to this day. Unprompted, Austin contributes, “Yes, Tom Bowden is a player. Tommy liked large breasted women.” For what it’s worth.

During one lunch hour at Wakefield, Tom Bowden and Austin decided to leave school grounds. They rode in Austin’s 1952 Plymouth, inherited from his family. Austin adds that the car was “a slush-o-matic transmission special. That is, it operated as an automatic or standard shift.” En route to the Bradlee Shopping Center, the front left tire blew out. He explains, “Not having much money to put into our jalopies, I used ‘recap’ tires. Well, the tread flew off the tire and, as it went around, knocked my left front headlight into King Street.” The boys had a good laugh, and after picking up the pieces strewn across King Street, they made it back to Wakefield in time for class, riding an extremely bald tire all the way. They changed the tire after school - “You guessed it: another recap.” - and drove home. Both, Austin writes, were “real surprised… and a little shaken.”

On another occasion, Tom, Jim and Austin took a drive out to Seven Corners. On this trip, they rode in the ironically named Austin Healey Sprite. Our Austin enjoyed his autos, and few cars offer as much challenge and fun as English sports cars. Travelling east toward Alexandria in front of the Seven Corners shopping center, a family from Ohio stopped in the right lane to read a map. Austin recounts the next part, “I was behind him a distance away [but unable] to tell whether he stopped or was slowly moving. I tried to get in the other lane…two or three cars were in the lane. I slammed on the brakes, but was unable to avoid the collision.” The nose of his Healy Sprite went under the Ohioan’s rear bumper, causing significant damage.

An Austin Healey Sprite, but not Austin's. Note the "bugeyed" headlights.

The Austin Healy Sprite was, as Austin puts it, “…held together with paperclips and glue from England.” After the accident, they ‘un-hinged the car’ and checked the radiator, which remained undamaged. With the fan in working order and nothing else “banging around,” they drove home with Jim holding the car’s windshield. In those days, Route 7 was much less busy and had only two lanes. The boys and their newly wrinkled car made it home safely, sans headlights which were smashed by the accident and an earlier event involving an errant tire. Austin neatly summarized the evening’s events, “Tom came out with sore knees. Jim came out with the same. I came out of it with a busted-up car and ensuing insurance woes.” The tourist from Ohio was charged with causing the traffic accident.

Other excursions included various Hot Shoppes, Tops, Mario’s and the Sunset Drive-In. The latter was located at the intersection of Jefferson Street and Route 7, across from the present-day Skyline Towers Complex (see Part 1). This land was once home to the Washington-Virginia Airport which first began operations in 1947 before closing in 1970 to make way for Charles E. Smith’s Skyline multi-use development. Austin recalls that the land was flat like a table top, and that one small building functioned as the control tower. He adds, unhappily, “Acres and acres of grass done away with all in the name of progress.” Yes, change can be good, but there’s no guarantee it will be worth it, is there?

An aerial view (1962) of Washington-Virginia Airport

End of Part 12

Part 12 - Arlandria Days

Arlandria Days
Part 12 - Rods, Romance, and I-66

Always one to look for new horizons, Austin expanded his social circle geographically. Or, as he aptly puts it, “…thanks to an auto, I moved my operation into Alexandria.” The now-busy intersection of Braddock Road and Quaker Lane once boasted a drive-in Hot Shoppes, replaced long ago by an auto dealership. It was frequented primarily by Hammond High students, along with a few from George Washington High School. Austin waxes nostalgically about this era, mentioning almost dreamily how they would listen to Johnny Dark on the radio, and how nearly everyone had a “reverb unit that gave that echo effect.” They would talk of school, cars and girls. He adds, perhaps anachronistically, that it was “…a more gentle time.”

The Tops Drive-Inn provided much entertainment and food to Austin and his friends. As with the Hot Shoppes, curb service was a big attraction for the diner once located at Glebe Road and Route 50 (straddling north and south Arlington). He describes how other teens would drive up in their cars, or street rods: ‘Vettes, 409s, 426s, 428s, 55 Chevys and assorted other cars. Austin adds, “It was cool to drive a "sleeper", a regular looking car with a bodacious motor in it.” Socially, Tops was the place to be: Drag races were set up there; dates were made; and, fights took place. The hoodlum fringe in Alexandria, adds Austin, was always in attendance at the north side Hot Shoppes. While he never personally witnessed trouble, ever present were the “shady looking teens.” When pressed on why he refers to them in this manner, Austin replies, “Leather jackets and duck tail haircuts were the order of the day. You were either a collegian or a greaser. I fell somewhere in between.”


Tops Drive-Inn: Once located at Glebe Road and Route 50, Tops boasted the Sir Loiner.

Romance. Austin writes that a ‘hot date’ usually involved an evening trip to Hains Point to watch the submarine races. A couple would drive around the Point until finding a good parking spot to watch the bogus races. At that time, there were no walls around the Point; there were more trees and water lapped up on the shore. Austin points out that, although some of the girls “were wise to the ploy,” many readily accepted. He concludes with this note, “After a healthy necking session, you would head off to the Tops Drive Inn or Mario’s for some munchies.”


Hains Point: Better known for its impressive Japanese Cherry Blossoms than for the long-ago submarine races.

It was during this era that the then-Virginia Department of Highways acquired two sections of former tracks belonging to the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad. Interstate 66 heads west from Rosslyn, bisecting Arlington County, and crossing the Beltway. Austin recalls that more than a few of his friends were displaced during the initial construction. The Cherrydale community took the biggest hit, but construction also affected Lyon Village and other smaller developments. As with other major construction projects in Northern Virginia, promises were quickly and just as quickly broken or forgotten. He recalls that Arlington County “got assurances from the state that I-66 would not be widened inside the beltway in Arlington.” This agreement dissolved as soon as construction began. “So much for promises and assurances,” Austin continues, “Crapped on again. Politics!” Austin and his crew would, of course, take advantage of the new road by drag racing on it prior to its opening.


The once divisive - and always bland - Interstate 66 in northern Virginia.

Despite the adult world’s intrusions, the pranks at Wakefield continued. Brownies were made, supplemented with tasty-yet-dangerous bits of Ex-Lax, and passed around at lunch. Austin recounts, “Needless to say, by 3:00 pm as classes were getting out, people were flooding the bathrooms.” Was it you, I ask? Austin neatly replies, “Yes, I fess up.” He adds, rather proudly, “I gave some to Mr. Shreve, our psychology teacher and a good guy. He thanked me for the ‘clean out.’ He was still not very happy.” Fellow students like Joanne Greismyer loved the prank.

School officials frowned on signs of affection among students but were powerless to take any action. Sensing this vulnerability, Austin took advantage, “So, every time I would see a teacher, I would grab a [female] friend, give them a big kiss and tell them to relax and see what the teacher would say.” He closes, “We swapped so much spit in high school that we all should have a gum disease.”


End of Part 12