CHAPTER 8
Shirley Park
Until
the mid-1950s, a forest covered the land that would eventually become the
intersection of South Glebe and Arlington Ridge Road. With an increase in the population resulting
from several new communities in the Arna Valley, local officials determined
that the land would be cleared and used for a new school and the land cleared
of trees. Although only an open field, Shirley
Park became the
“gather around spot,” a place where a week’s worth of news and gossip was
exchanged. Many Saturday mornings began
with Austin crossing from the Arna Valley via a small foot
bridge (which was washed out several times due to the frequent flooding in this
area) and joining the rest of his friends: Tom Hahn, Cordell Black, Tim Nason,
Charlie Weiss, Renick Miller, Jim Hagy, Tinky Omohundro, Herby Hightower, Artie
Moldenhauer, and the Rich brothers, Van and Odell.
As the new apartments nearby were completed, more boys arrived in the
neighborhood, and Al Barbee, Alan Cumbie, Steve Hynson, Jim and
Bobby Kimble soon joined the other Arna Valley boys.
During Austin’s youth, Shirley Park
was an open field and no fences meant no inhibition and no end to one’s
imagination. It was home to their
summertime baseball games and when the weather turned cold, Shirley Park transformed
into their football stadium. Their
equipment often consisted of whatever was handy with bases were created from rocks,
clothes, or cardboard. Originally, there
were no backstops, but one was added “… when the county found out we existed.” Their first backstop was only 8 feet wide and
“… not much of a backstop, but it suited us ‘cause we didn’t have to chase the
ball into 28th Street anymore.” At that
time, the road was semi-paved and mostly cracked from weather variances. Most of the traffic came from construction company
trucks ferrying concrete and block to build the new Shirley Park apartments. Austin’s friends played for hours, sometimes taking
breaks to watch the construction workers building the new school. Much of the building in this
immediate area was done in 1958 with the school, Gunston Junior High, completed
in 1959.
As the boys got older, and weekend baseball
started to lose its allure, the nearby Shirley Park shopping center became
their focal point. Giant Supermarket and
Drug Fair were the original tenants, drawn to the neighborhood by the steady increase
of new residents. Prior to the construction
of Shirley Park Center, food - even seafood - was bought from the Safeway store
on South Glebe, near 27th Street. Later
additions to the Shirley Park Center included the Rinaldi Bowling Lanes and
other stores. The shopping center also
attracted a set of lovely and lively local girls including Betty Hahn, Louanne Dover, Kendra Roberts, Shelly
Hinz, and Cheryl Hunter. Austin’s high
school sweetheart, Barbara, was Cheryl’s sister. There was also Betty ‘The
Living End’ D’Elia. For Austin and the
other boys, Betty “… made a young man’s hormone go nuts!”
But times change and people
move. One of Austin’s closest friends, Steve
Hynson, moved when the Shirley Homes units were demolished in 1952-53 to make
way for more construction projects. The Thacker
brothers, Austin’s future nemeses, lived in Shirley Homes but the real problems
began when, as Steve Hynson related to Austin, “the brothers moved into Alexandria … that’s where
they went bad." A few years later,
Austin would routinely encounter the Thacker brothers and one or more would
“pound on me with regularity.” There
were four Thacker brothers, each one tougher than the next. Mickey, the youngest, would eventually become
a good friend of Austin; today, both Mickey and Austin are fraternal brothers
in the Eagles Club; the aerie for this ancient order is still located on
Cameron Street.
Change
was unavoidable in the rapidly expanding region. Fields and woods were cleared for new housing
and commercial construction. Everyone
felt the effects. Austin built a 3 story
tree house by the Shirley Park pool. One
of the bigger local developers was real estate magnate M.T. Broyhill. Aided by the owner’s brother and local
politician, Joel T. Broyhill, their real estate business dominated new construction
in the Shirley Park neighborhood, but they were not readily welcomed. Development in this quasi-rural area
displaced long time residents and changed the face of the community with single
family homes replaced by tract-style apartment complexes. One could surmise that apartments often
impact negatively a neighborhood’s environment.
Residents change more frequently and whatever small town feel is left
disappears.
“When M.T. Broyhill and his
thieving brother, Joel, began building in the park, they bulldozed
my tree house. Well, that declared war,” Austin recalled. And so began a small campaign of arson. “Remember, not many people lived around there
then. I burned him out on many
occasions. No matter to me since the
statute of limitations has run out and both crooks are deceased.”
Developers remained an irritant
to Austin throughout his teenage years.
With more and more apartments rising up in the Arna Valley, new roads
had to be built. It was during this era
that the then-Virginia Department of Highways acquired additional tracts of land to use for expanding Shirley Highway and
creating a new Virginia Interstate 66.
Austin recalls more than a few of his friends were displaced during this
phase of highway construction with the Cherrydale and Lyon Village
neighborhoods suffering the most. As
with other major construction projects in Northern Virginia, promises were
quickly made and just as quickly broken or forgotten. Arlington County residents, Austin
remembered, “got assurances from the state that I-66 would not be widened inside
the Beltway [Interstate 495] in Arlington.”
This agreement dissolved as soon as construction began. “So much for promises and assurances,” he continued,
“Crapped on again. Politics!” Austin and
his crew took advantage of the newly
paved highway by drag racing there prior to its opening.
During the late 60s, nearby Crystal
City was in the throes of a big change as new construction projects for offices
and apartment buildings began. The name Crystal
City was the invention of the area’s primary developer, Charles E. Smith and
Company. Austin reflected the attitude of more than a few of the older
residents when he noted, “Smith, incidentally, is a murderer.” It is true that Smith’s shoddy construction
methods, impersonating as cost-cutting policies, resulted in at least one major
building collapsing. Smith rushed
through the projects, not allowing concrete to dry between the floors before
the shoring was removed. In 1973, one of
Smith’s largest projects, the 26-story Skyline Plaza (near Bailey’s Crossroads)
collapsed and resulted in the death of 14 workers with another 34 injured.
His issues with Smith
notwithstanding, construction work simply did not suit Austin. At 19, he began work as a carpenter’s helper
in one of the high rise buildings in Crystal City. One his first day, he was carrying a 4x8
sheet of plywood on the 14th floor when, " ... the wind picked my ass up and began to
airlift me to another location. Scared
the bejesus out of me and I quickly got out of that racket.” He quit on the spot and if that wasn’t
enough, Austin “… walked down those 14 flights of stairs and quit again.”
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