Here's One from Tommy!

When they were around 11 or 12 years old, dad and Uncle Tommy were down in Caroline County during hunting season with their dad, my PawPaw.  Some of the boys’ friends were also with them when someone, but they didn’t know who, shot a deer on their property.  PawPaw told Tommy and his friends to go drag the deer back over to them.  Tommy said they were dragging the deer by its antlers back toward the road when these strange men came running up yelling, “Hey!  That’s our deer!”  Tommy and his friends dropped the deer and took off running toward the road.  Meanwhile, my dad came out of the woods on the other side of the road and saw Tommy come tearing out of the woods.  PawPaw drove up and threw open the car door and told Tommy to get in and lock the doors, which Tommy did.  PawPaw was standing by the car with the door open, holding his double barrel shotgun by his side.  The men ran up yelling that they were gonna drag that kid out of the car and beat his ass to teach him a lesson.  PawPaw said, “You’re not laying a hand on that boy,” as he raised his gun.  The men kept walking forward shouting threats.  Tommy stayed put in the back seat as his daddy had told him to do.  PawPaw said to the men in an ‘I dare you’ tone, “Take one more step forward,” when they did, PawPaw clicked the safety off the gun.  Tommy said that was the loudest noise he’d ever heard in his life, when his daddy clicked the safety off that gun.  "I’m half Indian," growled PawPaw, "and if you take one more step, I’ll shoot you dead where you stand."  The men stopped.  At this point, the Game Warden and several State Police had come rolling in from both ends of the highway.  Tommy didn’t hear this part, but dad says the State Policemen were saying, “Mr. Glascock, please put the gun down.”

Finally, PawPaw put the gun down and the men went off with a few cops while PawPaw talked to another cop.  “What would you have done if it was your son?” PawPaw asked the cop.  “Mr. Glascock,” he replied, “I would have done the same thing.”

PawPaw told his boys that if those men had taken another step, he would have ended up in prison.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is my dad's & his brother Tommy's birthday.  They of course could not care less, but we wish them a happy day anyway!

Johnny, 29 Palms

Tommy,  Japan

This Was All Dairy Farms/The Road Just Ended at Fairfax Circle

Amidst all the new homes, businesses, and roads, it's hard to believe that once upon a time it was all just fields and dairy farms around here.
I remember when the populated part of Fairfax seemed to end at Greenbriar Shopping Center:  there was a Gino's Chicken that stands out in my mind (along with a grocery store and such) and not much after that besides the neighborhood of Brookfield, which was where we lived when I was a kid (and wasn't there a Dart Drug in that shopping center?).
My dad and I were driving to Herndon the other day to have an early birthday breakfast with his twin brother Tommy and my cousin, Scotty (unbeknownst to both twins), and on the way there, as we drove along Fairfax County Parkway toward Herndon, Dad gestured around him from the passenger seat and said, "This all just used to be dairy farms."
What prompted him to say this was that I was presenting my argument as to why he should keep letting me put his stories here, and part of that argument was that many people are curious about what it used to be like and look like around here.  I mean, nowadays, could anyone get away with taking gas from an airport under construction without getting chucked in jail and fined, instead of just some clever soul switching signs on the tank to teach people a lesson?  (See "Free Gas!")  It's fun to hear about stuff he and his friends would get away with.  I enjoy hearing his stories, as do my husband and friends.  Dad is also a good storyteller.  Anyway, he got all shy on me and said to "wait until he kicked off" to put all his stories and pictures here ("You have a lot of pictures of me there ...why don't you put some of ... Peony?" he suggested).
Anyway, we'll see what happens.  At least he will still tell me stories.  I just may not be able to share them here for a long time!

DT "Bill" Glascock, Who Did Whatever He Damn Pleased

My PawPaw was the old guy in the 1980s who had the station wagon full of stuff and would frequent the Greenbriar McDonald's and Shell Station.  Once a girl told me they (students at Chantilly High) called him the dog man.  He did always have a dog with him.  My best friend Anita didn't believe me when, after stopping at the Shell or McD's after school, we passed him in his packed-full-of-stuff car and I said, that's my PawPaw!  I had to have my mom confirm for Anita that he was indeed my grandfather and even then she eyed me suspiciously.
My Gramaw said that PawPaw could be talking about the weather and sound like he was cussin' you.  I love it.  Because he did have a fondness for cussin', God bless him.  I have inherited this fondness but must repress it.  So sad.
When PawPaw was a young man in the 20s and 30s throughout the depression and prohibition, he would sell his moonshine to a few lucky customers.
This is how it worked:
You gave him the money at one location, perhaps one of his stores or gas stations, I'm not sure, then he told you where to find the moonshine, which was hidden in a creek just over his property line so he couldn't get busted.
He never liked being told what to do and he didn't like asking people for anything, so when he wanted to fly planes, he built himself an airfield.
He used to run a tavern in what is the old Stone House at Manassas, VA.
That's all I've got for now! Bed time!

Roadblock!

One night me, Ronnie Hall, an’ Wayne J. were riding around the back roads of Centreville. An’ I think Wayne wanted to go by and see this girl he liked. So we were out in front of her house and Ronnie tooted on the horn an’ of course she didn’t come out an’ then this Fairfax County Cruiser come up behind us. And Ronnie decided to take off. Ronnie took off an’ wouldn’t stop for the County Man. Ronnie got so far ahead you could look back across the fields an’ see the cruiser’s headlights. Ronnie said, “We’re too far ahead, we’re gonna have to stop an’ give him a chance to catch up to us.” He had the headlights turned off an’ we were going so fast on the back roads that the white fences just blurred by an’ that’s how Ronnie was following the road.

We took off again when the cruiser got close, an’ when we got to Route 50 we wanted to go West to get across the county line, but we were in a hurry because the police was catchin’ up an’ we got confused, an’ went East an’ they had the road blocked. A bunch of policemen opened our doors an’ had guns pointed at us. They took us to the Fairfax County Jail in the town of Fairfax an’ when they took us in Wayne walked right out the door an’ disappeared. Ronnie, they put him in a cell because he was driving, and me they put in a holding cell and my father came and got me.

Free Gas!

When Dulles Airport was being built in the late 50s and early 60s, my dad and his friends would watch people drag race at night on the runways (dad preferred to do his drag racing at Fairfax Circle).  After a while they realized that there was plenty of gas to be had in the 300-500 gallon tanks that were left there during construction.  Soon, everyone around Dulles was sneaking onto the budding airport to get some free gas.  According to my dad, “You could fill your tank up quicker than at a filling station.”


One night after his friend Ronnie filled his car, a black 1957 two-door hardtop Ford with a 312 engine, full of free Dulles gas, something went wrong.  The souped up Ford blew black smoke all the way from Dulles to the Sunoco Station at Fairfax Circle next to Tops Drive-in.

“They got wise to us an' switched the diesel an' gas labels on the tanks.”  Dad says, “Ronnie drained the tank an' filled it up with gasoline, but we still had to overhaul the engine.”

Old Man Pratt and the Cornfield

As told by Johnny Glascock...







One day me an' Ronnie Hall went deer hunting in Caroline County an’ when it got dark we decided to go to old man Pratt's farm an’ spotlight some deer.

So we're drivin’ through old man Pratt's cornfield an' some headlights come up behind us. We take off an’ get farther an' farther ahead an’ Ronnie says, "We'd better slow down and let this poor fella catch up!" So we slow down and see it’s Mister Pratt behind us. We take off again, then get too far ahead an’ Ronnie slows down again an’ lets old man Pratt get right up on his bumper, then takes off. Ronnie lets him catch up again an’ this time Mister Pratt pulls up behind us an’ gets out of the truck and starts to walk up to the car, an' Ronnie takes off again, laughing. Mister Pratt gets back in his truck an' comes after us again. Ronnie gets way ahead of him again an’ we do this for a while until we get bored then go back to the highway an’ take off back toward Fairfax.

Old man Pratt never did catch us.


(updated 3/22/10)