Author: Vic Socotra

Easy Riders

(Two of four hundred thousand Rolling Thunder Veterans)   We did my own personal Rolling Thunder this morning, even as the swarm of snarling machines descended on the capital.   It was thanks to Phil, completely. I am honest enough to know that the Bike has scared me since the moment I sat on it […]

The Streak

(First In) I should not have taken the threat seriously- I mean, Hanna Banana is only 13 and it was just bold talk on her part. Still, I was a little edgy, looking down from the forth floor to the beckoning blue waters of Big Pink’s pool.   Still, when you have a decent streak […]

Mouse Land in Rain

I am still a little weary from the week. I slept in until after six this morning, trying to replenish the batteries.   We attended a major conference about information technology and warfighting down in Orlando last week.   It was a cautious success, I think, since we rolled out some corporate firepower , and […]

The Smell of Venison

(South West Five, Stones of the District of Columbia)   A massive construction project is in progress behind the General’s house on the hill.   Carl was clearly proud of the work, as proud as if he were digging it himself, and not all those hired contractors.   It was funny about that, and as […]

The WA

(Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs)   Engineering Technian Carl is a man who likes his work. I suspect he thought Jason and I were just another couple Stone Junkies, on a wham-bam mission to count coup on the stone in the deep woods at the top of the Decarlia Reservation.   I explained that I had […]

Decarlia Reservation

  (The Decarlia Water Treatment Facility, Washington, DC)   “You know,” I said. “If that guy in the Post actually did visit the sites of all forty District Stones on a Sunday, he was trespassing on Army Corps of Engineers land. This reservoir provides the drinking water for the District, Arlington and Fall’s Church. It […]

Hickory Hill

(Young RFK and Family at Hickory Hill)   I wasn’t going to write the story of the two stones in Decarlia today, much less drag you off on some brand new wild goose chase.   Dammit, I was going to finish off the mystery of the Buckingham Swim Club, and I will. It is going […]

Another Day in Virginia

  (The Econowash Today) I have two recollections of the wide world from the 1950s. There is a jumble of personal stuff, of course, but the two things that filled my little brain with dread were the news of Ike’s heart attack in 1955.   Why that stayed with me all these years may have […]

Watershed

(Author Alex Haley)   Great forces were in motion in the year of 1966. They manifested themselves on the world stage, and in local politics, and even in the real estate market.   The Civil rights protests under her office window must have given pause to the Queen of Buckingham. Frances Freed had already laid […]

The Right to Dry

Frances Freed was no Henry Ford, though her late husband Allie had made a decent go of manufacturing in the taxi business in New York.   When he passed away with the first Buckingham units just being completed, she picked herself up and executed the plan. She was a remarkable women, disciplined and industrious, and […]