Monday, May 16, 2011
The West is the Best: Weird Scenes Inside a Goldmine
So we talk a lot about Western Loudoun on here, but I kinda want to hear more about the far-off smog and congestion of Eastern Loudoun. Did anyone else growing up in Western Loudoun feel like anything from Leesburg on out east was the ghetto? The rolling hills, farms, and minority-free school systems of Western Loudoun (especially pre-development boom around the time we were in middle school) raised us in a sort of fairytale, idyllic paradise (or at least that's what it seems like looking back). We all heard stories about there being lots of fights, drugs, and sex in schools as probably nice as Loudoun County High School, Stone Bridge, Potomac Falls, etc. I imagine now that there are so many housing developments in Western Loudoun--so many people in general, as they are creating more and more schools in the western part of the county--the county has a pretty similar make-up across the board, although of course there are still going to be more minorities and lower-income people in the east. But it's not the great divide it once was.
We should get some feedback on here from people who grew up in Eastern Loudoun about what it's like over there and how they perceived us in the west. The great stereotype is that they didn't even know we existed. And I've never really been proven wrong on that. I've met so many people from Ashburn and Sterling who don't even know Waterford exists, and who've never been to Purcellville.
--Edward
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Well, I see this has a big fat zero comments... And I am clearly suffering from OCD... so I'm commenting. Though I really don't have much to offer in terms of an intelligent repartee. Hm, let's see... yes, Eastern Loudoun definitely scared me straight when I was little. Mostly because, whenever I'd act up, my parents would threaten to call my principal and have me shipped to the Douglass School in Leesburg. Anyone raised in Western Loudoun knows that Douglass is where all of the "bad" children are sent when expelled. I never understood the concept of sending a myriad of naughty kids to the same place-- isn't that just handing them the opportunity to become worse? Say, a child gets expelled for cussing out a teacher, and he gets sent to Douglass.. and then said child comes into contact with someone who is addicted to crystal meth. Well now you'll just have a kid with a potty mouth and a drug addiction.
ReplyDeleteThe point of this comment is-- why were my parents ever threatening to have me sent there? Also, yes, Eastern Loudoun is like a wasteland.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I think one of the mischief-making children sent to Douglass got his ass kicked by Tyler "Christian" "Don't Dance like that up on me" Amonson back in eight grade. Ever since then I've realized Douglass can no longer hurt me. Unless I am wrong, then I'm once again terrified of the middle and high school age kids who go there.
ReplyDeleteI pray this is true.
ReplyDeleteIt was the wild badlands. Anything with pavement and not civil war-reenactor troden pristine greens was in those days. I don't really know much about the eastern part of the county though except that my parents cringed every time we drove by a new development, which was often. All I really cared about (along with my dad) that was out east was Costco, and the pizza they served. God bless it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's definitely true, Matt. I believe it's Justin Burroughs you speak of.
ReplyDeleteAnd Costco was known as......something else back when you went there, Daniel. What was it again?
Bethany, you need to stop worrying about always being on top of your writing game on these blogs! This is the most casual thing ever.
I praise Kopp's memory, second Edward's comment toward Bethany, and declare "Price Club" as the biggest destination of my collective youth (now Costco, or maybe some evolved into Sam's Clubs, god knows the connections there)
ReplyDeleteAh okay, I had forgotten the original name. Sam's Club I think has always been a part of Wal-Mart and something different.
ReplyDelete"On top of your writing game"-- ?
ReplyDeleteYou always make comments like this: "Though I really don't have much to offer in terms of an intelligent repartee." You know you don't have to worry about being James Joyce when writing on our blog. As long as people are communicating it's better than nothing.
ReplyDelete