The Rockville Home Town Holidays thing is coming up, and I can't help but think that the town of Rockville means different things to different people. First the obvious- it could very well be your home. A lot of people live in Rockville including folks who think they live in Potomac, but actually they dwell in a village which was once known as Offut's Crossroads, and is now merely a census designated area - a sort of zip code state of mind - not an incorporated entity. If you mail a letter to someone you know in "Potomac" and substitute "Rockville" for the town, I bet you five dollars your correspondence will get there.
Long gone Rockville was the stuff of Mayberry with tree lined streets and Victorian homes or farm houses. Chestnut Lodge, an 1889 hotel turned sanitarium burned to the ground in 2009, but not before it inspired a book I read in college called Lilith by my once and future English professor JR Salamanca. And that book led to "Lilith"-the most star studded movie you never heard of starring the likes of Peter Fonda, Warren Beatty, Gene Hackman and Jean Seberg. The film was made mostly in Rockville in 1964. (and also my brother was in it, but I think his part landed on the cutting room floor.)
The new Rockville might be the end of the line of a long string of identity crises, but here's the good news: Rockville puts on its party hat on Memorial Day weekend, shutting down its streets and inviting you out to a heck of block party. Food vendors and over thirty bands and entertainers clog the streets Saturday and Sunday. Look for Kelly Bell Band, Dixie Power Trio, Chopteeth, The Nighthawks, King Soul and more more more. Free free free.
Many of the Rocks for whom the Ville is named are carrying briefcases. Most drive. Many are polished yet opaque. There is terrier ownership and cats with booties. And lawyers. LOTS of lawyers. They breed impassively and out in the open. The stains from these unions- smudged across the sidewalks like melted fudgesickle carrion blurb, by early are hosed off by municipal employees with hidden tattoos-just in time for dawn- and another round of pink pepperoni on toast. The true eccentric eats on Zeldas grave.
ReplyDeleteYes yet another part of Rockville's kind of well kept secrets- Zelda and Scott buried there on the Pike of all places...
Delete..and honestly- Zelda is pretty cool with an impromtu nosh.
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