Bethesda

I was curious to see what the neighborhood I had grown up in looked like now, as an adult. I had wanted to do this before we moved, but we ran out of time, and I regretted it.

Bethesda had lots of trees, and we lived in a big house on a wide street--at least, that's how I remembered it. The reality is that the trees have now been replaced with townhouses, and it turns out the house was small, and on an incredibly narrow street.

I had also read in my Alumni newsletter that every building in my High School except for the main administration building and the Language Arts building had been torn down and replaced. I simply couldn't believe it, so I went to look for myself, and it was true. Everything that I had known was now gone.

Downtown Bethesda is just a mish-mash of sprawl and high-rises, totally devoid of character.

Near my old neighborhood, where once were trees are now townhouses.	Not even particularly attractive townhouses.	The over-priced and over-airconditioned seafood restaurant on the corner of my street is now gone, and is being replaced with an apartment building.	The Radio Shack where I spent much of my youth is still there. I figured out how to program an early TRS-80 microcomputer that had only 4K of RAM and used a cassette deck for program storage and retrieval for games.
From the top of the hill looking down my street. God, it seems narrow! It was huge when we were kids.	Our old house, at 4323 Rosedale Avenue. The fence around the yard is now gone.	Our neighbors house, now radically done-over and expanded.	Another view of my old house. For the last few years I lived there, my bedroom was in the convered garage.
My old elementary school, a block away.	What had been the original two-room schoolhouse, which was now administrative offices.	The Rec Center. I never remember using it as a rec center, but it was the local polling place for elections for a while.	The corner of my old high school. The auditorium is apparently now on this corner.
The football field. The concession stand/press box at the top of the stands is now gone. The green building in the back which used to hold the equipment for putting the lines on the field (which I did--boy, was that a pain) is still there.	The former main entrance of the Language Arts building. They've removed the stairs.	A new building at the corner of the old Main Administration building and the Language Arts building.	The main administration building.
No electronic signs in my day!	Entrance to the Main Administration building. Our class (1978) stole the brass plaque to the right of the door, and returned it to the Principal at our graduation ceremony.	They now have a nice area with tables near the administration building.	All new. This area used to hold the Music building, and behind it the Library and TV Studio.
There were only two tennis courts when I went there. The other courts are where the auditorium used to be.	A look towards Bethesda, and the neighboring Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School. After the nuns had taught their students what swear words they were never supposed to say, they'd rush over and scream them at us. It was amusing the first time, and got old quickly.	The new building towards the football field. The concession stand is in one corner, and I'm assuming the other press-box functions, like P.A. announcer (I did that) and running the scoreboard (I did that) and filming the games now happens from windows cut into this building.
The view towards downtown Bethesda.	The old McDonald's is still there, tucked away.	The hotel where our 10-year Reunion was held. It didn't exist when we went to B-CC. I'm not sure if our 25-year reunion is also being held there, or if I'll go.	The Pilgrim Mother's statue near the old Bethesda Post Office. You can barely see her through the trees and construction.