Comments for Washington, DC: Part I, Arlington Cemetery | Eastern North Carolina Now

Here is what you need to know, Bobby Tony, about Beaufort County: we are small and know one another / we drive with hand on top the steering wheel to wave / we have no traffic jams --- so we look for a few exciting things to differ over just for fun!

Actually Stan and I are personal friends. We first met as I did tree work for him. We had most interesting conversations and Stan invited me to contribute to his e-magazine. While I may disagree with his political positions, I tell readers a logical "why."

Both of you are welcome to my porch for discussion and whatever good spirits you choose to bring. Heck, I will even let you drive my A-300 Bobcat for a Bayview thrill.

Commented: Sunday, May 24th, 2015 @ 7:16 pm By: Gene Scarborough

Sorry guys, broke my own rule just three comments ago. I thought the article would get us back on track about Arlington. I was last there in the 7th grade and I remember the presidios of the guards at the tomb. Being a guard there is one of the highest honors you can get in the service..
I understand they are restricting burials there as they are giving out of space.

Commented: Sunday, May 24th, 2015 @ 6:52 pm By: Bobby Tony

Tony Bobby's cited article reads:

"1. In the city’s early days, the periodically-flooded area at the base of Capitol Hill was a problem that the shoddily built canal running through it did not solve. Instead of fixing the problem itself, the federal government handed the land over to private developers on condition that they drain it. Now the Capitol Reflecting Pool is where the swamp used to be.

2. The neighborhood of Swampoodle appropriately preserves the Irish pronunciation of “puddle” where the two main branches of Tiber Creek joined in a shallow valley. Drainage conditions got a lot worse before they got better for the immigrants who settled here in the mid-19th century.

3. Streams flowing out of the surrounding hills saturated the land where Le Droit Park was developed. A Florida Avenue combined sanitary and storm collector sewer only relieved local drainage problems for a while after it was completed in the 1880s.

4. The Anacostia River flowed too slowly to take away the effluent of the Florida Avenue sewer, so it settled on the foul tidal flats for decades while Congress refused to fund corrective re-engineering of the river.

5. The steep hills looming over the northwest perimeter of the city were drained by many small streams that saturated the sandy clay soil near S Street between 16th and 19th streets. Rising real estate values allowed this land to be improved before any substantial settlement occurred in the later 19th century.

6. Tiber Creek was first made into a canal, then into a sewer draining much of downtown. It flowed out onto the Potomac Flats, within easy smelling distance of the White House, and secured the city’s reputation for swampiness. Dredging the river solved that problem, with East and West Potomac Parks as pleasant and useful byproducts."

Our discussion pends on a formal definition vs. a logical one based on the nose of people who lived there and endured the heat of a muggy summer, gentlemen! As a child I visited my Aunt Eber Lieler (strange GA country name) who worked at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds and lived at Haver de Grace, Maryland. It was more than hot and sticky with heat waves rising off the marshes---swamps, maybe not---BUT enough heat and humidity to welcome a gator IF the winters were not so cold!

The rightness of any one of us 3 is beside the point --- as many of Stan's surveys are so lopsided as to make me laugh. If I were farming there at the inception it would have been the lowest kind of land on the Plantation and most unsuitable for agriculture.

I am just glad to live in the loamy soil of Beaufort County which is far superior to anything around DC in the beginning. Smelly and wet dirt stinks---not matter where it might be and that was DC in the beginning, my friends!

Commented: Sunday, May 24th, 2015 @ 4:34 pm By: Gene Scarborough

Commented: Sunday, May 24th, 2015 @ 2:57 pm By: Bobby Tony

If you had a farmer in upstate SC as I did --- you would know a wetland when you saw it, Stan.

Go to the original maps and elevations and check my assessment on a topographical map / go to Google Earth and take a satellite view that discloses the extensive drainage work for land beside the Potomac River, my brother!

I use the term "swamp" to cover land not arable for farming of that era. . .

Commented: Sunday, May 24th, 2015 @ 12:09 pm By: Gene Scarborough

Thank you for a very informative recap of the history of this National Resting place. It is interesting that you mention Audie Murphy. He was a hero of mine. It started out as a young boy who never knew anything about war but I knew that a young movie star was unique. It turns out I was wrong. He was not really that unique, he was American. He was however, imbued with the American dream; love of family and love of country. His actions in that war were most definitely unique and I agree, he rest where he should be among the company of his fallen brothers whom he represented so well.
I look forward to the next installment and I truly hope we don’t leapfrog into a meaningless debate over what is wrong with America. The men and women deserve much better than that from us

Commented: Sunday, May 24th, 2015 @ 6:42 am By: Bobby Tony