First friendships
Growing up in Arlington, Va we lived in a community called Fairlington and this is where our first family friendships were born. If you were a child of the 1970’s and 1980’s you know exactly what I’m talking about. It was the days when you first friendships were the other kids in the neighborhood. The parents had dinner parties, played tennis together, scrabble at the pool, went out for drinks and naturally the kids became friends. We were the latch key kids who would get ourselves home after school unsupervised and then play out side until the streetlights came on. It was the best time.
Breakfast in the dining room (a picnic table) of Mr. Trent’s house.
(from the back: my mom, Greg Charouhis, my sister, Elizabeth Kan, Erica Kan, Darlene Charouhis, Steven Charouhis, Katie Charouhis)
Our neighborhood friends were the Kan’s. Carol and Atilla were the parents and they had 2 daughters Erica and Elizabeth who were my sister’s age. They owned Atilla’s restaurant on Columbia Pike in Arlington and later Erica started The Perfect Pita. If you don’t know now you do and you need to check it out!
I was the baby of the group. Carol had a brother named Greg Charouhis and his wife was Darlene, they had 2 children, Steven and Katie who were more near my age. August 1979 the came to the beach with us. There’s nothing like have a big group of people to share beach memories with!
Here we all are on the porch at Mr. Trent’s house. It looks like we’re all geared up and ready to go to the beach for the day! In the back Elizabeth is holding “little Atilla” as we called him. He was the cousin of Erica and Elizabeth. His family had come from Turkey and moved into the same neighborhood we grew up in. Me and Atilla were the same age and were bosom buddies!
Here’s Carol and my mom posing for a picture at the beach
While we were at the beach my mom’s friend Jane and her boyfriend visited us as well. Here he helped us make a huge alligator on the beach.
Anyone remember these rafts?!? This is Erica, My sister and Elizabeth sitting on one. They were always together.
Here’s me having some deep thoughts at the beach it looks like. Nothing’s changed, lol!
One night we went out to McDonald’s to eat. This was a luxury back in the day, especially with a whole bunch of kids!
Who remembers the McDonald’s playground?!? The Hamburgler, Grimace and of course Ronald McDonald.
Here we are on the train in the play area that were actually tables for the kids to eat at. I look at these photos and it feels like it was just yesterday. Of course as life goes, we all grew up and went our separate ways, went to different schools and my family ended up moving out of the neighborhood once I entered high school but those memories in Fairlington and with the Kan’s and Charouhis’ remain some of my favorites.
