News and notes from Reston (tm).

Monday, March 15, 2010

Flashback Monday: England Fights Back

Who knew you could feed 8mm film directly into the You Tubes? (We're guessing one of those fancy "routers" was involved.) Anyhoo, this video home movie, dating back to sometime in the 1960s or 1970s, purports to show a "Mr. David England" on "Tumbletree Way" in Reston taking matters into his own hands after a bunch of punk kids pretend to destroy his lawn. There's a hot-air balloon! And some unsettling noose action! And while grainy and of dubious thespianic quality, the scenes on the bulldozer eerily predict the stream restoration process nearly three decades early.

Does anyone know the real story behind this little morality play? Please share in the comments. In the meantime, we'll be trying to stuff our 35mm Ektachrome slides into our CD-ROM drive to upload them to Flickr.

(Thanks to our favorite correspondent, The Peasant From Less Sought After South Reston, for unearthing this rare gem.)

10 comments:

  1. I guess the moral of that story is: don't fuck with Mr. England's lawn.

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  2. South Reston? Check.
    Aerial patrols? Check.
    Gunfire? Check.

    Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

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  3. See what happens when you let the democrats stuff your town full of section 8 tenants?

    And then let a fat single gal (aka Miss Robin Smyers)run a dysfunctioal "homeowners'" association and exceed her authority time and time again in an outrageouns patehtic attmept to validate her failed regime....

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  4. Anon 7:07 what a shameful troll.

    Great way to take a funny old clip and put some invective upon the thread's discussion.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Shame? Oh please. He's no troll! Smyers gets what she deserves.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Peasant From Less Sought After South RestonMarch 15, 2010 at 7:58 PM

    OK, returning to the subject at hand...might this have been the very young Quentin Tarentino's first attempt at directing?

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  7. Was Mr. England calling the DRB?

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  8. At the risk of breaking rule #1 with trolls (do not feed the troll)

    I am hoping this might turn into a "teachable moment" with Anon 7:07 and his sock puppet 7:44.

    This thread has nothing to do with Ms. Smyers. It is about a gem of a home movie that is bizarrely violent yet simultaneously charming in its lo-fi naivety.

    So please confine your rants against Smyers to threads relevant to Smyers. "Trolling" for comments about Smyers is rude. If we were on another thread which was relevant to Smyers or even the RA then your disparaging comments would be appropriate. Web-etiquette 101 my trollish little friend.

    Now then back to the topic at hand:

    Any more of these? I like the time-portal aspect of seeing Reston from way back when.

    I wonder if Mr. England ever got his lawn fixed.

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  9. Goodness --- look at the attire of the day -- the pants on that kid -- mad plaid for sure -- and all the more evidence yet that Reston was and is the home of all Stepford Wives

    (or wanna be Stepford wives --- but, oops, we are not to commend about THAT one here -- pardon me).

    I aint seen no goth yet that beats that look!

    Long live the 1970s and the split levels on Tumbletree Way --- they would feel right at home in today's Wisteria Lane!

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  10. Since when does Reston have colonial houses?! You sure this isn't Springfield?

    :)

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