Memorial Day Ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park

The Disney-Bell American Legion Post 66 hosted this year's Memorial Day Ceremony in Veterans Memorial Park in Old Bowie. A larger-than-normal crowd gathered for the event despite the oppressive heat, and NBC 4 covered the ceremony on the evening news.

More than 70 pictures from the ceremony and the lunch that followed can be seen on the Bowie Living Facebook page by clicking here.

Bob Flick and Ed McDonald present a wreath from the Marine Corps League.

City of Bowie Mayor Fred Robinson and City Council Members Isaac Trouth, Jimmy Marcos, Geraldine Valentino-Smith, Diane Palangin, Dennis Brady and Todd Turner

Lunch at the Disney-Bell American Legion Post 66

Bowie Memorial Day Parade 2010 in Pictures

More than 100 groups participated in one of the longest Bowie Memorial Day Parades in recent memory. Many groups arrived late, and several groups showed up to march that hadn't registered. Several politicians stopped to shake hands along the parade route, and the parade finally wrapped up three hours after the 11:00am start time. Stonybrook Drive was lined with spectators at the beginning of the parade, but many people didn't stay to the end.

Nearly 200 pictures from the parade can be seen on the Bowie Living Facebook page by clicking here.

Grand Marshal, Lieutenant Colonel Michael J. Sierco. Sierco is a member of the Bowie High School class of 1990, and he graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1994. Sierco flew combat missions in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bowie Mayor G. Fred Robinson hands out candy. Bowie Mayor Pro Tem Jimmy Marcos can be seen in the background.

Veterans Ed McDonald (left) and Sam Harris (right)

American Legion Disney-Bell Post 66

American Legion

Bolivian dance group Pachamama participates in the parade every year.

House Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. This girl wandered away from her family, and Hoyer escorted her back.

New World Bilingual Institute

Raices de Bolivia

Prince George's County Executive candidate Rushern Baker. Many 2010 candidates marched in the parade.

Bowie Volunteer Fire Department

Tinkus Wayrus

Suicide Suspected in Old Bowie Death

The man found dead early Tuesday morning in the back room of the Villa Hermosa Grocery in Old Bowie appears to have committed suicide, according to preliminary findings from a Prince George's County Police investigation. Police believe that Margarito Herrera-Vivar of Bowie died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

The news must come as a relief to Old Bowie residents to know that there is not a killer on the loose.

Herrera-Vivar's death came three years and one day after realtor Samuel D’Costa was murdered in the basement of a home that sits less than 1000 feet from the Villa Hermosa Grocery. D'Costa's murder remains unsolved.

A City of Bowie police officer keeps watch over the Villa Hermosa Grocery Tuesday evening.

Additional details can be found by following these links:

• Update from WJZ 13
  
• Original Bowie Living post
• Gazette article on the Samuel D'Costa murder
  

Pomo Grille Follow-Up: Squisito Opens in Crofton

When the Monte Development Group closed the Pomo Grille in Bowie last January, the owner planned on opening a Squisito Pizza & Pasta restaurant in the same Free State Shopping Center location. The owner of the property, Federal Realty Investment Trust, had an alternate plan. Monte Development Group was forced to abandon the property, but they vowed to return to Bowie.

The plan came to fruition earlier this month with a slight modification. Monte Development Group opened a Squisito restaurant in Crofton at the Crofton Centre shopping center (near Kmart and Shoppers).


Squisito customers order food at the counter, and servers deliver the food to the tables. Some people compare it to The Italian Market. Takeout is also available.

We've visited the new restaurant twice since it opened. I liked the pizza crust and sauce, but the pineapples on my pizza during the second visit were not not sweet at all.

Related Links

• To-Go Menu
• Squisito Pizza & Pasta web site
• First Bowie Living post on the Pomo Grille closing
• Second Bowie Living post on the Pomo Grille closing
  

City of Bowie 2010 Memorial Day Weekend Events

The City of Bowie issued the following overview of events for the Memorial Day weekend.

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend. We kick off the summer season with a parade, a tribute to those who have lost their lives for our country, a holiday and the beginning of the summer concert series. We hope you'll take some time to relax and to enjoy all that Bowie has to offer!

Parade
The parade takes place on Saturday, May 29th at 11 a.m. This year's event is dedicated to all of the brave Americans who have served and those who continue to serve our country.

The participants begin at the Belair Annex, then travel down Belair Drive, turning right on Sussex Lane, and then turn right again onto Stonybrook Drive where the reviewing stand is located. The parade ends on Sage Lane behind the Market Place Shopping Center.

Parade entries include the U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, Bowie High School Marching Band, Eleanor Roosevelt High School Pep Band, Panquility Steel Drum, Prince George's Police Bagpipe Band, veterans groups, floats, antique cars, dance groups, beauty queens, marching units, the Bowie Volunteer Fire Department, and more.

Summer Sunset Concert
The first concert of the summer will feature the county sounds of the United States Navy's Country Currents band. The concert begins at 7 p.m. at the Robert V. Setera Amphitheater at Allen Pond Park. Concerts are canceled in the event of inclement weather.

Memorial Day Ceremony
Honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country at a short ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park in Old Town Bowie, on Monday, May 31st at 11 a.m. This event is hosted by local veterans groups.

Memorial Day Holiday
Monday, May 31st is a City holiday. City offices are closed and there will be no refuse or recycling collection. Pickup resumes on your next regularly scheduled day.

Have a safe and enjoyable weekend and remember that the fun continues in June with Bowiefest on June 5th!

Man Found Dead in Old Bowie

A Bowie man was found dead early Tuesday morning in the back room of the Villa Hermosa Grocery in Old Bowie. The cause of death is not yet known, but the tiny store is being treated as a crime scene.

A City of Bowie police officer keeps watch over the Villa Hermosa Grocery Tuesday evening.

Additional details can be found by following these links:

• Bowie Police Department's Unusual Occurrences Report (PDF)
  
• News Channel Eight
  
• The Washington Post's Crime Scene Blog
• Gazette article
  

Bowie Carnivals: Then and Now

A carnival is now open through May 29th in the parking lot of the Bowie Town Center. Below are picture of the current carnival and pictures of a similar carnival that took place in Bowie in May or June of 1975. I'm posting the pictures of the earlier carnival as part of the Bowie Blade Pic Project. Let me know if you recognize any of the people in the 1975 pictures.

May or June, 1975

Lisa and Tina Hargis visiting Bowie from Pasadena, California

Photos of Bowie Maryland 1973 through 1975 by Arnie Miles is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States
License

May 21, 2010

Nighttime view of the Ferris wheel.

Water Game Fun

A view of the carnival from the Ferris wheel

A view of the carnival from the Ferris wheel

A view of the carnival from the Ferris wheel

Looking up from the Ferris wheel

A view of the Bowie City Hall construction project from the top of the Ferris wheel

Super Sizzler

Fun Slide

Video from Ferris wheel ride

Other Bowie Blade Pic Project Posts

• Next: Bowie Swim Teams: Then and Now
• Previous: Introducing the Bowie Blade Pic Project
• All

Introducing the Bowie Blade Pic Project

Arnie Miles was the principal photographer for the Bowie Blade from 1973 to '75 (before the Bowie News purchased the Bowie Blade to form the Bowie Blade-News). He photographed anything newsworthy that happened in Bowie those years, including special events, fundraisers, sports, carnivals, celebrations and tragedies - all in black and white. Some of the pictures were published in the Bowie Blade, and some weren't. Arnie maintained a scrapbook containing related stories for some of the pictures, and today he has an ammunition box full of negatives.

What Arnie is lacking, however, is spare time to digitize his old negatives with a scanner. I offered to scan the images in return for access to the pictures for the Bowie Living blog, and Arnie agreed. We also plan to post the pictures on Flickr or a similar site, and we hope to get comments from people to help identify the subjects of the pictures. It should be an interesting project.

Arnie gave me a couple of packets of negatives last week, including a packet labeled "MAY - JUNE 1975." I scanned a few strips of negatives, and I am still experimenting with the scanner settings to get the best quality pictures. Included in the negatives that I scanned are pictures of what Arnie believes is a Vietnamese family who had immigrated to the Bowie area from Vietnam shortly after the fall of Saigon. I hadn't planned on posting any pictures from the project so soon, but since last Friday was the 35th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, I thought it would be appropriate to introduce the project and post these pictures now.

I'm not sure who the family is. Thanks to some Internet research by Charlie Petruzzo of Bowie, I believe that these pictures were taken in Crofton somewhere near the 2000 block of Aberdeen Drive.

Photos of Bowie Maryland 1973 through 1975 by Arnie Miles is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States
License

Other Bowie Blade Pic Project Posts

• Next: Bowie Carnivals: Then and Now
• All