Share your Bowie Memories!

The City of Bowie is encouraging current and former Bowie residents to come and share their Bowie memories in an informal setting on Wednesday, August 24th from 10am to noon at the Bowie Senior Center, 14900 Health Center Drive in Bowie. Refreshments will be served.

Bowie's Historic Property Manager, Pam Williams, will be on hand to facilitate the discussion. The city has created a historical timeline of events, and participants are encouraged to fill in any gaps. A sign-up sheet will also be available for people interested in being interviewed for an oral history of Bowie.

Click here for more information.

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

View Larger Map

Railroad Inn's Brother Conway Passes

Arthur "Brother" Conway, owner of the shuttered Railroad Inn, passed away on Thursday, August 18th, 2011. Click here to see the death notice, calling hours and funeral details in the Washington Post. Click here to view or sign the guest book on the Robert E. Evans Funeral Home site.






Below is a collection of memories of Brother Conway and the Railroad Inn from the Bowie Blade-News.

• After 56 years, Old Bowie's Railroad Inn closes, Bowie Blade-News, July 6, 2006. You'll notice in this article that Brother Conway isn't quoted. I've heard that he generally disliked talking to the media.

• Take a dip into Railroad Inn famous pizza, bleu cheese, Bowie Blade-News, January 25, 2007.

• Readers' views, Bowie Blade-News, July 13, 2006.
  

Brother Conway

This is not a letter about politics, high gas prices or increases in electricity. This is about the passage of time and many memories of the robust gray-haired guy with a twinkle in his eye - Brother Conway - the owner of Railroad Inn.

When visiting Railroad Inn, children were always welcome, you were greeted with a big smile and escorted to a table in this family eating place. A recent Blade-News obit for Thelma Ameling, a longtime Bowie resident, highlighted her enjoyment of weekly dinners with friends at Railroad Inn.

Twenty years ago when our daughter got married, pizza was on the menu for her bridal luncheon. When our kids and their families return to town, Railroad Inn pizza was always on the list of do's. One pair of grandkids was convinced that Santa ate there and took a long route to the exit to avoid him. We have been regulars along with others for years. After dinner we sat back and my husband enjoyed a beer while Brother and I had coffee and solved worldly problems.

Railroad Inn along with our favorite "maitre-dooo" will be missed.

You can always visit the Brother's Railroad Inn at Independence, Kan.

LYLE & PAT VERBEEK
Glenn Dale



Bear's last call

On June 30, after 56 years of continuous service to the community, the Railroad Inn gave last call and closed its doors.

The family-owned restaurant has served generation after generation of Bowieites its famous pizza. It has been the meeting place for birthdays and weddings and funerals for almost as long as I've been alive and that is no small feat.

My name is Bear and I've tended bar there since 1977. Some of you might know me. I have been standing behind that bar since I was 28 years old; turned 30 behind it, then 40, 50 and seven more years to boot. I grew up there and it has been a part of my life for more than half of it. I've laughed and cried and flirted and socialized with people. Mostly, though, I opened beers for them and poured drinks and sold pints of liquor. If I told all the stories I knew, I'd have to leave town.

Don't worry, however, the secrets are safe with me. That is what a good bartender does. I just want to take this opportunity to thank each and every person I ever waited on or worked with in that old joint. Drive safely and be well. It's been a real pleasure having known each and every one of you. This chapter is closed and life in the "Smoke Laden Room" is gone but not the memories and good feelings I have about the good people of Bowie. I'll be around and we will see each other again, I hope. In the meantime, here's to ya.

BARRY HARRIS
Bowie

• Aunt Agatha on Politics, Bowie Blade-News July 13, 2006
  

Oh dear, the end of an era: The Railroad Inn has shut its doors in Old Bowie. Now that's a loss!

Auntie remembers the fare at Brother Conway's establishment with fondness. It was basic, reasonably priced food served with a smile (well, not by Brother, who was as cheerful as a winter blizzard) by the personable waitresses.

Not too many newcomers to Bowie will know about the eatery since Brother never advertised, refused all requests for interviews and had no signs pointing the way to the inn hidden behind a bank and adjacent to the railroad tracks.

But we old-timers will miss it. Auntie wishes Brother the best of luck in his leisure days.

Jeff Krulik's Bowie Related Videos

Bowie High School Class of '79 President Jeff Krulik has been making films and videos for more than 20 years. His material includes a raw man-on-the-street interview with Sam Smith in I like to Meet People and the more polished and quirky On the Bus featuring footage and interviews with Ernest Borgnine as the Emmy Award winner tours the U.S. in a tripped out bus. Krulik recently said that he's drawn back to Bowie more and more, and he has a lot of Bowie film ideas swirling through his head.

Some of Krulik's Bowie related videos can be seen below.

In A Visit with Mrs. Cunningham, Krulik interviews former Buckingham Elementary School Principal Maxine Cunningham as he shares footage that Krulik's mother filmed of one of the Halloween parades hosted at the school.

Krulik toured the Bowie Wastewater Treatment Plant with fellow Class of '79 member and City of Bowie employee Bryan Thompson in a two part video. Krulik's favorite quote from the video is when Bryan Thompson said, "whatever you do, don't step in any of that juice."

In I Took AP Biology with Mr. Smouse, Krulik follows Bowie High School Class of '79 classmate Damian Jones as he visits his old biology classroom.

In Freek Week, Krulik interviews Bowie High School Class of '79 student Bryan Thompson explaining the origin of Freek Week, Thompson's Spirit Week parody from 1979.

In Bulldog Restoration at Bowie High School, Krulik films Bruce Hunter telling the stories of how he created the bulldog painting at the end of the 2nd floor wing at Bowie High School and how he helped restore the bulldog during the Class of 1979 30th reunion.

In Teacher Lounge is 175 Degrees, Krulik takes a tour of Bowie High School with his fellow classmates as part of the Class of '79 30th reunion activities.

Bowie High School had an underground newspaper called Off the Wall in the late 70s. In Off the Wall Reunion, Krulik interviews volunteers for Off the Wall during a reunion in 2008.

Late 70s Bowie on Video

In this age of YouTube, it's easy to take videos for granted, but fewer personal videos were being filmed back in the 1970s.

Bowie High School Class of '79 member Todd Mars brought a video camera to school several times between 1977 and '79. He filmed the school, his classmates and a few scenes from around Bowie.

In preparation for the Class of '79 25th reunion in 2004, Todd Mars and Class of '79 President Jeff Krulik added narration to the films. The films were later reformatted to DVD, and DVDs were given to their classmates during the 30th reunion.

Jeff Krulik recently posted these videos on YouTube using the YouTube user name BowieHigh79. Although the videos are probably most interesting to people that attended Bowie High School during that time, I did find some clips that I thought were of general interest to anyone from Bowie.

This first video contains scenes from what Todd believes is Flechertown Road (from 0:32 to 1:35 on the film), and scenes from around Bowie as Todd is given a ride from Bowie High School to his home on Woodrow Lane in the Whitehall section (from 4:00 to 5:00). It looks like Todd took the following route home:

• East on Annapolis Road by the Library (you can see the old Mobil at the corner of Annapolis Rd and Stonybrook Drive).
• Left on Millstream Drive
• Right on Chapel Forge Drive
• Left on Old Chapel Road
• Right on Whitehall Drive
• *camera off*
• Woodrow Lane

This second video may be of interest to anyone that wants to see what the outside of Bowie High School looked like in the late 70s (see 0:01 to 1:50 on the video).

To see the other Todd Mars videos, visit Jeff Krulik's BowieHigh79 channel on YouTube by clicking here.

The Bowie Turtle Mystery

My wife has fond memories of playing on a concrete turtle in the 1970s in the Bowie shopping center that she has always known as Market Place, and in the years since, she has heard people claim that the Market Place turtle was moved to Allen Pond Park. She recalls, however, that the Market Place turtle and the Allen Pond turtle existed at the same time. She also recalls that the Market Place turtle had indentations to make the climb easier for kids, and the Allen Pond turtle did not.

The minor turtle controversy was a topic of discussion when my wife was working for the Bowie Blade as a reporter in 2006. She doesn't recall why, but she thinks that it may have been a comment from a reader in response to a Sam Fatzinger story in the Blade that claims that Allen Pond Park is the latest home for the turtle that used to be located in front of People's Drugs. My wife recalls that one of her colleagues investigated by talking to one or two sources at Bowie City Hall. She thinks the results were inconclusive.

The turtle(s) have since been discussed on Bowie related Facebook pages: Bowie, MD Stories and You Know You're From Bowie When....

The following is a March, 2010 picture of the turtle in Allen Pond Park.






"LONDINO STONE COMPANY" is engraved on the left front leg of the turtle.




The following is a picture of a turtle from Pittsburgh, PA that I found on Flickr (see pic on Flickr). My wife believes that this more closely resembles the Market Place turtle. What do you think?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonpratt/ / CC BY 2.0

UPDATE: I was able to locate a picture of the turtle from the Belair Shopping Center. Click here to see the photo.