What's Happening Here?

Jack and I were going to the Gateway Shopping Center to get a new gas tank for our grill and to have a cup of coffee at Starbucks when we ran into blocked off streets, crowded parking lots and people rushing with kids and babies in tow. Did Obama return to Prince William County? No. It was someone even more exciting to all these folks. It was Flumpa the Amphibian. I think he was a big green frog and he may be coming to a place near you because his frogmobile says he does nationwide tours. At any rate he drew quite a crowd of babies, kids and young moms on a warm July morning at Atlas Walk. Just eight years ago this very spot near the Southern Railway tracks along route #29 was a depressing abandoned iron works business named Atlas Works. Atlas Works was one of the suppliers for the iron beams that were installed in the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York City. Every American remembers seeing these twisted iron beams lying at ground zero. Well, some of those iron beams came from this very spot in Gainesville, Virginia. And today some of those twisted iron beams that were hauled away from ground zero were reused in the making of a new Navy battleship that was launched this year---the U.S.S. New York. And our decrepit and abandoned iron works has been reborn as an upscale shopping mall with a small town main street appeal and it sports the name Atlas Walk.