Walks with Charley: Sniffing Arlington Ridge History & Mystery

By Marty Suydam

I have written about Arlington Ridge in terms of personal exploration between my best friend, Charley, and me. When you walk a dog several miles a day in the same general area, you encounter many things that are missed when you are alone, just walking or driving a car. With a dog, you must stop and attend to the duties of the dog. The shared journey is the important thing, not getting somewhere. You must stop and wait for sniffing expeditions. And you (the human) can share your observations and wonder with someone (the dog) who is nonjudgmental.

Since we traverse the area a couple times a day, we are also a strobe light on change. We report downed trees to the county. We observe poor workmanship and repairs. And even though we may have passed a location hundreds of times, we see something new, even things as large as houses.

Thus, I have tried to create a series of Readers Digestible stories (a made-up term for a story quickly read and easily understood) that relate here and now to yesteryear with the help of Charley.

This book is organized by first introducing you, the reader, to Charley, then by working our way around the ridge geographically. If north is at twelve oclock, that is where I start and work clockwise and back to twelve oclock.

I hope you will enjoy my shared journey and experiences with Charley as much as I have. Charley doesnt remember any of the story details (unless there are smells involved), but she does remember her way around the nearly twenty miles of roads, alleys, and paths of the ridge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781546212706

Marty Suydam

Marty Suydam was a Scout and Explorer growing up in Montclair, New Jersey. He is a member of the Camp Glen Gray Old Guard. Now retired, he has had careers in: US Government (US Army, Department of Defense, US Navy), industry (General Dynamics, ALCOA, JJMA, BMY), Consulting (FOCUS Consulting, Burdeshaw Associates), Teaching (Colorado School of Mines, George Mason University, Washington College, and Marymount University). Compiled by Marty Suydam with help remembering from: Jim Bunting, George Delatush, Jim Giblin, Jock Gist, Bob Murphy, Ralph Najarian, Bill Nunamacher, and John Watson

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Figure 1 Arlington Ridge

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Charley Girl

Joyce and I had dogs most of our married life. When Shu, our last Shih Tzu went to doggie heaven, we decided not to get another dog. Our life-style had changed enough to be keeping and training a puppy – it didn’t fit.

On the other hand, I loved the idea of unconditional love, not available anywhere else, but from a dog.

When Joyce retired in 2009 we could begin to see a chance for unconditional love – again.

We settled on getting a Wheaton Terrier-Shih Tzu mix, Abbey. We paid a breeder a lot of money for her and had a training package built in. She was cute and sweet, but was un-trainable in terms of house breaking. Maybe we were out of practice. We tried everything, but ultimately had to take her to Animal Welfare League. She was picked up immediately and we were led to believe she was placed with a family who could do the right thing. All in all, it was a sad experience.

After two years, and still in need of unconditional love, Joyce began searching the Internet. Joyce wanted a dog that could be trained as a therapy dog for working with children in reading programs. I wasn’t particularly interested, but the idea of unconditional love was still appealing.

In January 2010 Joyce asked me to come with her to Winchester. We would see some puppies, but, …only to look.

A little white Goldendoodle puppy crawled into her lap and it was love at first sight (figure 2, No 1). I kept saying we weren’t committing, but I had her picture on my phone and I kept looking at it.

We were going to Monterey, California in early February and Tucson, Arizona in March, and we decided to commit to take the dog if the breeder was willing to keep her until we returned. We didn’t think it was fair to pick her up then put her in a kennel right away. The breeder agreed. She was the favorite of the litter and the breeder had named her Lamb Chop after the Sherri Lewis puppet of the same name. While in Monterrey we visited the Steinbeck Museum and that sealed the fate of her name, Charley. Recall Steinbeck’s last book was Travels with Charley.

When we picked her up in April, it was still love at first sight only enhanced by the fact that she was completely housebroken and proved that skill just before we left the breeder (figure 2, No 2).

Now nearly four years later, Charley is mid-sized (46 pounds) and always gets comments, when we walk, …she is so beautiful…, …she always looks just groomed…, and when petted by children, …she is so soft and fluffy… (figure 2, No 3). All those attributes are hers, naturally. She is beautiful, sweet, gentle, and very fit – she makes sure I get my daily exercise, often 6-8 miles — every day in an unconditional way.

Date written: 1/28/2015

Figure 2 Charley

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On the Street Where You Live – Arlington Ridge

What’s in a name of a place? How did that name get decided? Whose life is now memorialized?

The story of the names of places can represent a fascinating tale about the place where we live, yet often, know little