Share your memories with the Annandale Oral History Project at the Taste of Annandale

The Annandale firehouse in 1948.

Did you grow up in Annandale when it was a semi-rural outer suburb?

We’re inviting you to share your memories with the Annandale Oral History Project during the Taste of Annandale on Oct. 5. There will be a table set up with an interviewer to record your stories at the Pop-Up Park. Sign up here.

What was the commercial center of Annandale like when you grew up here? What businesses and shops were around then? What was your school like? Did you go to the old Annandale Elementary School or Masonville Elementary School? Were you at Annandale High School when the Atoms were a football powerhouse?

What did people do for entertainment? What kind of jobs did people have? Were there still farms around when you grew up? Do you remember what it was like here before the beltway was built? Do you remember the movie theater in Annandale?

Annandale Elementary School students in 1953.

If you’re not that old, maybe you would like to share memories about Annandale from the 1980s or 90s. Do you remember what it was like here before the Internet and cell phones?

If you have an elderly relative who doesn’t read the Annandale Blog or doesn’t engage in social media, you can sign up for them and bring them to the Oral History Project table at the Taste of Annandale.

The table will be in the Pop-Up Park in the ACCA Child Development Center parking lot across Columbia Pike from the main action at the Taste of Annandale, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 5, during the park’s Community Day. The interviews will be audio only, not video.

The Annandale Oral History Project is being carried out in partnership with the Fairfax County History Commission, which is planning to collect oral histories from other parts of the county, too. Excerpts from the interviews will also be posted in the Annandale Blog.

Anyone who would like to participate in the Annandale Oral History Project can schedule an interview between 10:30 a.m. and noon on Oct. 5. Contact the Annandale Blog for more information, [email protected]. If you’ve got stories to share but aren’t available on Oct. 5, let us know, too.