Flashback Monday: Reston's Undying Love For Nixon Set in Stone

Pull on your bell bottoms and set the Earth-Toned Wayback Machine to 1972, a time of great unrest in much of the nation… except Reston. Yes, our ostensibly hippy-dippy town real estate development apparently loved itself some Richard Nixon, not wanting to see him impeached and probably muttering under its breath about those long-haired kids and their loud music.

But! It turns out Reston has its own shrine to our 37th President, in the lobby of the USGS building. Look upon these works, ye mighty, and despair!

The Washington Post goes to great efforts to say that there's nothing inside the inscribed stone, which is a "3.5 billion year old" hunk of granite. Of course, if we wanted to boost Reston's tourist trade, we could always claim it includes a tibia or femur or other relic of the former president, but -- as someone whose name escapes us for the moment once said -- "That Would Be Wrong."

The Post article instead talks about the USGS move to Reston back in 1973. though they sadly overlook its groundbreaking "seating units":

The move “was very important for us,” said Jim Devine, a USGS seismologist who was at the building’s dedication. “It was important for Reston, too.” (The keynote speaker that day was not Nixon, but Interior Secretary Rogers C.B. Morton.)

Reston was a lot less developed then, Jim said. There weren’t too many restaurants, but employees could get to them quickly.

“When we first moved out here, you could get to a restaurant in 15 minutes, have lunch and get back without using too much time,” Jim said. “Over the years, it became much too difficult. Now virtually no one leaves for lunch.”

Reston's favorite president puts it best: