Alfred Regnery's Estate Sale

[mahatmakanejeeves]

There was an estate sale in a particularly swank neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia, this past weekend. Since I have no interest in the usual estate sale items, I waited until a half hour before closing time on Sunday to pay a visit.

You couldn't even see the house from the street; the driveway was a good 200 feet long. As I was looking around the kitchen, I saw some mail for the people vacating the house. It was addressed to Alfred Regnery.

This discovery immediately brought back one of the fondest memories I have of listening to my police scanner; it happened a good eight to ten years ago, when the Alexandria PD was called to respond to complaints of a loud party. It turns out that a bunch of kids were holding an alcohol-fueled party, and they were refusing entry to the police. Who knew that conservative kids had such of a command of civil rights when they are about to be busted? The police, though, saw right through that and started ID'ing people.

At the time, the police would read the name and SSN of people right over the radio, as the SSN in Virginia appeared on driver's licenses. When they read out the name "Regnery," I knew this was a good one. Alfred Regnery had been Reagan's minister of teenage drinking. Actually, I suppose he was supposed to be against teenage drinking, but you never can tell.

Regnery's wife has died, and the kids are gone or going. Rather than stay alone in the house, Alfred Regnery is moving to Georgetown. As you can guess, he lived pretty well. The house was huge. There must have been one hundred purses left for sale when I got there.

The most ironic aspect to me was the HO-scale model railroad layout in the basement. The train on it? A model Amtrak passenger train. What would Grover Norquist say?

Please note that this is not an invitation to stalking, as the house is on the market. If you figure out which one it is (which is easily done), don't count on telling the neighbor that the agent said you could wander around. The neighbor is the agent.

[shain from kane]

1. Unfit for My Comment. n/t

[ret5hd]

2. Of Regnery Publishing i assume?

[rzemanfl]

3. Oh my, Thanks for that (not). I haven't thought about this YAF

asshole for 36 years and thanks to your post I couldn't get his 1968-1971 visage out of my head all day. He and I were classmates at UW law. I didn't like him then either and I am sure he held me in contempt.