Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 3, 1995 TAG: 9508030007
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JONATHAN HUNLEY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
College, although an education-giver, is also a money-taker. So, let's look at what some students are doing to make a buck this summer - and how their jobs may affect you.
Say it's your birthday. You have a picnic. Your family always did like to embarrass you, so they get you a singing telegram from Giggle Grammms.
The messenger just might be Chrissy Frentz or Michelle Semones.
Frentz, 21, and Semones, 20, are students at Roanoke College. They both have other jobs but make extra money by taking on the guises of Playboy bunnies, French maids, jungle dwellers, huge cupcakes or red hearts, depending on the client's preference. They travel to where you are, sing you songs and give you gifts and a certificate that says you've been "officially Giggle Grammmed."
But don't mistake their job description. After they put it on, they don't take it all off.
"WE ARE NOT STRIPPERS!!!" they told me several times in an interview.
That's good. Aunt Elsie wouldn't approve.
Now, at this birthday shindig you'll probably want to give Glamour Shots pictures to those whom you love and cherish. You know what I'm talking about. They come from that place at Valley View where you get all gussied up and smile real big for the camera.
If you go on the right day, it'll be Kimberly Reynolds who emblazons your image onto a piece of cellulose. (That's the material photos are made of. We journalist-types have to know this stuff.)
The 20-year-old Radford University junior means business. She wears a tuxedo at work. You've got to be well-dressed if you plan to make Big Lick look good, I guess.
Reynolds did admit to having occasionally photographed the less-than-glamorous in her career.
"I just take the pictures," she said. "They have the looks."
If you're lucky, you will be near water at this birthday celebration, and if you're in Franklin County, the water may well have been tested by Jeff Miller.
Miller, 20, is a rising senior at my school, the College of William & Mary. He does better in science than I do, however. He's an environmental science major, and this summer is an intern at the Water Division of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
This man slogs around in rivers and gets paid for it. He collects water samples from some of the streams that run into Smith Mountain Lake.
Miller and his cohorts also do tests from bridges, sometimes prompting strange responses from the natives.
"They either think you're gonna jump or are trying some weird kind of bungee thing," Miller said.
But back to your crowd.
At 105, poor Aunt Elsie could go at any time. It could happen before Willard Scott gets to call out her name. Enter 20-year-old Sam Manning Jr.
Manning works at Hamlar-Curtis Funeral Home. He helps direct wakes, makes grave markers, eases the nerves of troubled families and generally ensures that the funeral process goes smoothly.
"I am their protege," he said of the owners.
Attending classes at Virginia Western Community College as well as working might be a struggle for some, but the man who received an award at Salem High School for being the "last person to let you down" said being a funeral director has been his life-long dream.
When he was little, he couldn't pronounce "mortician," so he used to run around saying, "I wanna be an undertaker."
And where the nervous might be afraid to work at a funeral home at night, Manning said he tries to take everything in stride. He may get a bit jumpy when a fan comes on, but he basically stays calm.
"They're dead; what can they do to you?" he said.
In all seriousness, Manning cares about the people he works with and those whom he serves.
by CNB