THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 2, 1995 TAG: 9506300191
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 25 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
For the 11th year in a row, ``The Pinecliffe Gang'' in Briarwood has closed off the street in the neighborhood and invited friends, relatives and former neighbors to help celebrate Independence Day.
``When we first started, people just kind of got together with their grills,'' said Carol Shriner, one of the party's organizers. ``We all live in this court area, so everybody knows everybody else.''
``This is a kind of a close-knit neighborhood where everybody watches out for everybody else,'' said Shriner's daughter, Mary Mordica, who came from out of town to attend the party.
Organizers of the annual Briarwood Fourth of July Pig Pickin' do it by the book.
They canvas every family in the area to get signatures on consent petitions, which are then delivered to the Chesapeake Planning Commission. And each year, after 100 percent consent from all families, the commission gives the neighborhood permission to close off Pinecliffe Road for the festivities.
``We've never gotten a complaint from anyone,'' Shriner said. ``After we block off the street, a neighbor, Kenny Mason, comes in and cooks a whole pig. He donates that to us. Everybody else brings a covered dish, and we provide beverages, hot dogs and chicken. To pay for all this everybody donates $6 a person when they show up. We usually get anywhere from 100 to 150 people.''
The planning committee features Sharon and John Stull, Tricia and Jerry Corliss, Alice and Ted Testerman, Carol and Al Shriner and Nancy and Kurt Wall.
Early Tuesday, the party planning committee will decorate Pinecliffe Drive by placing American flags on every street light. Others will drape red-white-and-blue bunting everywhere and bowls full of red-white-and-blue decorations will be placed up and down the long tables to be used for the event's grand banquet.
``The decorations always look like something out of Southern Living magazine,'' Shriner said.
In addition, all of the neighborhood's children will decorate their bicycles with patriotic crepe paper, American flags and horns. All of these nifty two- and three-wheelers will be displayed in one of two children's bike rallies held on the street that day.
The celebration will feature a ``Sunstroke Stride'' at 3:30 p.m. for joggers and volleyball competitions, a watermelon seed-spitting contest and a water balloon toss.
``The men will also play various card games,'' Shriner said. ``And the children all have such a good time. They get wet, they eat food, they stuff their faces, they run around and get sweaty.'' by CNB