Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 30, 1993 TAG: 9303300131
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But Mike Wallace I'm not.
Still, we all have our secrets.
Mine's balloons.
Yes, as monumental as the word "plastics" was to Benjamin Braddock in "The Graduate" or "Rosebud" was to Charles Foster Kane, that's what "balloons" is to mingling.
Find a bunch of balloons, and you'll undoubtedly find people having a good time.
Take Gail Bullard and Muhammed Rasheed.
On the afternoon of March 20, I watched them and dozens of other folks climb into cars in the parking lot behind the Crystal Tower in downtown Roanoke. When they took off, I joined the caravan as the 10th car, following a car trailing crepe paper and pink, orange, blue and yellow balloons.
You didn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out we were en route to a wedding reception. And how long a trip could it be from downtown to just about any place you'd throw such a shindig?
Well, how about 26.3 miles?
The actual distance between the parking lot and the home of Linda Walker - the sister of the bride - on Fresno Street is 3.9 miles. That's the non-wedding distance.
But Gail and Muhammed wanted all of Northwest Roanoke to know they'd finally tied the knot. So like a circus parade we wove in and out of every paved thoroughfare you can name. Across Orange Avenue. Up and down Lafayette and Melrose. In and out of Lincoln Terrace.
Yes, for 26.3 miles we followed that balloon-festooned car. From the sidewalks people cheered and waved.
It's the balloon effect.
Nobody seemed to know who these people were - I sure didn't. But who cared? There's something about a car covered with balloons that makes everyone smile.
When I finally met the bride and groom at the end of our journey, there was a reason these two wanted the whole neighborhood to know they'd gotten married.
Gail and Muhammed have known each other since childhood and grew up together on Harrison Avenue. They went to Lucy Addison High School together. And in 1979, they started dating. Eventually, he drifted away.
But last year, the two ran into each other in a drug store where Gail worked.
"We started going to dinner and the movies, and then on my birthday in November, he asked me to marry him," Gail explained.
She originally bought a two-piece suit for the occasion. But the closer the wedding day got, the more Gail wanted it to be an event. On the big day she was dressed from head to toe in white lace - in a dress she'd made herself in just six days.
For both - now 38 - the wedding might have been a long time coming, but it was sure worth the wait. The group packed in Linda's house that cheered as the two cut the wedding cake in the dining room surely agreed.
"I'm just so proud of him," said mother of the groom Vivian Hale. And her new daughter-in-law? "She's always been such a sweet girl."
On a dark, rainy Sunday afternoon, 11 balloons were tied to the Prettyman mailbox on Grandin Road Extension.
It's a family tradition Judy and Bob Prettyman started when their daughter, Amanda, was just a little girl. "We tie one balloon for each year on her birthday," Judy explained.
I'd missed the big party. Friday night, Amanda and six of her friends from Oak Grove Elementary School went bowling in honor of her 11th birthday.
"I bowled a 70," she said rather proudly.
"And she even got her first strike," Judy added, even more proudly. "And it was only the second time she'd ever bowled."
This afternoon gathering was an intimate just-for-family celebration. Amanda's aunt, Donna Snead, was there. And her grandparents, Ann and Dave Snead (Nanna and Poppa), arrived a little later.
Amanda was all dressed up in her favorite color - green - for this little party, showing off the Beach Boys and Amy Grant CDs she got as presents.
She also got a special kit for dolling up the sensational shiny waist-length blond hair her dad told me she'd been growing for all 11 of her years.
"I'll bet the boys like that," I commented.
"Oh, we don't let her talk to boys," Bob joked.
Amanda told me she was going to be a teacher someday. "Because I like being with little kids."
And no matter what, she's going to Virginia Tech.
"Because that's where my dad went," she said with a smile.
THE PARTY LINE: If you'd like to invite free-lance Mingling columnist Kathleen Wilson to a party or social gathering, call her at 981-3434; when asked for the mailbox, dial MING (6464) and press the # key. Then leave a message as directed. Or write her in care of the Features Department, Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010-2491.
by CNB