Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 16, 1994 TAG: 9409160024
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By DONNA ALVIS-BANKS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ALUM RIDGE LENGTH: Medium
For Charlie Weeks, yard art is a passion.
The flame was kindled nine years ago when his youngest daughter gave him the first two pieces in a collection that has since reached triple figures.
"My daughter gave me two deer for Christmas that year," said Charlie - who would be mightily insulted if you called him Mr. Weeks. "I've gotten a new piece every Christmas since then."
You've heard of the glass menagerie?
Charlie's world is the cement menagerie.
"After I got started," he said, "I couldn't stop."
His yard is filled to overflowing with bevies of cement birds, herds of cement cows, gaggles of cement geese and packs of cement dogs.
He has cement raccoons, squirrels, eagles, pigs, mushrooms, cherubs, donkeys, clowns and fish.
He even has cement lions and bears.
His daughters, Mary Sue Collins and Zylphia Collins ("They married brothers," Charlie explains), surprised him with four cement lions last Christmas.
When Charlie Weeks grins, you can't help grinning back. He flashes a row of white teeth with a shiny gold filling smack in the center. It sparkles when the sunlight hits it just right.
At 80, he's full of energy and excitement, especially when he talks about his yard art collection.
"That bear there weighs 450 pounds," he said, pointing to a lifelike concrete replica of an American black bear.
"I bought that white bear over there for $50," he continued, noting that he got a discount from the salesman because of his volume buying. Most of the pieces in his collection were purchased from Cement World in Lynchburg, but he's been known to travel anywhere around these parts for a special piece.
"I told a feller in Christiansburg that I wanted a white bear. He said, 'What do you want with a white bear? There ain't no polar bears in this part of the country.' I told him there would be when I put one in the yard."
As he stands in the yard showing off his collection, he reminds you of an animated clock, hands pointing in all directions:
"Look at this old milk cow sittin' here."
"That's some turkey gobbler up there."
"How about these eagles? You don't see any prettier than that!"
Since he started accumulating the lawn sculptures, Charlie's imagination has taken flight. He creates whimsical scenes with his own creative touches.
He mounted the stone figure of a little boy with a fishing pole atop a large slab of rock in his yard. In front of the rock just under the boy's bare feet, he fixed a 3-foot cement alligator. And dangling from the hook at the end of the fishing pole is a fierce looking plastic shark.
"People think that's somethin'!" he chuckled.
Charlie is used to seeing motorists slow their cars to gawk at his yard. His house, on heavily traveled Virginia 8 just past the Montgomery County line, is hard to miss.
In addition to the whopping sculpture collection, his lawn is a colorful spectacle of dahlias, impatiens and cactuses, birdhouses, canopies and spinning whirligigs.
"People from all over - Richmond, Danville, Martinsville - stop here wanting to buy something," he said. "They don't like it when I tell 'em it's not for sale."
Sometimes, he said, people stop just to nab a snapshot. Last year, a group of Virginia Tech students brought a camera to Charlie's yard so they could pose for funny photos.
"Yep, all kinds stop here to see it," Charlie said.
He hasn't heard anyone complain about his prodigious art assortment.
His neighbors come over to help him lift the heavier pieces he buys, and his five great-grandchildren are crazy about it.
But Charlie says his biggest supporter is Maybell, his wife of almost 60 years.
"She likes it! She's got a collection of salt and pepper shakers and a doll collection inside the house," he explained.
At this point, Charlie isn't thinking about expanding his collection ("I'm running out of places to put it all!"), but that could change.
In fact, you shouldn't bet the farm on it.
"I don't plan on buying more," he mused. "If I find something I ain't got - well, I'll buy some more."
by CNB