Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 18, 1994 TAG: 9402180361
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Their stories follow.
In the face of disaster, leave it to the local barber to turn his customers' problems into humor and remind them that there's always a reason to laugh.
As customers wandered into the OK Barber Shop in downtown Pulaski on Monday morning, the talk, as might be expected, was about the ice storm.
Most everyone had a story about how they survived (or were surviving) without power. The stories were of a serious nature until barber Steve Swecker changed the mood, by telling a joke about fellow barber Asa Burchett.
The joke not only related to the storm, but worked nicely into Valentine's Day. As Swecker told it, Burchett called Appalachian Power in an attempt to get them to restore the power to his home. ``I need my power back on because my wife is pregnant,'' Burchett said.
``Oh!'' exclaimed the Apco operator on the other end, ``How long has she been pregnant?"
``Since last night,'' Burchett replied.
- Gene Dalton
Steve Critchfield, president of Tele-Works and owner of Rocky Acres, a private wooded development off Jennelle Road in Blacksburg, has been out of power and water since last Friday.
"It is hilarious," he said.
While other residents are turning to oil lamps and wood stoves for salvation, Critchfield has been saved by a more modern appliance.
"Thank God for hot tubs!" Critchfield said.
During his week without water, he has siphoned water from the tub to use in the toilets.
One Rocky Acres resident ditched using toilets altogether, and ventured to the great outdoors, only to be caught in the act by a neighbor!
- Melissa DeVaughn
Our Blacksburg and business reporter, Stephen Foster, had one really confused roommate last Friday. Returning to his dark apartment, with no power or water, Karl Dalrymple searched high and low for a source of of light.
All the Virginia Tech English major could find were birthday candles.
Imagine Foster's surprise to come home, enter the bathroom, and see a spent birthday candle sticking out of the only candleholder that Dalrymple could fashion - a potato!
- Melissa DeVaughn
What could be worse for caffeine addicts than missing that first cup of coffee in the morning?
We heard a story about a man who prepared his coffee maker the night before, anticipating a nice steaming cup of brew first thing the next morning.
Morning came, and forgetting his power was off, he plugged the percolator in. Several minutes later, he went to pour his first cup of coffee. Nothing came out, not even the sound of sloshing water. Puzzled, he opened the coffee maker to discover not coffee, not even cold water: just a chunk of ice. Just how badly insulated is his house?
- Kathy Loan
When the service line went down to the "Meltdown House", a rental house next to the Virginia Tech campus, 10 students without power for five days had to get a little creative.
In addition to hanging out at Gillie's, showering in the dorm across the street, and even at one point of low water pressure writing girlfriends' names in yellow snow, one resident, Ryan Johns, built a fire in the fireplace in his room - using dry-rotted trim the storm knocked off the turn-of-the century house.
- Mara Lee
On Thursday when the cold rain began to fall, I ran across the street to King Video to rent a couple of movies and a Super Nintendo game, anticipating yet another school closing Friday.
The power went off early Friday and all day we listened to branches and limbs crack and pop outside. Inside, my children dug out their antiquated board games and forgot about their favorite snowy day pastime: sitting in front of a TV screen.
I didn't think about the videos until Sunday. "Oh no," I groaned. "The movies are late."
I ran to the VCR and punched the eject button.
Nothing happened.
The folks at King Video were very nice about it.
"The movie is stuck in the VCR and I can't get it out until the electricity is restored," I explained, giving the clerk a pitiful look.
"Don't worry about it," she said kindly. "Just bring it back when you can."
In case you're wondering, the movie was "Rookie of the Year." I still haven't seen it.
- Donna Alvis-Banks
by CNB