Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 8, 1994 TAG: 9405120005
SECTION: DISCOVER NRV PAGE: 38 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here," is the message.
But which scene or image to choose?
One of our Discover survey questions asked our readers what landmark best represents their home, the New River Valley.
And the winner is ... the New River!
No surprise there. This ancient waterway gives the region its name. Like liquid solder, the New River and its tributaries fasten Montgomery, Pulaski, Giles and Floyd counties and the city of Radford together.
Check out the telephone book's business pages, and you'll find more listings with "New River" in the title than any other. We counted 93, alphabetically listed from New River Accounting & Data Processing Service in Dublin to New River Veterinary Services in Blacksburg.
How do I love thee, O New River Valley ... let me count the cows!
Yet there were lots of other nominations. Folks mentioned the Cascades, Burruss Hall and the War Memorial at Virginia Tech, Claytor Lake, Smithfield Plantation, the Cambria Train Station, the Pulaski County Courthouse, Drapers Meadow, Newbern and the Blue Ridge Mountains - among others.
Some readers with a tart sense of humor also mentioned Interstate 73, Gables Shopping Center, U.S. 460 between Blacksburg and Christiansburg, and the Wal-Mart and other stores on the former site of the Virginia Tech arboretum.
But our staff favorite was the anonymous reader who proposed that the New River Valley's most representative landmark is the "big chicken in front of Sun Your Buns."
This chicken roosts on Radford Road in Christiansburg at the intersection of Clearview Drive. It's the last vestige of the Chicken House restaurant, a 1950s drive-in and eat-in that was a long-time fixture in west Christiansburg. Radford Road in its heyday was the original fast-food, neon-and-plastic-sculpture capital of the New River Valley, with the Chicken House sign and the happy hot dog figurine at the Country Boy Drive-In nearby.
Alas, times have changed. The Chicken House went through several owners and closed a few years ago. The latest occupant of the building was a tanning salon provocatively titled "Sun Your Buns," which recently closed.
Now the Big Chicken's future is in doubt. But you'd have to say the sign's shown a lot of pluck - so we'll include it among the New River Valley's best.
by CNB