Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 16, 1994 TAG: 9405160068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Once in a while, a newspaper item and the people who read it do some good.
Last month, the Roanoke Times & World-News ran an item in this column about some treasured 1924 aerial photographs of Roanoke, a miniature dictionary and a tiny book of Abraham Lincoln's speeches that had been lifted from the archives of Roanoke's central library.
A few days ago, all were slipped through a book chute in a manila envelope marked "fragile." There was no return address.
The library staff is mighty happy.
Cat/kittens/squirrels revisited
And while we're doing updates . . .
People keep calling the newspaper and asking what happened to the Salem cat who was raising two baby squirrels along with her kittens.
The squirrels fell out of a ceiling nest in an old garage a few weeks ago and, amazingly enough, dropped onto the lap of another lactating female: the cat. She'd just delivered three kittens in straw kicked down from the squirrel nest.
Well, the overburdened cat lay on one of the squirrels and smothered it not long ago. The other squirrel, though, is getting fat and doing fine. "Just one happy little family," said exterminator John Lanum, whose workplace is nearby.
`Excellent' new attraction
Madonna wasn't there, and, for that matter, neither were the real Wayne and Garth.
But gubernatorial wife Susan Allen was, along with Wayne and Garth look-alikes and Tia Carrere, the actress who played Wayne's girlfriend in the movie Wayne's World.
Party on, Garth.
Party on, Wayne.
Party on, Susan - and party on in WAYNE'S WORLD, the newest theme area in Paramount's Kings Dominion.
Allen participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony inside the theme park north of Richmond on April 28. The eight-acre site will feature the Hurler, a "wooden coaster of `excellent proportion' that captures the unique style and humor of Wayne's World," according to a news release describing the attraction.
The Hurler has a first lift height of 83 feet, is 3,157 feet long, and has a maximum speed of 50 mph.
The new theme area also will include Stan Makita's restaurant and Wayne's Basement Studio.
We're not worthy!
Only Elmo can rest here now
It was a Waltons' kind of thing, but no more. Elmo's Rest, a Bedford County tourist attraction that allowed guests to go out in the fields and herd sheep, has closed its doors to overnight visitors. The reason? Insurance - plain and simple, says Nancy Johnson. She and her husband, Danny, own the farm.
"We had a fire in one of our tenant houses [last year] and the insurance company we were using dropped us," she said. "None of the others we talked to would pick us up, because we have horseback riding."
The Johnsons still are operating the farm, located near the Peaks of Otter, and visitors can still pick their own apples and browse around.
"It is a working farm," Nancy Johnson said. "That was the beauty of the whole operation. People could come in here and help."
by CNB