Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 11, 1994 TAG: 9408110050
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Beth Macy
DATELINE: WARM SPRINGS LENGTH: Medium
Instead of fixing her homemade waffles with fresh raspberries and maple syrup for guests of the Meadow Lane Lodge, the guests catered her breakfasts.
If she found herself looking the slightest bit disheveled, all she had to do was raise a finger and a personal assistant would arrive to fix her hair, touch up her makeup, roll a lint brush down the front of her dress.
Cheryl Hooley, who is five months pregnant with her second child, didn't have to rise to get herself a glass of water last week if she didn't want to.
All she had to do was the laundry. Piles of coffee-stained linens, lipstick-smeared napkins, tablecloths gooed up with jelly and jam.
She did all the wash with Ultra-Tide with bleach, which she has used since 1990, when she and her husband, Steve, began running the 1,600-acre lodge.
They were the perfect Tide couple, demographically speaking: Young, cute, affable and hard-working with a 1-year-old daughter and another on the way.
What's more, they fit the criteria that the Procter & Gamble people laid out in their national search for the latest testimonial Tide commercial:
The inn they run is painted white with a big front porch and a sweeping front lawn. They live on the property. They're both under 40. They lead a very hectic, busy life.
And they really do use Tide.
The location scout hired to search for the perfect Tide innkeepers did some undercover investigating to prove their detergent allegiance - posing as a free-lance photographer who just happened to be staying at the lodge.
``I buy Tide at Sam's in those giant containers.'' Cheryl confirmed earlier this week. ``It's cheap - and it works.''
Said Steve, who was filmed carrying a basket of laundry in one hand and their daughter, Madison, in the other: ``I highly recommend Tide, though Cheryl does the majority of the laundry; I'm bad with stains. I'm only on the powder and liquid consulting team.''
He added that his mom, who lives in Ohio, has used Tide for years, too.
Under the glare of more than 50 people wielding cameras, lights, hair brushes and makeup, the Hooleys strutted their good laundry sense.
``The first day I was very, very nervous,'' Cheryl said. ``I had a lot of lines and interviews, but the director was very good. He said, `worked with me, babe.'
``By the second day I was so relaxed, I was yelling `MAKEUP!' between takes.''
By the third and fourth day, the Hooleys were grooving on the national exposure the commercial is sure to bring to the lodge when it begins airing late September. Known for its fishing, hiking, bird-watching and collection of domestic farm animals, the lodge is located four miles west of Warm Springs on U.S. 39. (From an overlook on the property, you can view part of the meadow where Richard Gere trudged home from the Civil War in the movie ``Sommersby.'')
By the end of the fifth and last day, Cheryl Hooley's Cinderella story was over. As the film crew packed up its gear, the Hooleys rushed to prepare for their weekend guests.
Cheryl Hooley found herself mopping the large front-porch overlooking the sweeping front lawn and fetching her own glasses of water. No one rushed to powder Steve's receding hairline. No one dashed to touch up Cheryl's lip-liner.
But her maternity frock - fresh from its fifth washing of the week with Ultra-Tide with bleach - looked fabulous.
Beth Macy, a features department staff writer, has known Steve Hooley since the sixth grade and can confirm that his whites were always the whitest of white. Her column runs Thursdays
by CNB