Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 13, 1994 TAG: 9412130043
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Yikes!
But that's sort of what happened to Miss Virginia Cullen Johnson last week.
One of the guys here at the newspaper alerted me that Cullen would be at Amrhein's Brides, Formals, and Jewelers on West Main last Thursday afternoon to select a dress to wear to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl Gala that night.
``Wouldn't you think she already has a dress?'' he wanted to know. Surely she was the woman who had no right to wail, ``I haven't got a thing to wear!''
``I really only have two pageant dresses,'' Cullen confided. ``It's not like I have 50 million, like some of the girls.''
Cullen is one of those women it would be really easy to hate.
``What size do you wear, dear?'' Ann Blevins asked when Cullen arrived.
``Four,'' Cullen said, somewhat apologetically.
``What size is your waist?!'' I blurted out.
``I think it's 21 inches,'' she said.
``That's the size of my upper arm,'' Brenda Bower whispered to me.
Yes, it would be easy to hate Cullen Johnson. If only she weren't such a neat person.
Turns out Amrhein's - which was sponsoring the gala and did a darned good job of making the Salem Civic Center look like anything but a convention center - was lending a dress for the affair.
Brenda reminded me that Cullen was second runner-up in the 1995 Miss America Pageant.
``No, I was first runner up,'' she corrected, as well she should.
Cullen, who is from Virginia Beach, was excited to be at Amrhein's.
She's engaged to be married, and her hectic schedule hadn't allowed her to even try on a wedding gown.
It was fun watching the glamorous Miss Virginia turn into an excited soon-to-be bride, running back and forth picking out dresses.
``I don't like that one,'' she said when someone pulled a gown out to show her. ``It reminds me of of [1994 winner] Kim Aikens' Miss America dress.''
Cullen's father is commander of the Second Fleet. Her parents are moving to a home that Franklin Delano Roosevelt used to live in, and she's hoping for an outdoor wedding.
``Wouldn't this look great walking through a grape arbor?'' she asked with the glow of a woman who may have just found just the right dress.
\ Attention all college-age women of Southwest Virginia!
Have I got an event for you.
I followed Cullen to the Stagg Bowl Gala.
The ratio of guys to gals was, I swear, about 30 to one. Yes, 150 football players from Albion College and Washington and Jefferson College.
Good-looking, well-mannered guys, too.
The tickets were only $12.50. So put this on your calendar for next year.
``This is my second visit to Salem, and I think I going to come back 'cause there are so many good-looking men here!'' Cullen told the crowd.
The guys had a ball getting their pictures taken with her.
The food was great. The band - the Voltage Brothers from Atlanta - was sensational.
But it was hell dragging the guys out on the dance floor.
It took the Albion cheerleaders doing the Electric Slide to get the W&J players out on the floor. (Seems Albion guys don't dance.) But when the band broke into Motown, the guys left the floor.
``We can't dance to this,'' one player told me.
But the Voltage Brothers were very sly.
They played the Electric Slide again and then, without breaking, broke into Motown again.
The guys kept Electric Sliding and never figured out that they could dance to Motown.
The best dancer of the crew?
B.J. Duckett. Also the most charming man in the room.
When the band began playing a slow dancing love song, B.J. walked over to me and extended his hand silently.
We danced. We were the only two people on the floor.
When the dance was over, B.J. thanked me and walked me back to my seat.
B.J., who is 20, has Down's syndrome.
He never misses a W&J football event.
by CNB