Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 31, 1995 TAG: 9501310128
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
So let's head south today and relive my recent vacation in Florida!
I sure met lots of local folks.
My friend Lori practically had to drag me out to Planet Hollywood in Orlando, but I'm sure glad she did.
``Hey! He's from near where you are,'' she pointed out of our bartender. His name tag read Kevin McCabe. From Princeton, W.Va.
Bartending at Planet Hollywood must rank up there with one of those all-time fun things to do. You know Planet Hollywood - the restaurant/bar chain owned by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis. And here was Kevin in this really cool Planet Hollywood vest, mixing up concoctions named ``The Exorcist,'' ``The Terminator'' and ``Planet of the Apes,'' while surrounded by silver-screen paraphernalia.
On the wall behind him hung the actual surfboard from ``Apocalypse Now!'' Over his head, the motorcycle (sorry, that'd be a chopper) Bruce Willis rode when he finally escaped the pawn shop in ``Pulp Fiction.'' Nearby were Robert Redford's yearbook and the hooker's outfit Julia Roberts was wearing when she picked up Richard Gere in that Lotus on Sunset Blvd. in ``Pretty Woman.''
Hey, I was star struck.
But Kevin didn't seem to be.
Once he discovered where I was from, all he could talk about was what a cool place Roanoke had been when he was growing up.
``Roanoke was THE place to go,'' he said. ``We used to drive there all the time to go to concerts.''
But could I do him a favor, Kevin asked.
``Could you say hi to my mom?'' he wanted to know when he heard I wrote for this newspaper.
Oh, why not. Football players get to do it on television all the time.
So hello to Jan Farley from Kevin. (See Page 6 for a picture of your son.)
The trip home went just fine until I hit Baltimore.
ROANOKE ... CANCELLED ... ROANOKE... CANCELLED ...
They'd closed the airport due to fog, we were told.
USAir sure gets more bad publicity than good. But when it comes to handling a situation like this, you've really got to give them credit.
The staff in Baltimore rushed us onto a flight to Greensboro.
In Greensboro, they hooked us Baltimore people up with everyone else who'd been fogged out of Roanoke.
We weren't in the best of moods when they ushered us on to a waiting bus for the ride up to Roanoke.
``I swore I'd never ride another bus in my life when I graduated from college,'' I heard one guy grumble, and I sure could relate.
Most of us were in foul moods and with no luggage.
And I was freezing!
When I left Roanoke for Florida, it'd been 70 degrees here. When I boarded the flight from Orlando to Roanoke, it'd been 70 degrees there.
You read these stories about how acts of God like hurricanes and earthquakes bond strangers together.
From the mood we were in at the beginning of this trip, it seemed that while fog may be an act of God, it wasn't the gala bonding variety.
At least that`s what I figured when I decided to sleep through my own bad mood and everyone else's.
But as we neared Roanoke - just south of Tanglewood - I awoke to pleasant conversation. It was not conversation I had anything to contribute to since they were all talking about computers, but the folks in the seats behind me had obviously gotten to know each other, and the trip hadn't been so bad.
I felt a little anti-social when I woke up and only contributed, ``Are we almost there?''
Jim Enochs, of Optical Cable Corp., asked where I worked. When I told him I wrote this column, he said the others thought I looked familiar.
Ann Pope was a teacher trying to decide if she needed a new computer. Dave Rogers also wants a new computer. He said he had something to do with criminals - but I don't think he was one.
Sandy Veit just wanted to know if their names could be in the paper.
It seems a small price to pay if they all swear not to tell if I snore or drool or talk in my sleep.
by CNB