Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 11, 1995 TAG: 9504120023
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But for volunteers for the Community School's upcoming 15th annual Strawberry Festival, you could almost hear the theme from ``2001: A Space Odyssey'' echoing out of the church's kitchen and hall.
(Daaa...daaa....daDAAAAA! boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom).
Cathy Kay, the event's co-chair, proudly showed how shortcake-making day had made one giant leap in one small year.
See, once the various kitchen crews have baked and cooled the shortcakes, they need to be sealed in air-tight zip-lock bags. The cakes are then trucked up to Hardee's on Williamson Road near Hollins College, where they are stored until the festival.
Just how in the world has this group removed the air from these bags for the past 14 years?
``We actually sucked the air out with a straw,'' confessed Cathy.
Yes, an entire crew sat at a long table, zip-locked the bags - leaving an opening just large enough to insert a drinking straw - and sucked. And sucked.
This year the job required but one lone - sucker, I guess - and all were marveling at the new-fangled, state-of-the-art technology that replaced the straw crews of the past 14 years.
Alice Hincker's vacuum cleaner.
Not just any vacuum cleaner.
But a vacuum cleaner with a strange attachment that did somewhat resemble a straw.
Good-bye air. Good-bye straws.
Each year Cathy says they try to improve the organization of this day that begins at dawn and ends in the wee hours of the morning.
Last year, they stopped making round shortcakes and started making square ones, eliminating a lot of wasted dough.
In the kitchen on Saturday, Joy Parrish and Josephine Baynton were cutting butter. Debbie Pollio was working her shift on the Hobart mixer. Donna Knox and Marianne Coulter were rolling and cutting the dough.
(Parent Joy said she is all for the exhausting day-long process despite its labor-intensiveness. Last year's Strawberry Festival brought the Community School $25,000 in profit.
(``We don't have to be out selling things all year,'' Joy said with a smile and a sigh of relief.)
Jim Hammerstrom - referred to as poor Jim Hammerstrom because of the heat - was manning the hot convection oven.
Later, Kat Ward was packaging stray crumbs.
``Someone actually suggested we feed this to the birds!'' she said in mock horror.
No way. Certainly not after volunteers had toiled from dawn to dusk. Even the crumbs are kept - probably to use as snacks for volunteers.
``Besides, think of all that butter!'' she exclaimed. ``We don't need to give those poor birds a cholesterol problem.''
Cathy Kay asked if I'd like a taste.
Great, I said. But just a little crumb would be fine. Not a whole cake.
``You were only going to get a crumb!'' she declared. ``We don't give away whole ones to ANYONE! That'd be giving away $3.75!''
Father/teen-age daughter conversation in the shoe department at Hecht's over the weekend:
Shoe fashion-illiterate father: ``But it's not even an entire shoe! Where's the rest of it? I'm not going to pay for half a shoe!''
Frustrated teen-age daughter: ``Daaaaad! Everyone is wearing them. They're called mules!''
Father to me, a total stranger: ``They look more like jackasses to me. What do you think?''
First time I can think of a reporter has ever offered, ``no comment.''
Competition might be stiff for the next oh-so-prestigious Roanoke Times & World-News Mingling Award for Most Charming Guy in Roanoke.
(You may recall this award always manages to go to those who are either under 16 or over 60.)
While my escort and I were waiting for our table at a local restaurant Saturday night, two boys who were sitting at the table behind my escort kept peeking over his shoulder at me. They finally spoke up when my companion left the table.
``He is so awesome!'' Austin Eells told me, giving me a thumbs-up sign and a big smile.
Sure you're not just telling me this because he's your teacher and you hope I'll tell him what you said to earn brownie points?
``No! Really! He is so cool!'' added Justin Paget. ``Everybody likes him!''
But the two eighth-graders at North Cross scored big with me when somehow we all wound up at the same table. The five adults, including my escort, were talking North Cross. Something, alas, I know nothing about.
Austin - perceptively and compassionately - caught my eye from the other side of the table.
``You can talk to us if you want to,'' he offered. And I did.
Now I can claim to know at least one thing about North Cross.
Two of their eighth-graders are totally awesome themselves.
by CNB