Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 24, 1995 TAG: 9509250015
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Bob Slaughter chuckles about how he wound up running le grand tour de Roanoke.
Two years ago, he was in France helping with a video about the invasion of Normandy. Sitting around a table with a bunch of Frenchmen one night, Slaughter, a now-famous D-Day veteran, asked if they'd like to visit Roanoke, his hometown.
After all, the next year the French were going to wine and dine hundreds of American veterans for the 50th anniversary of D-Day. As soon as he got home, the answer shot back from across the Atlantic: Certainement. The French wanted to see Roanoke - and Staunton and Bedford and any other Western Virginia towns of the men who set them free.
"I thought maybe 10 would come," Slaughter said. By this summer, the number had grown to 35. "The next letter said 52!" a still-flabbergasted Slaughter said. "They have a waiting list!"
The men and women from St. Lo, Vire and other small towns in the province of Normandy will arrive at Dulles International Airport Oct. 1. They'll visit Staunton Oct. 2 and be in Roanoke from that evening until Oct. 6.
Slaughter and his Roanoke-St. Lo Twinning Committee are ready, more or less.
"The only thing is, we started too late," committee member Mary Lou Engel said. She and the rest are working hard. The small Roanoke army of military veterans, native-born French and Roanoke Francophiles has been frantically faxing and phoning to France. Anybody allergic to cats? Anyone have trouble walking up steps?
Le Cercle Francais de Roanoke, a local organization that includes French teachers, World War I and World War II war brides and French-speaking people, is part of the effort.
Few of the travelers speak English or have been in the United States before. They range in age from 40 to 80 and include vice mayors, farmers, doctors, teachers, lawyers and a veterinarian.
"A lot of them are World War II-era folks who remember all the bombings and the hell that went on in 1944," Slaughter said.
There's talk - just at the preliminary stage - of St. Lo becoming a "sister city" to the Roanoke Valley or Bedford. Even if that doesn't work out, the World War II veterans and the French folks plan to alternate visits every year.
The Roanoke-St. Lo committee spends its meetings thinking ahead cross-culturally. Its members want this visit to go well.
Like the bottled water. "Most French don't drink [tap] water," French-born Mary Lou Engel told her teammates. "They don't know our water is good."
So, hosts need to get some water, and it doesn't have to be the pricier Perrier. "They have ordinary water that they buy," Engel said.
Even after the French cleaned up their water systems and made their water safe to drink, she said, the bottled-water habit hung on.
There was a committee crisis about a picture on invitations to an Oct. 5 banquet at the Hotel Roanoke. Was the American flag on the correct side of the French one? After rereading a flag etiquette book, they decided the picture was right.
Staunton is first on the French itinerary because it was home to Maj. Thomas Howie, a football coach at Staunton Military Academy who died in the campaign to liberate St. Lo. The little town was a vital transportation center and a key Allied objective during the Battle of Normandy. A monument honoring Howie stands in a St. Lo square.
The French will visit Bedford, home of many D-Day veterans and the site of a future D-Day memorial, nearby Poplar Forest, an apple orchard, Virginia Military Institute and the Roanoke City Market. After Roanoke, they will tour Charlottesville.
The committee has raised more than $5,000 to pay for the 120-person banquet, invitations and gifts for the visitors. It still needs interpreters, wine for the banquet, postcards of places they'll visit - and, of course, bottled water.
"They did a tremendous job for us last year," Slaughter said of the visitors from France. "I hope we can come close to what they did for us."
The Roanoke-St. Lo Twinning Committee still needs homes for two couples and a man. Hosts, preferably French speakers, will provide four breakfasts and three dinners, Oct. 2-6. They will need to drive their guests to the tour bus each morning and bring them home each night. If you're interested, call John and Mary Lou Engel, 989-7559.
by CNB