ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 21, 1995 TAG: 9512210086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: What's on your mind?
SOURCE: RAY REED
Q: What happened to the Christmas tree that used to be at Williamson Road and Wells Avenue?
C.D., W.N., T.W., Roanoke
A: That tree flickered out after 1994.
The cone of tinsel and star lights had sat in the fountain at Entranceway Park each holiday season since 1988, yielding seven years of gradually dimming decor. The manufacturer had promised five.
People kept calling the city last year to report stars on the tree that weren't lit. Occasionally someone would describe the tree as tacky.
This year, the big cone never emerged from a downtown garage storage room. Its once-white tinsel had turned a dingy silver-brown, and its aluminum frame had grown shaky from wind and ice storms.
It had sat in the rain and vehicle exhaust for a total of 91/2 months and endured seven cycles of being erected and plugged in by Thanksgiving, then taken down and stored after New Year's.
The city has entered a new era in Christmas decorations. Gone are the downtown ornaments made of the same tinsel as the tree, with the same aging look.
The new theme is white lighting, and Downtown Roanoke Inc. points out the emergence of perimeter lights this year on the Norfolk Southern office building and the Roanoke Municipal Building, extending the theme to 22 locations.
The merchants association spent $11,000 this year to put white stars with lighted banners along Jefferson Street.
The white-lights theme is projected to grow gradually, because no one else is likely to employ the personal fund-raising approach banker Warner Dalhouse used to encourage downtown businesses to contribute a total of $110,000 toward the 1988 tinsel theme.
Those decorations did look really great the first few years.|
Q: In driving past the Dr Pepper sign in downtown Roanoke, I noticed the numbers 10, 2 and 4 on it. Do they mean anything in particular?
A.R.
A: Yes. They mean the sign is historic.
Advertising lore, perhaps based on a health survey done in the 1950s, used the numbers a bit like a prescription.
The times of day when people's energy supposedly was lowest were 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Those were good times to have a drink of "the friendly Pepper-upper," if the radio jingle is being recalled correctly.
There's even a Dr Pepper 10-2-4 Club for collectors of its memorabilia.|
Electronics corner
I made a reference last week to using a transformer to reduce battery voltage in a whimsical discussion about hooking up a car battery to a laser pointer.
The point of the item was to have some fun, and several folks got theirs by calling to point out that a transformer works only with alternating current.
To reduce a battery's direct current, a resistor is required.
OK, guys. Thanks for reading.
Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.
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