ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601120060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
NOTE: below
FOLKS WERE RAIDING, all right, but they weren't too serious about it.
The young woman stood quietly for a moment, her head slightly bowed. Then she raised her arms and cried forth in soulful anguish:
"No pork chops in this store! That's awful; I'm about to die; I love pork chops to death!"
She said this to no one in particular, but everyone had to agree. Alas, by 3:30 p.m. Thursday, there were no pork chops left at the Food Lion on Shenandoah Avenue in Northwest Roanoke. There was no sliced bread left, either, and very few cartons of milk.
In fact, in stores across Roanoke Valley, the rush was on as people tried to outwit Mother Nature, who threatened to dump another foot of snow on us by the end of today. And this time, there was talk of ice, freezing rain and power outages.
Charlene and Rochevious "Heavy" Nances were stocking up for themselves and five kids back home on top of Bent Mountain in case they got stuck again. But they didn't want to get too much food, lest the power go out and spoil it all.
"When they call for ice, you never know," Heavy Nances said.
Their cart contained 15 pounds of hamburger, a roast, several steaks, three bottles of grape juice, two bags of marshmallows, and more.
As dozens of people roamed the aisles, they bumped carts with friends they hadn't seen since forever, or at least since before the snow shut everyone in. And despite the dire forecast, or perhaps because of it, everyone seemed to be in good spirits - or planned on being in good spirits.
A fellow known as "California" was going to get a 12-pack of "gin and juice."
"That way, I can just set it in the snow, sit on the porch and watch people slip, and tell 'em to be careful," he said.
The scene at Kroger at Lakeside Plaza in Salem was pretty much the same. Scott Butcher, a distributor for Merita, couldn't unload bread fast enough as folks flocked around him. "We don't get hazardous pay, you know," he quipped.
A minute after unloading two racks, he still had a half-dozen people waiting for bread, so he went back to his truck for more.
While Mike Myers waited for his two loaves, his children, Amanda, 7, and Travis, 3, were content to eat chocolate doughnuts. So who needs bread?
David Burnette and Bob Turman did. The two men both grabbed for the last loaf on the shelf.
"Me and him was neck and neck, so I gave it to him," Burnette said, laughing. He planted himself by the shelf to wait for the next rack while his wife continued shopping. "Get you some flour and make yourself some biscuits," a friend hollered at Burnette.
In line at the checkout, people told stories of how bad the lines had been Wednesday evening. Others told tales of near-crashes on the road.
"This is the first time we've been out," one elderly man said. "I got something clunking around in the back of my car. Maybe a chunk of ice," he chuckled.
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. The shopping carts were movingby CNBfaster than the traffic around noon at the entrance to Towne Square
shopping center. There's a Kroger nearby. color. 2. STEPHANIE
KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. Stephanie Washington prepares for a long siege as
she scouts the aisles of the Food Lion on Shenandoah Avenue. She has
a family of six.