ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 19, 1996 TAG: 9602190138
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Newport News Daily Press
Had enough? Ralph Raynor has.
Raynor's a mailman, one of those guys who can't stay home when it sleets and snows. Usually, he likes winter; it's generally a good time to walk eight miles a day, he said, except when it's icy and snowy.
``Without a doubt, I'm tired of the snow,'' Raynor said, pausing along his route in Denbigh. ``The snow pretty much wears you down. I'm hoping this is the last heavy one.''
``Amen,'' said Edgar Hollomon, who sat in an empty showroom at Williams Honda in Hampton on what should have been one of the busiest car-buying days of the year - the first day of Presidents Day weekend. Hollomon sold four cars a week ago Saturday, a sunny, warm, snowless day.
``Today, it's been almost completely dead. I came in two hours late and didn't miss a thing,'' Hollomon said.
Business was a little better down the street at High's Ice Cream, but not much. Owner Naomi Williams had time to watch an auto race on television and work on a needlepoint of Goofy for her granddaughter.
Williams has some regular customers who can't do without her ice cream no matter what the weather, but overall it's slow in the winter.
``Snow makes it worse,'' she said.
Gwendolyn White and Kelvin Gallop stopped in for some Hi-C pink lemonade. ``Too cold for ice cream,'' White said.
``It's never too cold for ice cream,'' Williams replied, to no avail.
Gallop, of Chesapeake, was adamant about his snow fatigue, something he attributes to being born in July.
``I think when you were born makes a lot of difference,'' he said. ``I'm a July baby, not a December baby. I'd rather be hot than cold any day.''
Jermaine Burke has also had enough. Burke is a junior at Bruton High School in York County and, like many area students, has missed a lot of school this winter because of the snow - 10 days so far. That's 10 days the school will have to make up somehow, starting Monday with what would have been the Presidents Day holiday.
``One or two days would have been OK,'' said Burke, as he collected grocery carts in the parking lot at Rack & Sack near Fort Eustis, where he works part time. ``At first the snow was OK, because we hadn't seen it in a while. Now it's starting to get on my nerves.''
Snow and ice evoke mixed feelings from many people.
``It's good for business, let's put it that way,'' said Jack Almony, manager of Express Car Wash on Mercury Boulevard in Hampton.
Saturday was slow at Express, but give it two or three days, Almony said, after the roads have had a chance to dry off, and cars will be lined up out to the street. But Almony's had enough, too. A recent transplant from Arizona, he expected a milder climate in Hampton Roads, maybe one snowstorm a year.
Instead, he said, ``It's a big difference from Arizona to here.''
Kenny Mills and Albert Cowles were out Saturday morning trying to clear steps and sidewalks at Colonial Williamsburg in preparation for the Washington in Williamsburg festivities. The weather made it feel more like Washington at Valley Forge.
With a wheelbarrow of sand, a bucket of salt and a couple of shovels, Mills and Cowles worked to clear a street drain on Nassau Street.
``I thought I left this all behind me,'' said Mills, who lives in Hampton but once lived in Connecticut.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB