ROANOKE TIMES Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times DATE: Saturday, January 11, 1997 TAG: 9701130007 SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO COLUMN: A Cuppa Joe SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY
It takes a good reason for me to get up early and head for a damp, foggy corner in Southeast Roanoke.
But Charles Akers said it would be worth the effort, so I was there Jan.3, shivering like a belly dancer and wondering who was the fool.
Akers wanted me to meet the kids who inhabit the corner of Kenwood Boulevard and 17th Street for about 15 minutes each weekday morning, waiting for the bus that takes them to Jackson Middle School. He said they deserved attention because they had brought him books to contribute to the Books for Africa project in Roanoke.
Justin Carr showed up first, carefully crossing Kenwood in the dark. He's 11, in the sixth grade, and he had a pre-adolescent, post-Christmas cheerfulness about him.
Akers, he said, is a pretty good guy - the kind who saves his aluminum cans so Justin can cash them in and meet his consumer needs.
Kane Hippensteel, 13, and his brother, Levi, 15, appeared out of the mist. They'd turned in some encyclopedias and old schoolbooks, they said, and they, too, had good words for the retired army sergeant who walks with a cane.
"He talks to us and tells us to pick our trash up," they said.
Rebecca Karnes, Amanda Routt and Rodney and David Wright then strolled up, followed by Jennifer Johnson, who is 13, and who often stands apart from the others so she can read.
Keeps eye on neighborhood
By this time, Akers had come out of his two-story brick house. He was wearing jeans, Harley-Davidson suspenders, a jacket, a casual shirt, running shoes and a hat with the legend, ``Gun Control is an Accurate Shot.''
I'd met him in November in the bone-chilling warehouse where the books were being sorted. He was keeping his end of the deal. He told the kids that if they brought books, he'd volunteer to help sort them.
The kids on the corner donated about 70 books to the drive, he said, and he was proud of them.
In the dozen years that Akers, 58, and his wife, Marie, have lived on Kenwood, they've watched four generations of kids, including their daughter, Lupy, 23, meet the bus. When an earlier group became unruly - ``an epidemic of smoking, and language that needed to be dressed up'' - he began to monitor the area.
He visits the kids a couple of times a week. He tells them to talk clean, put their trash in the bag he hangs on his fence and resist the temptation to smoke.
The ones who don't like his requirements move on. The others stay. His goal is to give them a bit of direction.
Learned from own mistakes
You see, he had difficulties when he was young. After moving to Christiansburg from Floyd County, he wore bib overalls, carried a lunch box full of biscuits and felt like a bumpkin.
To compensate, he tried to act tough. One day, three guys jumped him. He was carrying a knife; the outcome was ugly.
``It was all over a girl that [none of us] married,'' he said. ``The girl didn't want any of us anyway.''
His out was to join the Army. A paratrooper, he survived Vietnam but crushed his heel when he fell off a ladder while cleaning his rainspouts.
With his beard and tattoos, he looks tough and talks tough, but he knows that acting tough is a waste of time. He hopes the neighborhood kids don't fall into it.
Nowadays, he reads - Zane Grey, philosophy and religion, frontier history - and does his bit to shape his troops. Hence, his morning visits. Hence, Books for Africa.
The bus was coming. I asked the kids what they thought of him.
``He's cool,'' they said. ``He's nice.''
I asked Akers what he thought of them.
``They're good kids and just don't know it,'' he said. ``I'm right proud of the corner.''
What's your story? Call me at 981-3256 or send e-mail to kenn@roanoke.infi.net, or write to P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010
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