THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994 TAG: 9406240282
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 22 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Bill Reed
DATELINE: 940626 LENGTH: Long
``We worked hard this weekend - the Virginia Bar Association,'' he explains. ``The Virginia Funeral Directors Association is coming in today.''
{REST} Wilson and Dekker, who has just finished reading the newspaper, are ready to welcome the newcomers.
8:40 a.m., on the oceanfront walkway at the end of 41st Street. John and Susan Duke, who live in the Lake Placid area of Virginia Beach, are in the midst of a morning walk. It is one of their few days off together.
John is employed by Bell Atlantic Corp., and Susan works for Lillian Vernon, the mail-order giant headquartered in Virginia Beach.
When they are off together, they usually begin their day with a sunrise oceanfront walk. The jaunts start at 6:30 a.m. and cover the length of the 2 1/2-mile-long Boardwalk.
8:45 a.m., on the beach at 39th Street. Corrynne Wilson, a Cox High School junior, and Jenny Patterson, a student at Atlantic College of Art in Georgia, are dragging beach umbrellas into place on the beach before the morning bathers arrive.
They are renting umbrellas, deck chairs and Boogie Boards to beachgoers for the Virginia Beach Lifesaving Service. Although the sun is still only a few notches above the horizon, the atmosphere is heating to a soggy consistency and perspiration beads on their foreheads.
9:30 a.m. Merrill Lynch oceanfront office at 40th Street. Anne B. Tate, wearing a summery white dress, sits at the computer console in her cubicle, checking on the opening stock market quotations of the day.
Tate, a financial consultant, has been with Merrill Lynch for eight years. She has been at the Oceanfront office three. This morning she is more interested in stock quotations. ``The market is down 19 points,'' she muses, scanning rows of coded names and arcane numbers.
11 a.m., at the Idlewhyle Inn and Motel, 27th Street. A man in blue bathing trunks is taking a leisurely shower in an outdoor stall that opens to the 27th Street stub street park. He hums as he soaps up.
A blue satchel rests on the top of a nearby board fence. On top of the satchel is a khaki baseball cap. A pair of soiled running shoes are on the walkway underneath.
The stacked gear indicates that the bather may not be a motel guest, but a passer-by taking advantage of an unattended outdoor shower.
11:20 a.m., on the Boardwalk at 36th Street. Robert Friday of Parkton, Md., and his dog Max, a cockapoo, are walking south on the Boardwalk, which is rapidly filling with other strollers, Rollerbladers and bench loungers.
Max, who is on a leash, is obviously overheating, and a cool drink is nowhere in sight.
11:30 a.m., on a Boardwalk bench at 36th Street. Jessica Wheeler and Keeley Ledford, both 11 and both from the Canton-Akron area of Ohio, take a break on a Boardwalk bench to tighten the laces on Ledford's Rollerblades.
Each wears wears a helmet, knee, elbow and hand pads - must fashion accessories for Boardwalk skaters.
12:30 p.m., on the Boardwalk at 28th Street. Nonita McCleod is taking a busman's holiday at the Oceanfront, accompanied by her children, Anna, 4, and Irving, 11.
Normally she works on weekdays at the Captain's Quarters, a resort inn three blocks inland. But she has the day off today and she has taken her children with her on a brief oceanfront stroll.
Anna seeks respite from the intense sun with several cooling sips of water from a nearby fountain.
12:50 p.m., at the Haunted Mansion in the 20th block of Atlantic Avenue. Danny Cancila, 11, of Cincinnati, Ohio, takes a close look at the two fearsome wax monsters guarding the entrance and decides a tour of the ``mansion'' is a necessity.
``Come on, Mom. Come on, Dad,'' he pleads. ``They're leaving.'' Dad and mom, Tim and Heidi Cancila, dawdle. ``They're not going to go any place without us,'' a patient father says finally. ``After all, we're paying customers.''
1:05 p.m., the Virginia Beach Fishing Pier, 15th Street and Oceanfront. Clare and Dave Barbini of Norfolk are leaning on the railing eyeing the bathers on the shoreline below.
``Just goofing off,'' says Dave of the day's activities. Usually the two venture to the fishing pier to fish, he explains.
1:25 p.m., Ocean Eddie's restaurant on the Virginia Beach Fishing Pier. Bob and Carol Arnoil of Richmond are seated in the shade of a green umbrella ordering their noon meal from waitress Linda Beagle.
The Arnoils just arrived in town for a brief stay. Virginia Beach is a frequent vacation choice, they say.
1:40 p.m., On the beach at 12th Street. Kimberly Hadzima, 2, is preoccupied with shoveling sand out of a small depression dug earlier by her father Bob Hadzima, of Martins Ferry, Ohio.
Dad also has fashioned several sand turrets around the perimeter of the hole, giving it a castle-like look. Kimberly disregards the handiwork and keeps shoveling.
1:45 p.m., the Dunes hotel between 9th and 10th streets on the oceanfront. In the shade of an overhanging first-floor balcony, Ann Eagen leisurely spoons strained squash from a jar into the awaiting mouth of 8-month-old granddaughter Olivia Eagen, who is maintaining her cool in a bassinet.
``Maybe she can be a model,'' Eagen says proudly as a photographer snaps pictures of her grandchild.
2:30 p.m., outdoor cafe at the Big Tomato restaurant, 3rd Street and Oceanfront. Candace Anderson, 14, a Princess Anne High School sophomore, and several friends walk up to the service window to assuage hunger and thirst pangs brought on by a hard day romping on the beach.
Proprietor Wayne McClanan obliges. He hands Anderson a hot dog with all the the trimmings and a chilled cola through the window.
2:45 p.m., on the beach near the jetty at Rudee Inlet. Nathan Evans, 10, of Gettysburg, Pa., rides a wave ashore on his surf board with the skill of a veteran.
The reason: young Evans pays frequent visits to his grandmother in Virginia Beach in the summer and gets lots of surfing practice.
Down the beach a few yards, with his skim board, is Anthony Cordo, 13, of Williamsburg. Young Cordo stares thoughtfully out at 20 or so surfers bobbing in the waves offshore. He is visiting the resort for the day with friends.
3:10 p.m., Beach Bungee, in the parking lot at Rudee Loop, at the south end of Atlantic Avenue. Capt. Woodrow W. Baker, commander of the 2nd Police Precinct, near the oceanfront, is fulfilling a promise made to some of his dubious underlings back at the precinct.
Without fanfare he plunges some 100 feet from a suspended steel cage at the end of a bungee cord.
``All right!'' he exclaims, dangling from the bungee cord after the jump.
Next up is Battalion Chief Chase Sargent, of the Fire Department. On deck is Police Captain Al Smith.
Operator Felix Templeton is giving the city's finest jumps for half-price as a way of saying ``thanks'' for doing their jobs.
3:50 p.m., at the water fountain, just off the Boardwalk at 3rd Street. Before moving on to other activities Emily McKinnon, 15, rinses sea water and sand from her hair after a day splashing in the surf with friends.
With the aid of Melissa Hunt, 14, and a few contortions, McKinnon and Hunt accomplish their mission under a low-level spigot.
5:35 p.m., on the beach at 3rd Street. The men of the Navy dock landing ship Ashland are ending their day with an impromptu tackle football game in the sand.
There are five of them - not exactly a number required for equally divided teams.
So, David Dufrene, of Luling, La., acts as quarterback for both squads.
On one series, Dufrene fakes a pass and hands off to speedster Tim Collins, of Waldorf, Md. Collins is stuffed by two defensive men, Mark Cojelko, of Pittsburgh, Pa., and Jay Yonkovich of Jacksonville, N.C., before he takes three steps.
The sweaty contest ends in a virtual tie. The four, along with teammate Steve Vincent, of Pittsburgh, retire to a nearby Boardwalk cafe to beat the heat with a chilled brew.
by CNB