THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 3, 1994 TAG: 9407020139
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 135 lines
Monday, June 20
6 p.m. - Virginia Beach General Hospital.
New mom Cheri Berman has just delivered a baby boy, Aaron Stephen. Everyone's really excited, says Berman's mom Mary Sike, and it's a pleasant coincidence that the nurse taking care of Berman is also named Mary.
When the baby goes to the nursery, he's taken care of by a nurse named Lori. Another coincidence, says Sike. Her youngest daughter is named Lori.
Later Nurse Lori is relieved by Nurse Denise. By now the family has gotten used to coincidences, says Sike. Denise is her oldest daughter's name.
But it doesn't end there. Nurse Margie soon makes an appearance. That's the name of Berman's sister-in-law.
``It was really getting funny,'' Sike says. ``It was just unbelievable.''
- Melinda Forbes
Thursday, June 23
9:30 a.m., southern end of Princess Anne Road.
A pickup truck traveling down the road has a white chicken flapping around in its bed. The hen flies up, almost out of the truck, a couple of times, then finally escapes the moving vehicle and lands on the side of the road.
The truck driver slams on the brakes and pulls over to the side of the road. The passenger jumps out and starts chasing the white chicken all over a field.
The squawking chicken heads for some woods. The man is hot on its heels and yelling: ``Get back here!''
- Charlene Cason
3 p.m. - Hollygreen Apartments pool.
The lifeguard's shift is nearly over and she begins organizing her belongings to leave. No one is in the pool. There are seven sunbathers, but no children around.
Then a man comes in, nods and gets into the hot tub. The lifeguard returns to her alert mode. When she turns her head again to the tub, the man has disappeared.
She runs to the tub, sees his trunks on the top, turns off the bubble jets and jerks the man's head to the surface.
``Are you all right?'' he asks, shocked by the rough treatment.
``Yes, I'm all right. Are you all right?'' she fires back.
In the following conversation the lifeguard learns the man likes life at the bottom of the tub where he says he is able to stay submerged by nursing an air bubble.
- Carole O'Keeffe
as told by Carolyn Kinney
Saturday, June 25
1:30 p.m. - A grocery store.
Two young men, who have just picked up a keg of beer, hop into line to pay for their items.
The clerk rings up a couple of wine cooler six packs, a bag of ice and the few bags of chips in front of her, but forgets the giant keg.
``That will be $17.46,'' she says to the long-haired fellow with the stubbled face.
``What'd she say?,'' his pal asks, before getting the ``shut up'' look.
They pay for their purchases and head out of the store in a rush, while the keg suffers the potholes and bumps of the parking lot.
``Who cares if it's all foam?'' the long-haired one says. ``It was free!''
- Holly Wester
2 p.m., General Booth Boulevard, near Dam Neck.
Three teenage boys, dressed in bicycling gear and helmets, are riding their bikes in the bike lane toward the beach. The first one is riding comfortably, and so is the second one.
The third youngster is struggling a little more as he pedals. He's pulling a trailer of sorts behind his bike, a unique slatted apparatus that's carrying
- Charlene Cason
10:30 p.m. - Sandbridge.
Except for the small white lights of a few fishing boats near the horizon, the beach is dark and quiet.
Several pairs of strollers emerge from behind the bulkhead every few moments and walk the stretch of open sand in front of the lifeguard stands at the stub end of Sandbridge Road.
There are no stars in the sky - at first - but then they start to twinkle here and there as the clouds move aside. A soft glow begins to the southeast.
Moments pass and the glow burns brighter until a lopsided moon, like a slightly out of shape tangerine, pushes out from behind the clouds and spills a path of silvery light onto the ocean below it.
- Krys Stefansky
Sunday, June 26
9:30 p.m. - Phil's Grill.
In the back of the restaurant, a young lady leans against the pay phone, waiting patiently for a vacancy in the restroom.
She plays with her hair, glances at her watch and even makes a short phone call to pass the time.
After a few more minutes of dawdling, the woman bangs on the door, sarcastically muttering, ``Come on! What are you doing in there?''
The occupant opens the door, says a soft ``sorry'' and tosses a worn copy of Rockflash in the trash.
- Holly Wester
Tuesday, June 28
9 a.m. - 24th Street Park.
A family - mother, father, girl about 12 and a boy about 6 - are walking down the sidewalk.
``Mom, I woke up and had all kinds of sand in my bed,'' the little boy says.
``I bet you did,'' the mother responds.
``Yeah,'' the boy adds, ``it must have fallen out of my ears in the night.''
- As told by Julie Pouliot
Wednesday, June 29
5 p.m. - Shore Drive.
Three teenage boys jammed into a white compact car with surfboards hanging out the windows, streak past other cars traveling along the tree-shaded highway. Nicknamed the state's deadliest roadway, it has been the site of a number of teen deaths in accidents usually caused by driver error, speed or alcohol, authorities say.
As the surfers zip on out of sight, drivers they passed arrive at a cluster of crosses beside the road, marking the spot of two of this spring's fatalities.
- Melinda Forbes ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
Pulling for charity
Virginia Beach police officers (front to back) Steve Moog, John
Farrar, Kenneth Jackson, Gregory Vick and Chris Mras grunt their way
through a tug-of-war contest between Virginia Beach and Chesapeake
police. The tug-of-war and arm-wrestling competition was part of the
grand opening of Carvers Creek Restaurant on Laskin Road and near
Greenbrier Mall in Chesapeake. The Beach officers won the event and
a contribution to a charity of their choice, but both organizations
received recreational equipment from the restaurant.
by CNB