THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 28, 1994 TAG: 9408270095
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
Wednesday, Aug. 10
10 a.m. Driver General Store
The Driver woman is showing her house guests the town. When she walks into the Driver General Store, she introduces her friends to proprietor Red Parker and tells him they are visiting from England.
The group winds in and out of aisles stacked with military and hunting gear, hardware and dusty remnants rom the past.
A young man with the group approaches the counter and holds out a bright, red-white-and-blue cut-out of an American flag, made to hang in an automobile window.
``I'll take this,'' he says to Parker in a clipped English accent.
Parker eyes the potential sale, but he shakes his head.
``Nah,'' he says, smiling at the foreign visitor and adjusting the position of the wad of tobacco in his cheek. ``No charge. You take that back to the mother country and think about us.''
The young man leaves the store with a smile on his face and a good feeling about rural America to take home with him.
``Cheerio!'' Parker says.
- Linda McNatt
Wednesday, Aug. 17
Noon - Suffolk Shopping Center
Maybe it was the rainy weather and overcast skies that have drawn hundreds of shoppers to the grand opening of the Leggett Outlet Center. Or maybe it was months of anticipation, waiting for bargain prices on department store merchandise. Whatever their reasons, shoppers are hitting the racks with gusto. They wait patiently for a turn in the fitting room and stand 12 deep in lines to check out.
The only problem seems to be keeping shopping parties together.
``Now where did she go?'' asks one shopper, scanning the crowds to find a missing companion. ``You know how easy it is to get distracted with so much in a store like this.''
Just a few feet away, a concerned husband, arms filled with purchases, follows his smiling wife to the cash register.
``These things are all on sale, aren't they?'' he asks.
His wife just smiles again.
- Phyllis Speidell
Thursday, Aug. 18
8:32 p.m. - Farm Fresh parking lot, Suffolk
A crowd has congregated, the onlookers staring at a car that seems to be the source of an eerie howling. Some are unsure whether the noise is coming from an animal or perhaps a frightened child.
The incessant racket continues as a man darts to the driver's side and unlocks the door, then reaches in and releases the hood.
Immediately, a kitten leaps from the engine compartment and streaks across the pavement, the man in hot pursuit. They disappear around the side of the building into the darkness.
Eventually, the man - panting but empty-handed - returns to the front of the store and goes inside.
``He might be a kitten,'' he says, ``but I'll tell you, he can run.''
The kitten apparently had hitched a ride from the man's home, near the North Carolina line. ``I carried that kitten 17 miles,'' he says.
The animal never made a sound at numerous stops at traffic lights along the way until the car was parked, he says.
``We used to have five kittens. But now we have four. I can't catch that one.''
- Susie Stoughton
Friday, Aug. 19
3 p.m. Agri-Civic Center, Courtland
The 7-year-old sees a rabbit for sale at the Franklin-Southampton County Fair. She calls dad with a `can-I-buy-him' plea.
``Uh-uh,'' he shakes his head.
Then, she spots one of those carnival games of chance featuring a slew of hop-hop bunnies. To win a rabbit, you toss a Ping-Pong ball into a mighty small dish floating around in a kiddie pool. Five balls for a dollar. She is lectured about the near impossibility of winning a bunny. Only a few folks a day luck out, she is told.
She asks for just one try. Why not? She gives the man a dollar, gets her Ping-Pong balls and - you know the rest. The lecture was a waste of time - the bunny has a new home.
T-ball paid off.
- Frank Roberts ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by John H. Sheally II
This mud-caked face belongs to a Labrador named Pup Pup, who has
just romped through a swampy part of the Nansemond River. Must have
been fun. He's smiling.
by CNB