THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 1, 1994 TAG: 9408300151
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 211 lines
A ROUND THE BLOCK, or around the town, they're falling into stride.
Some do it to limber up, others to slim down.
It revs them up to face the day, and it eases their way to a peaceful sleep.
And all of them use a rather earthy four-letter word to describe their mode.
They walk.
Furiously pumping their arms or ambling at a graceful gait. Arm in arm with loved ones or marching alone at a solitary pace.
Sneakers with business clothes, wing tips with shorts.
Some even combine walking with a sense of civic pride, picking up empty cans and other trash along their routes.
So what propels some of Norfolk's master walkers?
In Ocean View, Judy Boone does it because she likes the feel of sand between her toes as she rambles up and down the beach.
Renita Bland of Norview takes her paces to the track behind the local high school.
Jesse Whitfield does it for the health of it. But he also chats with friends during his walking social hour in the Military Circle shopping center.
Downtown, G. William Whitehurst, the gregarious former congressman, calls his late afternoon strolls ``kind of a mobile sitting on your porch.''
Whitehurst, usually accompanied by his wife, Janie, begins at their riverfront condominium and winds his way through historic Freemason and on into Ghent.
``It's an interesting walk,'' Bill Whitehurst observed. ``I just have a lot of memories of this part of the city. I'm very nostalgic about it. It reminds me of when I was a boy.
``Maybe it's like something in all of us, it's a matter of holding onto something that you knew when you were much younger.''
He and his wife have been regular walkers since 1986, his last year in the House of Representatives. ``As I got older, I appreciated the walking for how it made me feel,'' Whitehurst said. ``And my doctor told me it's the best exercise in the world.''
There are a few variations in their two-mile walk, but the Whitehursts continue to make new little discoveries. They muse over displays in antique shops, study the architectural embellishments of mansions and peek into windows of houses for sale.
Perhaps their favorite discovery was finding a way to walk under busy Brambleton Avenue.
They walked to the dead-end of York Street one evening and noticed an underpass beneath the Brambleton Avenue bridge. The passage took them to a promenade along The Hague inlet and from there to a small pedestrian bridge to Ghent's Mowbray Arch.
Joggers and crabbers have known about the underpass for years, but Janie Whitehurst delights in calling it ``downtown's best-kept secret.''
But she didn't believe it should stay a secret, so she's written to City Manager James B. Oliver Jr. to help make the underpass walkway better known and improved.
Lighting, she said, would be a good idea. So would a couple of directional signs.
That would help remove the concern about safety, she said, noting that the improvements and increased activity ``might limit the number of those who camp out under there.''
That was her polite description for street people who sometimes find shelter below the Brambleton bridge. A scattering of broken-bottle glass often is the only daytime remains of their habitation.
Joggers, however, are more familiar with the scene. Suzanne Puryear, Norfolk's social services director, noted that several downtown-area foot races wend through the underpass.
A few years ago, Puryear recalled, the Tidewater Striders even enlisted the aid of some bridge people, asking them to help direct runners unfamiliar with the course.
``We drafted them on the spot and afterwards gave them race T-shirts,'' Puryear said. ``They were fascinated by all this running.''
The Whitehursts are not.
``I've never jogged in my life,'' Bill Whitehurst said, almost boasting. ``Have you ever seen any of them smile while they run? They never smile!''
A few moments later, three runners passed Whitehurst. They waved and smiled. Walk with an Ocean View
Colorful sunrises and sunsets provide walkers with a couple of extra reasons to pad along Ocean View's sandy shoreline.
``I try to get out every day,'' said Judy Boone of the neighborhood's Cottage Line section. ``Walking is good for helping to stay in shape, but it's also some of the only personal time I have before work.''
She's often joined by her husband, Ronnie, and several neighbors.
Judy Boone, who owns a real-estate agency based in Ocean View, has been trekking the beach in front of her home for four years.
Tommy Thomas, another bayfront fixture, has combed the dune line since 1945.
``The beach itself is just as pretty as it ever was, but you don't see the multitude of people like in the 1950s and '60s,'' said Thomas, 73. ``I do see a lot of brown pelicans and porpoises though.''
The Boones and Thomas often are joined by Jim and Susie King and Roger Simpson.
Susie King takes her dogs Radar and Princess. For her, it's the pure enjoyment of the stroll more than staying in shape.
``I feel like I'm on a vacation every day,'' she said. ``I grew up in Philadelphia. This is like a dream.''
Jim King and Roger Simpson approach walking from a fitness perspective. They maintain a brisk pace.
``There are two reasons I walk,'' explained Simpson, a fireman at the Norfolk Naval Base. ``It's good exercise and it's pretty out there.''
King, a former Navy SEAL, does it for the workout.
Individually or as a group, the parameters of the route usually stretch east to the Ships Cabin restaurant and west to Mick's Pancakes, a round trip of more than three miles.
Many beach walkers are summer strollers only, walking primarily during the warm months. Some venture out all year.
Nancy Schwegler and Susan Hudson are on the beach even when its freezing. ``It's nice to bundle up and enjoy the bay, it's beautiful,'' Schwegler said.
Hudson said she likes the serenity of the colder months, explaining: ``There are no crowds and the beach is so clean. It's relaxing.'' Trek around the track
Round and round they go. The track behind Norview High School is prime cruising territory for a sect of mostly evening strollers.
Renita Bland, a Norview resident, takes to the track at least three times a week.
``The track is a quarter mile. I like to get in at least three miles,'' she said. ``I do it for the exercise and to relieve stress.''
Although Bland said she usually goes by herself, many others arrive in groups. Sisters Frances Woodley and Elnora Brown team up with their niece, Sheila Powers, for evening walks Mondays through Fridays. They like to do at least 10 laps.
``It's good for losing some weight, and it makes you feel better,'' Woodley said.
While no walkers at the track said they had ever been harassed in any way, no one goes out after dark.
``I'll never walk after the sun goes down, and if there's nobody else on the track I won't go out then either,'' Bland said. MacCormack at campus
Nancy MacCormack likes to walk in her neighborhood near the Old Dominion University campus.
Hitting the pavement for eight years, always with hand weights, MacCormack cruises for a half-hour every morning, all year long.
``It's become a habit. I even walk when I'm out of town,'' she said.
The only time MacCormack will miss a day is when she's sick or the weather is too nasty.
``I'll get on my cross-country ski machine if I have to,'' she said, ``but I much prefer the outdoors.'' Military mall has all
The air outside was hot and muggy on a recent Wednesday morning, but inside temperature-controlled Military Circle, walking buddies Don Hanson and Jesse Whitfield were hardly breaking into a sweat as they buzzed past locked stores, empty kiosks and maintenance staff doing their cleaning chores.
``It's nice in here in the summer, because it's cool. And in the winter, it's warm. It's an ideal place for us to exercise,'' said Hanson, a retired machinist.
Even though the mall stores had yet to open, by 8:30 a.m. dozens of walkers filled the shopping center. Most of them, like Hanson, 64, and Whitfield, 72, were seniors who come six days a week to traverse the 9/10 of a mile route around the mall's parameters.
``Some of these young people fly through here, but I like to go at a medium pace,'' explained Whitfield, who had heart bypass surgery four years ago. ``I need the exercise.''
``Who doesn't?'' Hanson added.
But these two men don't walk just for the exercise. This mall walking has its social benefits, too, they say.
``These are all my best friends,'' said Diane Nussbaum, the ``den mother'' of the walkers.
Nussbaum does more than walk.
She helped turn walking at Military Circle into a social event. She puts out a monthly newsletter for fellow walkers, publishes a directory, organizes social gatherings and makes sure birthdays, illnesses and anniversaries are remembered with greeting cards.
Meanwhile, the shopping center's management sponsors quarterly breakfasts, occasional guest speakers and periodic health screenings. Piccadilly Cafeteria, which sets out free coffee each morning around 8:30, has become an informal gathering spot for the walkers.
During their walk, Hanson and Whitfield greet many fellow walkers by first names, the only names they usually know.
``Hey, Bettye, how are you this morning?'' Whitfield called to Poplar Halls resident Bettye Douglas, 60. ``I see you've got your daughter here today.''
Douglas and her 32-year-old daughter, Cindy Thomas from Indiana, stopped to chat for a minute.
``Whenever I come home, I come walk with her. These are Mom's friends and it's fun to see everybody,'' said Thomas.
``I'm one of the old-timers here,' said her mother, clad in a sweatband, blue jean shorts and fringed sleeveless red shirt. ``I've been walking here for six years. I've got high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high everything. When I walk, I don't feel that old anymore.'' MEMO: Joan Stanus and Scott McCaskey contributed to this story. ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photo on cover by CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
Bill and Janie Whitehurst like to follow a path that lead them to
Ghent...
Staff photo by Christopher Riddick
Janie and Bill Whitehurst, walkers since 1986, delight in their
discovery of this underpass beneath the Brambleton Avenue Bridge.
Staff photo by Lawrence Jackson
Early-morning walkers take laps around the inside of Military Circle
Mall.
Photo by Scott McCaskey
Walkers Ron and Judy Boone chat with Nancy Schwegler, Susan Hudson,
Tom Thomas and Susie King...
Photo by Scott McCaskey
Renita Bland walks tthe track behind Norview High School...
by CNB