THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 11, 1994 TAG: 9412090291
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: - Compiled by Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Chatterbox is a not-quite-newsy look behind the scenes from City Hall to City Park.
THREE MONTHS LATE: The city's Response Line, an elaborate telephone system purchased some years ago to provide information to the public, is running about three months behind events.
Dial the number for a calendar of events and you will learn that the Umoja Festival is scheduled for the weekend. The message gives an elaborate description of the event that was held Sept. 16-18.
Many important public events, including last weekend's Christmas parade and tree-lighting and this weekend's opening of the Children's Museum of Virginia, have occurred in the interim.
NEVER TOO OLD: Hallie Vernon Johnson picked his 82nd birthday on Nov. 11 for his wedding date. Instead of getting married, however, he was recovering from an appendicitis operation - an event as much of a surprise to him at his age as getting married again.
Johnson and his bride, Neally Royall of Smithfield, postponed their marriage until Nov. 27, when his son, the Rev. Ervin Ray Johnson, performed the ceremony at First Friends Church on Portsmouth Boulevard.
The couple, once high school sweethearts, found each other again when both became widowed after long-time marriages.
They are living in the bridegroom's home on Chadswyck Terrace. He is retired from the Norfolk Naval Shipyard here.
``It's not everybody who gets to marry his father,'' Ervin Johnson said.
PROUD AUNT: Helen Helmbold of Mayfair House has a copy of the November issue of Good Housekeeping that's getting worn and dog-eared.
Her great-nephew, Brian Sternomann, age 5, is featured in living color in a toy advertisement. Brian is the grandson of Helmbold's sister and her husband, the Edmund Moores, who're headed this way for a visit.
Helmbold came to Portsmouth almost 25 years ago, when her husband joined the Frederick College faculty.
POOPER-SCOOPERS: You know those pooper-scoopers that hang from trees near parks in Olde Towne? Ever wonder where they came from?
Thank the Olde Towne Ghost Walk.
Because proceeds from the event are cranked right back into the community, the Olde Towne Civic League decided the makeshift shovels would be a good investment for the parks.
``I mean, it's not the type of thing that most people would want to steal,'' said civic league member Alan Gollihue. ``And that way there's no excuse for not cleaning up behind Fido!'' by CNB