THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 1, 1995 TAG: 9412300219
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
Thursday, Dec. 22
11 a.m. - Hilltop Square Shopping Center.
Two folks are taking turns looking through a scope at the roof of Taylor's Do-It Centers' new offices on the other side of the shopping center parking lot. It appears there's a great horned owl roosting on the one-story high roof, says one of them.
Upon closer inspection it even looks like two owls are sitting placidly on the roof in the middle of the shopping center full of Christmas traffic. A group of gulls is flying overhead and it looks like the owls are eyeing the gulls for a possible meal, says the other.
No, says an amused Do-It Center employee. The two owls are just blow-up plastic birds that are supposed to scare the gulls away from the roof. He moves the owls to different places every so often to trick the gulls into thinking the plastic imitations are alive, he explains.
Now that the brazen gulls are flying right around the owls, it's time to move them again, the employee notes. Today, it seems, only the folks with the scope are fooled.
- Mary Reid Barrow
7 p.m. - McDonald's Restaurant on Indian River Road.
After ordering a Happy Meal, a woman sits at the drive-through awaiting the dinner.
While packing the Chicken McNuggets, fries and soda, the teenager behind the microphone asks politely, ``Is this for a boy or a girl?''
The lady, apparently embarrassed, answers, ``It's for me.''
``Oh, that's OK,'' the young man responds, dropping a mini-Cabbage Patch Kid into the bag anyway.
- Holly Wester
Saturday, Dec. 24
8:30 p.m. - A home in Shadowlawn.
Christmas Eve dinner is over for a family of 20 and the men, women and children sit around and catch up on old times.
One of the women, expecting a daughter in February, is talking new motherhood with her young cousin.
``You know, people at work ask if I'm listening to soothing music,'' she says. ``They wonder if I'm putting head phones on my stomach for the baby.
``Actually,'' she adds, ``I've been cranking Nirvana for the past month. I love it!''
- Holly Wester
Sunday, Dec. 25
9:30 a.m. - Broad Bay Country Club.
On a morning when most of the city is busy opening Santa's deliveries, four non-believers are tearing up the links.
Scores are unimportant here. Success is measured in balls lost - and in one precious item found.
Lying on the ninth green, looking a lot like a ball marker, is a man's wedding band.
Onnnnnne goldennnnn rinnnng.
Sort of a hole-in-one, if you will.
Suffice it to say, it was the highlight of the day.
Anyone who is catching a whole lot of flack on the homefront might want to stop by the golf clubhouse and see if he fits the bill.
- Mark Kozak
Monday, Dec. 26
2:55 a.m. - General Booth Boulevard.
After a post-Christmas celebration, a female driver notices one of the many holiday miracles.
``I can't believe it,'' she says to her friend. ``Taco Bell isn't open!''
- Holly Wester
2:25 p.m. - Crown gas station on Virginia Beach Boulevard.
While pumping gas into his Cadillac, an out-of-towner looks up at the marquee and notices that the price of unleaded gas is just ``.01.''
He looks to his wife and says in a Northern accent, ``I knew there was a reason we came down here!''
- Holly Wester
Tuesday, Dec. 27
10:45 a.m. - Norfolk International Airport.
The departure gates are a mass of emotional humanity on this first official travel day after the Christmas holidays.
``Kiss grandpa bye; kiss him,'' a young father offers up his squirmy 3-year-old for a resounding smooch from the bearded grandfather.
``Whiskers, whiskers, itchy whiskers,'' the tot yelps.
``OK, that's enough. Now gramma. Give her a big kiss, too.''
This time he leans him toward grandmother, but the yelp is the same. ``Whiskers, whiskers, itchy whiskers.''
- Marlene Ford
Wednesday, Dec. 28
4 p.m. - Mount Trashmore.
The shadows are appropriately long and the trees are typically skeletal for early winter. Yet a late December vision of kite-fliers and their airborne flock of kites is a shock for this area's more Northern transplants.
- Marlene Ford ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS
An ever-growing creche
While many folks have erected Nativity scenes of various shapes and
sizes both indoors and out, none is quite like the one Martha Howell
assembles annually in her Windsor Woods living room. The creche is
composed of figurines from her native country of Mexico. Howell says
she adds two to three pieces each year. Her display will remain up
this week for Epiphany, a religious celebration marked Jan. 6 each
year to commemorate both the revealing of Jesus as the Christ to the
Gentiles and the baptism of Jesus. The event also is known as
``Twelfth Day.''
by CNB