THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501270227
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
Two men, perplexed, stare at the endless varieties of wine.
``She could probably tell you what's good,'' one of them says, nodding at a customer with a bottle of chardonnay in her cart.
``Is that good?'' the other one asks as the woman looks up.
``Well, uh, yes,'' the woman says. ``But it really depends on what you're going to drink it with.''
Friends are coming to watch the football playoffs the next afternoon, and they'll be eating cheese and crackers.
``I don't want nothing with a cork in it,'' one man says.
The woman finally spies some large bottles with screw-on tops.
One man points at a bottle of blush. ``That one,'' he says.
``Do you think that's enough for your party?'' the woman asks.
``It has to be,'' he says. ``We've all got to go to work on Monday. But the 29th will be the big one. Everybody's off the next day.''
- Susie Stoughton MONDAY, JAN. 16 Bridge Road, Suffolk
From the ``Don't Mess with Da Mayor'' Department:
It's Monday morning, before the sun is warm, when Suffolk Mayor S. Chris Jones goes to his newly built pharmacy on Route 17, checking out the digs before his grand opening. Jones walks around the building and begins hosing away some construction debris. But once his eyes adjust, he sees the damage - about three dozen eggs, plastered in and around his new pharmacy's drive-through.
Fear not.
The mess was cleaned up and the pharmacy is now open for business. But Mayor Jones always gets his man. So when a police officer who knows Jones said he remembered seeing a couple of teenagers buying about three dozen eggs in a Churchland grocery store, Jones got the license number that the officer took down. Turns out, the kids live behind the pharmacy. No word yet on the outcome, though we have been assured that an anti-egg ordinance is not in the works.
- Mac Daniel TUESDAY, JAN. 17 Morning. - Post Office, Main Street, Suffolk.
Determined to get an early start at work, the man figures he'll just use an automated machine at the Post Office on Main Street to get a stamp for his letter. It's too early for the service counter to be open.
Unfortunately, though, all the machines say that they are temporarily out of service.
A wasted trip, the man, thinks; now he'd have to take that precious chunk of time to come back.
But as the man turns to leave, he is greeted by a Postal Service worker cleaning the glass front door. Is one stamp all the patron needs, the worker asks?
Then he'd be glad to take 32 cents or 35 cents and see that the letter got stamped and mailed.
Such service for someone already grousing silently about poor postal service.
- John Pruitt WEDNESDAY, JAN. 18 1 p.m. - China Moon Restaurant, Suffolk Plaza Shopping Center
They're enjoying a fairly typical mom and daughter thing - having lunch and catching up on the latest news.
The young lady tells her mom about a recent trip, one that seemed to spark renewed romance between her and her husband.
``It was the first time in a long time,'' she told her mom, ``that he told me I looked pretty.''
- Frank Roberts THURSDAY, JAN. 19 - The Virginian-Pilot Office, North Main Street.
The identity of the benevolent persons who placed a Christmas wreath on the badly burned CSX train station on North Main Street has finally been revealed.
It seems that Jim Caton and Mike Michaels of the Seaboard Construction and Development Corp. were responsible for decorating the sad-looking building during the holidays.
Through the grapevine, it's been learned that Michaels' wife, Betty, made the wreath and the two men placed it high upon the brick wall.
``It was quite a mystery, but what a wonderful thing to do,'' said Betsy Brothers, president of the Suffolk-Nansemond Historical Society. ``Both men are railroad buffs. After the Society got permission from CSX and purchased lumber, they went in at their own expense and, neatly and nicely, secured the building.''
The Society has received over 250 letters in support of renovating the train depot, Brothers said.
- Shirley Brinkley WEDNESDAY, JAN. 25 10:30 a.m. - In front of the municipal building, Market Street, Suffolk.
A woman waiting at the curb falls backward, plopping down on her derriere as her ride pulls up. Another woman jumps out of the white car and tries to help her up as the driver hurries around to assist.
A passer-by stops to see if he can help as a uniformed police officer and a man wearing a suit dart out of the building.
``The rescue squad's right here,'' the policeman says, pointing across the street as the woman settles into the back seat of the car.
``Are you sure you're not hurt?'' the other man asks.
She assures them that only her pride is injured, and they go back inside.
``Who was that man?'' the passer-by asks a woman with him. ``Not the policeman, the other one.''
``That's Jeff James,'' she says. ``He's an assistant prosecutor in the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office.''
``Oh,'' he says. ``I thought he looked like a lawyer. But I thought maybe he was one of those injury lawyers the way he rushed out to see if she was hurt.''
- Susie Stoughton by CNB