THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 21, 1995 TAG: 9504190155
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
I have taken on some new duties here at The Portsmouth Currents, standing in as its editor until we decide who the next one should be.
This has come about because Joe Banks, a veteran newspaperman who brought back a sense of hard-edge news to the Currents, has left The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star after almost 12 years.
A Portsmouth resident, Banks worked for 15 months to help make the Currents a valuable publication for our neighbors. Since his departure three weeks ago, the staff in Portsmouth has produced the Currents and will continue to do so.
For the time being, I will be the point person. That means when you have suggestions or complaints, you can point a finger at me. We might not agree all the time, but that doesn't mean we can't talk. We might not be able to publish everything you want in the paper, but that doesn't mean we won't try.
We do everything possible to tell the community what is going on around here.
Before this space runs out, for instance, I need to talk about some upcoming community events.
Saturday is the day for ``Benefit in the Courtyard,'' a big yard sale to benefit the Children's Museum. Originally scheduled for the Middle Street Mall outside the new museum, the sale has been moved in part to the parking garage.
Sponsored and operated by the Portsmouth Museum Volunteers, the sale will start at 10 a.m. and continue until late afternoon.
If you have never been to one of these sales, you're in for a treat.
The volunteers work all year collecting items they believe will raise a few cents - or maybe a few dollars - for the museum.
I stopped by to take a look at this year's cache the other day.
What an eclectic bunch of stuff. As usual, they have a lot of brass, crystal, glass and even silver items. They have record turntables, bicycles, a whirlpool machine to turn your bathtub into a sauna, games, videos and audio tapes.
They have Christmas decorations and artificial flowers. They have costume jewelry. There's original art and some not so original art.
They have birdhouses: originals by Roney Leitner and John Larcombe. Larcombe's creations for the birds have become collectibles over the years he has made them for the sale, so don't pass up another chance to get one before the price goes up again!
Every year they manage to attract some true antiques donated by home owners in the Downtown area. Don't forget to look for these items which are one-of-a-kind finds.
They have crazy telephones and some not so crazy ones.
They have books and baubles - some that make you wonder why anybody ever paid money for them. But, as they say, one man's junk is another man's treasure.
One really interesting donation came from Al Harris, a member of the museum staff and also a Civil War historian. He donated a collection of bullets collected from a Civil War site in Suffolk.
The most charming part of this annual sale is a section especially for children. Games, books and toys are set aside in a special place for children who want to shop on their own.
Over the years, this yard sale has raised thousands for the Children's Museum.
All of the items for sale have been donated and the volunteers do all the work.
Two mainstays, Loretta Larcombe and Mary Whitley, were sorting and pricing the day I stopped in.
That in itself is a marathon job and a somewhat thankless bit of volunteerism.
But Loretta, Mary and a bunch of other volunteers usually are pretty cheerful about the job.
They tell me the rewards come when they see how much money they have collected for the museums.
Remember, the sale is being held this year in the back of the Middle Street Mall and in the Children's Museum Parking Garage off County Street. by CNB