THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 28, 1995 TAG: 9504280604
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Because there is a consensus hereabouts that everything vexing that has beset anybody also has befallen me, people are all the time bringing me their problems.
Thus a friend said his wife's second cousin and her hubby and their brood of five were coming to visit.
``What should I do?'' he pleaded.
``Divorce her and flee to the Dismal Swamp,'' I said.
But he had ruled that out.
First thing to do, I said, is tire them out. Take them where they can run and shout - the Norfolk Botanical Garden, Smokey the Train in Portsmouth, Mount Trashmore, Northwest River Park.
Then see our museums; but be sure to drop by the Visitors Center in the west end of Waterside.
In a 44-seat theater is a 22-minute film covering nearly 400 years of Norfolk's adventure-filled history. The excellent ``Norfolk Reflections,'' a triumph of compression, captures highlights.
(A ticket costs a dollar. Children 4 and under are free. Monday through Saturday, the film plays from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday's hours are noon to 5:30 p.m.)
No city suffered more than Norfolk in the American Revolution. In 1776, British ships bombarded the city. Then, to keep the city out of enemy hands, our colonial troops destroyed it. Only chimneys survived. Norfolk was Chimney Town.
In 1885, yellow fever wiped out a third of the population. Occupied by federal troops during the Civil War, the city lived under the heel of General Benjamin ``Beast'' Butler.
Norfolk always rallied, and its great port became capital of the U.S. Navy. Left with oppressive slums after World War II, it won the nation's first urban renewal grant and started another comeback. Norfolk is in perpetual revival.
The idea for the film arose when Norfolk's Frances Lindsay, visiting Canada, saw a film of Calgary's history. She led a committee in raising $100,000 to produce ``Norfolk Reflections'' and the theater. She typifies the tradition of innovative citizens leading the way.
When the film opened last year, Lindsay said, ``Water brought disease to Norfolk, water brought warships, but also water brought trade and the good things, too.''
The theme of water runs through the film. When you leave it and walk onto the brick plaza along the Elizabeth River, you feel you have merely stepped from the past and into the unbroken, continuing story of this city by the sea.
There's no better place to sun, as a couple were doing on a bench the other day. Facing them was a row of wood pilings, each surmounted by a gull standing on one leg.
``Let me ask you something,'' the woman said. ``Why is it seagulls stand on one leg?''
```To relax,'' said the man. ``I don't know, but they sure do.''
The lazy exchange in the sun could have occurred a century or so ago. by CNB