THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 7, 1995 TAG: 9505050224
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Time to clear out some this-and-that files . . .
First, congratulations to youngsters from the Fine Arts Center who appeared, along with 44 other Hampton Roads kids, in ``Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,'' the dazzling, tuneful, funny, exciting Andrew Lloyd Webber production at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk.
They were on stage every minute. One number was strictly theirs. At other times, they mixed with the cast.
Kaitlin Bowles was lifted aloft a couple of times. The Suffolk kids, in the front row, were a credit to the city.
Several people have asked about ``Deuce Coupe,'' the `50s movie filmed in Suffolk and Franklin a couple years ago.
It opened in California April 28 and will come eastward, hitting Hampton Roads a few weeks later, probably in a United Artists theater. Somehow, it got a PG-13 rating. I'd have given PG to this fine, fun film.
John Sammons, Oakland Elementary School principal, recently hit the big 50. On his birthday, he found his office redecorated.
Thirteen black balloons were tied up around his desk; a cutout of him showed him going over a hill. There was a black wreath, lots of black crepe paper and a basket of dead flowers.
A sign near the parking area encouraged, ``Honk for Mr. Sammons' 50th birthday.''
The Southampton County Historical Society came up with an old sign about tolls on the Petersburg & Jerusalem P.R. - a plank road. It was signed by William E. Proctor, train company president.
A 2-wheel riding carriage cost 1 1/2-cents a mile if drawn by a horse, a penny extra if drawn by two horses. A 4-wheel riding carriage was two cents if drawn by a horse. Carts or wagons drawn by 1, 2, 3 or 4 animals paid from 1 1/2 cents to 3 1/2, with a quarter of a cent added for each additional horse. Early bureaucracy.
Dr. Martin Seremet, who specializes in glaucoma treatment, once lived on Eye Street in Washington, D.C.
Sun Photographer John Sheally got hold of a set of rules laid down by a tavern: Four pence a night for bed - six pence with supper; No boots to be worn in bed; Organ grinders to sleep in the wash house; No dogs allowed upstairs; No beer allowed in the kitchen; No Razor Grinders or Tinkers taken in. No more than five to sleep in one bed.
If you are over 50, you remember the Burma Shave rhyme signs that dotted the nation's highways. The company wanted a clean image, so these two sign suggestions never made it: ``The other woman - in his life - said - go back home - and scratch your wife.'' And ``Listen, birds - these signs - cost money - roost awhile - but don't get funny.'' by CNB