THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505120165
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 161 lines
Thursday, May 4
12:30 p.m. - B&J Hotdogs, corner of Independence Boulevard and Pleasure House Road.
Owner Bill Harmon is dishing up the day's special, a bowl of beans, a hot dog all the way and a Pepsi for a newly arrived customer.
``Been here 44 years,'' he says. ``Lotta things have changed. Used to be a cleaners, a service station and a hardware store out here. Gone now.
``See that fella over there? He used to work at Bayville Farms. He's retired now. You should see what they're doing over there. Expensive golf course, big homes.''
He shakes his head. As he muses about the old days, his wife Joan continues dishing out the restaurant staple for four decades, hot dogs and bowls of beans, for customers - most of them locals and noontime regulars.
- Bill Reed
3 p.m. - A grocery store on Rosemont Road.
A young man is waiting as the cashier rings up his purchase. It comes to $1.01.
``I don't have any pennies,'' he says. The sympathetic cashier says, ``Oh well, we'll find one somewhere to put in for you. Bring a penny next time you come into the store, OK?''
He agrees, but on his way out says to a bystander, ``I have dollars, but I don't have cents.''
- Carole O'Keeffe
Friday, May 5
7:30 a.m. - 73rd Street.
An animal shriek shatters the quiet morning.
Suddenly a gray squirrel races out of a yard with a big gray cat in hot pursuit. The squirrel scampers under a parked car but the cat follows close behind.
Finally the frightened animal heads for a tree and doesn't stop until it gets to the top.
The cat calls a halt to the chase and stops half way up while the squirrel chatters furiously from on high. The cat shakes its head in distaste and out comes a big mouthful of gray squirrel hairs.
- Mary Reid Barrow
7 p.m. - Lynnhaven Parkway at South Lynnhaven Road.
There is truth in advertising, sometimes.
A blue Saturn with a woman driving is spotted while headed toward nearby Lynnhaven Mall. Her vanity license plate reads NAPY HAR.
After taking a moment to figure out the message, the author of the plate is observed and, sure enough, her hairdo would make Einstein look neatly shorn.
- Mike McOsker
Saturday, May 6
11:30 a.m. - Atlantic Avenue.
A young woman driving a van towing an ice cream cart turns very slowly into the narrow drive between the Life-Saving Museum of Virginia and the 24th Street Park, then stops to wait as a young mother moves swiftly to pull her toddler out of the van's path. Both wave as the van passes.
Farther down the drive the van makes another stop. A child of about 3 sits unattended in a stroller parked in the middle of the path facing the van.
Although the park is crowded, no adult comes forward to claim the child.
The driver and her male passenger wait patiently. After a minute or two a middle-aged woman who had been standing by the side of the path licking an ice cream cone walks over to the stroller, stands in back of it and eyes the van driver defiantly.
Very slowly she takes two or three more licks on her ice cream cone, then moves the child just barely far enough to let the van pass.
A few minutes later a younger woman appears from the restroom and the two women and the child leave the park.
``Some people just have no business taking care of little ones,'' the woman who had scooped her own young child up the moment she spotted the van says under her breath as the trio passes by her.
- Jo-Ann Clegg
Sunday, May 7
Noon - Town Point Park, Norfolk.
The Virginia Beach SPCA has a booth at the Norfolk-Virginia Beach Earth Day celebration. A volunteer is taking a survey of pet owners, who stop by for information. She asks questions like: How many pets do you have? Where did you get them? Are your pets spayed or neutered?
One man responded that his cat was not spayed. ``But don't worry,'' he said. ``We don't let the kittens go. We give them all to the SPCA.''
- Mary Reid Barrow
Tuesday, May 9
12:20 p.m. - Conference room at City Hall.
City Council members are all abuzz after being handed a report showing the potential shortfall in this year's school operating budget.
Dean Block, the city's director of management and budget, is trying his best to answer each of the questions while also staying within his bounds as financial adviser and not legal counselor.
The conversation is both lively and tense as Block underscores the seriousness of the figures before them.
Block is asked a question about the school system's attempts to persuade Washington to cough up an additional $3 million in impact aid, but his answer brings a little levity to the meeting.
``Mr. Smith went to Washington,'' he begins, referring to the school system's chief financial officer, Mordecai Smith. Then he pauses, trying in vain to contain his laughter.
``Maybe I should say, `Mr. Smith goes to Washington.''
A few moments later, Block confesses that the last laugh is on him.
``I guess I'm showing my age,'' he adds. ``I remember when that movie came out.''
- Kevin Armstrong
9:38 p.m. - Princess Anne Park.
The Virginia Beach Ozone faces a double header with a worthy opponent during a league softball night. The stands are pretty sparse but a few die-hard Ozone fans try to overcompensate for the lack of a crowd.
Their cheering begins: ``Heeeeeey battabattabatta . . . swing!''
The fans - a group of guys mostly in their early 20s - try everything from the wave - with only four people - to traditional cheers such as ``Charge!''
Even the cool breeze and light rain doesn't stop them. Cradled under umbrellas, they begin to sing old commercial jingles and television theme songs. Other ball players and fans start requesting favorites:
``Do you guys know `Plop Plop Fizz Fizz,' '' someone shouts.
``What about `Here's a story 'bout a man named Brady . . . ,'' another yells.
``Those are too easy,'' one of the guys responds. So, they proceed to sing old favorites such as ``Welcome Back Kotter,'' ``The Beverly Hillbillies'' and old Coca-Cola commercial themes.
They break up the songs with laughter and sound effects, and the singing gets louder when the other team is at bat. The Ozone goes on to win both games. The fans are congratulated along with the players.
``We've got to do this again,'' one of the song leaders says. ``We were just trying to stay warm.''
- Larry W. Brown
Wednesday, May 10
1 p.m. - Pavilion.
Mayor Meyera Oberndorf, wearing an oversized T-shirt with the words ``VIRGINIA BEACH Good Clean Fun'' on it, explains to the well-dressed audience at the National Tourism Week Awards Luncheon why she is so casually attired.
``We just got done taping a segment for Oprah,'' she says of the city employees who have joined her for a weight loss challenge against Hampton's mayor and his team.
``They called me last Tuesday and wanted me to do it on Thursday but I told them that I had to be in Baltimore for the BRAC hearings (on military base closings),'' she continues.
The stunned production people couldn't believe that she would turn down a chance to showcase the city on their show, she tells the diners.
``We're seen in every state and 42 foreign countries and you're turning us down?'' the mayor quotes Oprah's people as saying.
``I told them that I would for (the chance to assure) 5,000 (Virginia Beach) jobs,'' she says.
``They finally agreed to do it today instead,'' Oberndorf tells her audience.
- Jo-Ann Clegg ILLUSTRATION: Sit up and touch someone
Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Brian Cooper, 21, of Virginia Beach gets comfortable for the long
haul during a call last Thursday to his girlfriend, Noelia Pacheco.
His pay phone perch was at the BP service station on Bonney Road.
by CNB