THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 10, 1995 TAG: 9509080196
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 140 lines
Saturday, Sept. 2
11 a.m. - Owl Creek Veterinary Clinic.
``Want to see my new baby?'' a staffer asks a woman who is waiting at the counter. The worker steps into the back and comes out with a tiny mewing handful of gray and black stripes.
The kitten is almost hidden by a plastic megaphone-shaped protective collar that extends from its neck to past its nose. Its purpose is to keep the kitty from biting at sutures from hernia surgery.
``Somebody threw him out a car window,'' says the worker. ``The doctor fixed him up and I'm taking him.
``He'll have a home now.''
- Melinda Forbes
7:30 p.m. - Shore Drive.
A bumper sticker on a car says: ``Insanity is hereditary. You can get it from your kids.''
- Mary Reid Barrow
8:45 p.m. - Atlantic Avenue
Mayor Meyera Oberndorf, dressed in a melon-colored jacket with a matching T-shirt, is having a grand time talking to a clutch of police chaplains in front of Hammerheads, a popular Oceanfront watering hole.
As she faces the street, a young woman bursts from the bar. Wearing a black dress with spaghetti straps, she has the look of someone who has been enjoying quite a few drinks. She sees some friends and exuberantly embraces them, laughing, flirting and smiling all the while.
Just then, in a moment of excitement, she turns her back to a bouncer and ``moons'' him, revealing not much underneath. The bouncer is thrilled but mortified because he knows that five feet from the happy woman is none other than the mayor herself.
He mouths the words, ``Noooo. The MAYOR. The mayor is right there!''
``Who?'' the woman stammers.
``The mayor,'' the bouncer yells.
``I don't care,'' the woman says, and turns her bottom to the woman in the melon coat and flashes her, too.
Unaware of this small episode on a crowded Labor Day weekend, Oberndorf chats away with the chaplains. But a police officer strolls over, gently taps the woman on the shoulder and speaks to her.
``I'm sorry. I'm sooo sorry,'' she says and staggers off.
- Tom Holden
Midnight - 21st Street and Arctic Avenue.
A young man walks up to another man who is sitting on his car taking a break from the long night of Labor Day weekend festivities. The stranger is dressed in the fashion of the day - a blue bandana folded into a rectangle and tied to his head so that his ears are covered.
He wears baggy pants, a baggy shirt and a baseball cap. He looks to be about 21 years old. He asks the man on the car if he knows where a cheap hotel can be found, adding, ``All these Oceanfront hotels cost at least $100 a night. Some more.''
The man on the car tells him he does not know of many hotels at the Oceanfront that are cheaper. The best he can do is direct the stranger to the Pembroke area where there are hotels that are somewhat less expensive.
The stranger, who is trying to save a few dollars on a hotel room, thanks the other man and as he leaves, pulls out his car keys - keys to a pricey Lexus.
- Tom Holden
Sunday, Sept. 3
11:30 a.m. - Boardwalk at 29th Street.
The sun is creeping higher in a cloudless sky. A few bathers gambol in the surf and clusters of cyclists are pedaling leisurely down the Boardwalk.
The morning is warm, quiet and restful.
Three stories above the beach, a young man opens the sliding door to his hotel room and steps out onto the balcony to survey the scene.
He stretches, then in a deep basso voice that can be heard a block north and south, bellows this message to all he surveys:
``Everybody liiimmmbo!''
- Bill Reed
11:45 a.m. - 2nd Police Precinct at 18th Street and Arctic Avenue.
Michael Topodas of Newport News is sitting on a bench in the precinct's reception area looking a little amazed. Sometime the night before, he lost his wallet. To his utter amazement, here, on Sunday morning, he has come to retrieve his wallet that a good citizen turned over to police.
It contains everything. His credit cards. His license. His pictures. And most amazingly of all, his $59.
``I was walking down the beach and I was carrying some things for a friend,'' says Topodas, a teacher at Hampton Roads Academy. ``She had my wallet. We were sharing the load. Anyhow, she dropped it and we could not find it.''
And now, looking at his wallet, Topodas has a moment when it is possible to think people aren't so bad after all.
``I'm just so happy about this,'' he says.
- Tom Holden
11:20 p.m. - Boardwalk at 25th Street.
All has been quiet and peaceful on the Boardwalk when suddenly a scuffle breaks out between two young men. As fists fly between the two, policemen from all directions come running to break up the bout before it gets out of hand.
The fleet-footed response from officers quickly arouses the attention of passers-by from several blocks and now they too give chase to the scene.
Within 45 seconds, more than three dozen law enforcement officials have arrived. Four are on horseback, three are on motorcycles, several are on bicycles and the rest have come on foot. Officers cordon off the area and tell bystanders to go on about their business.
The two pugilists have been separated and are being scolded for their misdeeds.
The crowd of onlookers disperses as a police helicopter arrives overhead. Police officers and sheriff's deputies return to their posts on Atlantic Avenue and in the hotel parking lots they are guarding.
- Kevin Armstrong
Tuesday, Sept. 5
8:45 a.m. - Windsor Woods Elementary School.
It's the first day of school and the students are moving slowly toward the school entrance.
Just outside, Principal Drummond Ball and Assistant Principal Lois Mulhall oversee the progression of children wearing navy blue and white.
Ball figures about 60 percent of the students on this day have complied with the new voluntary uniform policy. He's hoping that figure will rise as the year progresses.
In fact, Ball and Mulhall as well as several of the teachers have also complied. Ball's looking svelte in his navy blue slacks and white shirt while Mulhall stands next to him in navy blue shorts and white shirt.
``It was really neat and they looked so good,'' Ball said later. ``Some of those who didn't wear a uniform are now saying they need to go out and get one.''
- Lori A. Denney
1:45 p.m. - Constitution Drive.
A handful of proud, teenage Cavaliers makes a plea for Princess Anne High School, by holding up signs and collecting donations from motorists passing by.
One young lady, a blonde wearing an olive green T-shirt and jean shorts, shouts a moving appeal. She says, ``Help us recover from the fire. We're a good cause.''
- Holly Wester ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
Sarah Smith, a junior at Princess Anne High School, joins fellow
students in conducting car washes and soliciting money for the
school's fire recovery fund. Smith caught this motorist at the
corner of Constitution Avenue and Virginia Beach Boulevard.
by CNB