THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 6, 1995 TAG: 9512050131
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
A Kempsville drainage canal is sparkling clean these days, free of 43 grocery carts, 60 bags of trash, an old radiator fan and a lot of other junk that had been lodged for years in the waterway behind the Rack & Sack grocery store at Woods Corner.
Members of the Sierra Club along with students from Johnson & Wales University in Norfolk put on their old clothes and their boots and waded into the muck to clean up the mess one Saturday not long ago. They used a rubber boat, throw hooks and even bare hands to dislodge the carts and haul in the trash.
Rack & Sack contributed to the effort by fueling the workers. That included doughnuts and coffee for everybody in the morning and then great big hoagie sandwiches for lunch.
The enterprise that brought environmentalists, future chefs and grocers together began in a Johnson & Wales business English class taught by Fran Adams. Adams also just happens to be the wife of Fred Adams, the local Sierra Club president.
The couple had noticed that trash was building up in their neighborhood canal even as the canal was becoming a little eco-system, attracting herons, turtles, frogs and other creatures. They had even noticed turtles hauling out of the water on the grocery carts to sun.
So as a class assignment in business writing, Adams suggested that students write letters to Rack & Sack general manager Gary Geldhof about the condition of the canal and why they should clean it up.
``I thought it was great,'' Geldhof said. ``The first thing I thought was everybody writes about things but doesn't do anything, but this is great - a plan of action.''
Geldhof, who noted that many of the carts and other trash had been there several years long before Rack & Sack moved in, offered to do his part to help the volunteers.
``I've been a manager 25 years,'' Geldhof said, ``and I've never seen a group come together like this.''
HAWK EXPERT Reese Lukei finally was able to get a close-up view with his scope of the peregrine falcon that's been roosting and feeding around the Virginia House all fall.
He determined the bird was a female because of her large size. Female hawks, unlike some other animals, are larger than males of the same species.
Lukei also said she was about 2 1/2 years old because not all of her adult plumage had grown in. She's a dark bird, he added, with heavy cap and moustache. In addition, she has not been banded.
``It's a month past the migration period for falcons,'' Lukei said. ``My guess is she's spending her winter vacation here.''
BANANA TREES have grown in Speros Caravas' North End yard for many years. To get the tropical plants through a Virginia Beach winter, he digs the trees up and stows them unceremoniously away under his deck every fall. In spring he replants them.
Although the banana trees lend an exotic greenery to Caravas' yard, bananas themselves are not expected in this climate. This year, however Caravas got quite a surprise.
One of his trees is bearing a large bunch of bananas. This is no measly effort on the banana tree's part. The fruit is nothing like those little finger-size bananas that some trees around here try to bear. Caravas has about 18 grocery-store-size bananas in his bunch, all plenty big enough to eat.
And eat them, he will.
MEMBERS OF THE MILLER & RHOADS Retiree Association recently held their seventh anniversary celebration at the Pine Tree Inn. About 50 retirees belong to the group and at the anniversary party, former workers and some managers took turns talking about old times in their grand old store. The association formed when the department store that opened in Richmond in 1885 and became a shopping tradition across the state and even into North Carolina closed its doors less than a decade ago.
The retirees, who all worked in Miller & Rhoads stores in this area (the ones in Virginia Beach were at Pembroke and Lynnhaven malls), are organized with officers, by-laws and dues. They meet monthly for lunch and camaraderie and also sponsor day trips and other activities. Their treasury helps sponsor a child at Hope Haven and they contribute to other non-profit groups, too.
``We have a common bond. We worked for many years in many places for Miller & Rhoads,'' said association president Boots Kershaw. ``It was a company with prestige and integrity, all because they treated people right.''
For more information on the retirees association, call Kershaw at 436-7866.
P.S. A FULL MOON shines tonight. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photos by MARY REID BARROW
Johnson & Wales University English teacher Fran Adams, right, and
one of her students, Chris Lowe, exhibit some of the debris they
helped pull out of the Woods Corner drainage canal.
Speros Caravas has pulled off a rarity for Virginia Beach - a banana
tree with about 18 grocery-store-size bananas in a bunch, all plenty
big enough to eat.
by CNB