THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 24, 1995 TAG: 9512220206
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Potholes were filled with muddy water. A mist of rain chilled the air. The parking lot was empty.
By 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Great Bridge Fire Station precinct in Chesapeake - eight and one-half hours after the polls opened for the city's first-ever School Board election - only 310 of 4,650 voters registered at that precinct had cast a ballot.
Precinct workers set up only eight of the 14 voting booths.
``With this being the first School Board election and the fact that they put it together so quickly, it's been a pretty slow turnout,'' said campaign worker Morris Smith, who stood in the drizzle passing out literature for the Chesapeake Education Association, which endorsed his grandfather, James M. Reeves Sr. ``That and the fact that it's Christmastime, and the weather. . .
It seemed that everything - the season, the elements, the short campaign time - had all come together to assure that few people showed up for the elections.
``I think it's just going to take a little while until it catches on,'' Smith said.
``It's ver-r-r-ry slow,'' said Bill Hon, chief election officer at the fire station. ``People don't know enough about School Board operations to be interested, and they don't really know the candidates.'' Tree buyers roped in
Here's a seasonal story told to us by Chesapeake resident Judy Ruben, a teacher at Bayside High School.
One of Ruben's colleagues, a Knell's Ridge resident, went Christmas tree shopping with a friend.
He and his buddy found the right one at a Battlefield Boulevard lot. It was time to take the greenery home.
Seeing that the lot was being run by two elderly gentlemen, the teacher offered to help the two tie it onto his car for the drive home.
Apparently, the two seemed rather insulted at his offer of help and told him that they do this sort of thing all of the time. They told him they're veterans of tree selling and could do it very well without his help, thank you.
The teacher backed off and let the two men secure the tree atop his car.
Thinking it was tied down snugly, the teacher and his friend headed down Battlefield Boulevard. The tree promptly fell off and bounced along the pavement.
Hoping to rescue the tree from oncoming traffic, the two men decided to dash out of the car and make a hasty grab. Unfortunately, their plan never materialized.
Although the Christmas tree had slipped from its bonds on the roof, the passengers inside the car were tied securely.
The tree lot attendants had wrapped twine through the car's windows and over the doors on both sides. The teacher and his friend couldn't get out to go retrieve their tree.
- Lorraine Eaton and Eric Feber by CNB