THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 24, 1995 TAG: 9512220208
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 119 lines
Monday, Dec. 11
Noon - Holland Road.
A tabby cat is lying on the side of the road and has obviously been hit by a car. He isn't moving and looks very stiff.
Later that week residents of a nearby neighborhood find fliers in their mailboxes with a picture of a lost cat and offering a reward for its return.
Although the photo is black and white, it looks strikingly familiar - just like the cat on the side of the road.
- Alexis Smith
Tuesday, Dec. 12
8:12 a.m. - Kempsville and Princess Anne roads.
People are doing double takes as a fire truck rumbles through the intersection and on down Kempsville Road, lights flashing and siren blaring.
The driver and another firefighter have topped off their yellow protective turnout gear with bright-red Santa Claus hats.
Why? A simple question later begets a simple answer.
``Because it's Christmas,'' says Robert Putz. He and driver Alan Walters don the seasonal headgear every year.
``We try to get everybody in a better mood than before we got there.''
- Matthew Bowers
Thursday, Dec. 14
10:15 a.m. - A busy doctor's office off First Colonial Road.
As a back injury patient hobbles out the examining room door, the doctor soothingly adds, ``Just take it easy for now. Probably don't plan on a normal work load until after the new year.''
Just then the patient brings his crutch to a screeching halt and both look up to see the weighing in of a senior citizen. Not just any senior; a very special oldster. He's dressed in a red warm-up suit with a long white beard, eyes that twinkle, a nose like a cherry and - by the tilt of the scale - appropriately chubby.
The doctor pats his first patient on the shoulder and says, ``At least you don't have HIS job schedule.''
- Marlene Ford
Sunday, Dec. 17
1:15 p.m. - A Virginia Beach Boulevard restaurant.
A young girl of about 11 is eating a mound of crispy, golden onion rings with her lunch.
She eats them one by one, picking them up, breaking each in half, pulling the onion out of the coating and dropping it on the growing pile on her plate and then popping the outside crust into her mouth.
- Melinda Forbes
2:30 p.m. - Superfresh on Laskin Road.
A woman in the checkout line has a cart full of groceries. ``I'm stocking up today,'' she tells the cashier, ``so I'll just have to run in for some fresh things at the end of the week.''
The cashier nods knowingly as if she had heard that strategy before on this pre-holiday weekend.
``See you tomorrow,'' she says with a grin.
- Mary Reid Barrow
Monday, Dec. 18
4:30 p.m. - Robbins Corner Garden Center.
A woman is buying pine roping.
``Are you all ready for Christmas?'' the cashier asks.
``I was until I decided to decorate some more,'' the woman answers in an exasperated manner. ``That's the trouble with getting ready early. I always find something else to do!''
- Mary Reid Barrow
Wednesday, Dec. 20
3:15 p.m. - An apartment off Lynnhaven Parkway.
A single mother of three supports her family, barely, by working the graveyard shift at a local convenience store. She works weekdays, weekends, holidays, any time a shift is offered because she needs the money.
But she's not going to work Christmas.
``All I have to give my kids for Christmas this year is myself,'' she says.
The apartment, furnished only with an old tattered armchair and a small dinette set, gives few clues it's Christmas.
There are no tree, wreaths, lights or presents.
Only a single red candle in a glass holder is centered on the table. And the children, 1, 9 and 13, are listening to Christmas carols on the radio while they admire the felt dove and clothes pin reindeer the 9-year-old made at school.
A visitor, who was matched with the family through Social Service's Holiday Project, then offers the family $225 in gift certificates at a discount department store, a $50 gift certificate at a Christmas tree lot, $30 in cash, plus a trunk full of groceries.
The mother is speechless.
``Oh, wow,'' she says, looking over the gifts, with tears welling up in her eyes.
``Oh, wow.''
- Debbie Messina
9:15 p.m. - The Boardwalk at 8th Street.
The driver of a car about to embark on the Boardwalk holiday light show rolls down the car window and holds out the $7 fee.
The two money collectors in the little white booth are bundled up against the below-freezing weather, but are obviously still uncomfortable. They're jiggling around and stepping from side to side.
``Merry Christmas. How you doing tonight?'' says a back-seat passenger from the toasty warm car.
``I'm cold!'' exclaims the man. ``I'm real cold. It's just plain too cold out here tonight!''
- Melinda Forbes ILLUSTRATION: Here comes Santa Claus
Staff photo by STEVE EARLEY
Santa Claus has abandoned his reindeer and sled and has opted to
bring Christmas presents by horseback - at least at Breckenridge
Manor, a horse stable and riding school on Princess Anne Road. Note
that Old Saint Nick is riding mighty tall in the saddle.
by CNB