THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996 TAG: 9601090009
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
I attended school in Norfolk in the first and second grades. I enlisted in the Navy and went through boot camp in 1939. I returned with a family in 1947 and have owned homes in both Norfolk and Virginia Beach. I have been subscribing to your paper except for a few years when the Navy had me elsewhere. I retired here in 1969 and have been a resident of Virginia Beach since then.
About 1946-50, there was a push to name this area Hampton Roads, but each community was afraid that another community would get some of the business. Gerrymandering was prevalent.
Perhaps the time is right to come up with a common name as New York has done and Miami-Dade is doing.
Your Dec. 26 editorial backing this pointed out the help that a major sports team would be, Channel 13's regular reminder, ``Hampton Roads'' on our mail, the peculiar postmark of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce and the postscripts added to the Welcome to Our City signs saying ``A Hampton Roads Community.''
Your newspaper is mailed all over the country, and certainly truckloads are sent out of the immediate vicinity. However, on the front page appears, ``Serving Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina.'' When you absorbed two papers into one, you had the chance to change the name to The Pilot of Hampton Roads or the Hampton Roads Pilot.
I don't think it is too late to put your money where your mouth is concerning a name for the area. Promote your beliefs daily! Get Hampton Roads in the name of the paper.
J. H. JOHNSON
Virginia Beach, Dec. 27, 1995 by CNB