THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 16, 1996 TAG: 9603160357
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL AND JANELLE LA BOUVE, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Nathan is on the brink of learning whether he caught AIDS from Keesha, his mistress. Meanwhile, Keesha's fragile life is in the hands of Nathan's wife, Olivia, a doctor.
Dina is poised to drive a wedge between John and Jill. And Nikki is involved with Brad but secretly longs for Victor's affections.
With that kind of action brewing, who wants to watch the NCAA games on television?
Not Sharon M. Szaronos, 48, a Virginia Beach resident and avowed soap opera fan who doesn't know what March Madness is, much less why it has interrupted her favorite daytime drama, ``The Young and the Restless.''
Szaronos and soap junkies everywhere were thwarted this week by the national college basketball tournament, which pushed aside CBS' regular programming Thursday and Friday. Among the other shows usurped: ``The Bold and the Beautiful'' and ``As the World Turns,'' roller coasters of human emotion, popular for hair-tearing, breast-beating entertainment.
``They have so many games for this thing, whatever it is they're doing,'' said Szaronos, an accounts receivable clerk for ARAMARK Services in Norfolk, where a group of women normally spends every lunch hour parked in front of an old black-and-white TV, gasping and sighing at plot twists and characters' antics. Friday, they were stuck watching Georgetown University trounce Mississippi Valley State.
``Put my soaps back on,'' Szaronos said.
Rumor had it that the dramas were due to air on other days. But for faithful viewers, it's not the same.
``I love my basketball, but I don't want them to put it on during my stories,'' said Minerva C. Jones, 38, a Norfolk resident and ARAMARK shipping and receiving clerk who has been addicted to soaps since childhood.
Daytime drama followers say the shows provide them a regular escape from harsh reality.
``I kind of relate to it, because of relationship situations,'' said Danielle L. Adams, 25, a Chesapeake resident who works two jobs and looks forward to watching taped episodes of each day's installments when she gets home from work at night.
``Plus, I guess everyone kind of has a dark side.''
Szaronos has been watching daily for decades. She got her 25-year-old daughter, Kim, hooked, too. Kim's early childhood vocabulary included the famous opening monologue for ``Days of Our Lives,'' which begins: ``Like sands through the hourglass . . .''
``It makes our own real problems seem less serious,'' Szaronos said.
The dramas have drawn together a group of women at ARAMARK who otherwise might not have much in common. Now they share tissues when emotions run high, exchange insights about the actions of various characters, scour their company's distribution lines for advance copies of magazines that contain plot tips, and urge on Szaronos as she adjusts the horizontal hold on the aging set.
Tina L. Depp, 30, a Virginia Beach resident and ARAMARK distribution clerk, used to go home every day for lunch until her colleagues persuaded her to stick around and watch with them. Now she's a regular.
``I think sometimes when you're having a bad day or a hectic day, you can forget for a while,'' Depp said.
``It's kind of like being in a fantasy land for an hour. Then you go back to the real world.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN\The Virginian-Pilot
In the ARAMARK lunchroom, the NCAA tournament is on - but Joyce Hall
isn't tuning in.
by CNB