THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 4, 1996 TAG: 9604040318
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LORRAINE EATON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
These days are off-limits.
Faced with how to make up school days missed due to the winter's record snowfall, no administrator dared toy with the week of spring break. Smart move. Imagine the flak if 165,000 area students had been incarcerated in classrooms for the finest days of the year so far.
Wednesday, while so many adults spent hours imprisoned on the job, students from Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Chesapeake did whatever they wanted. (Suffolk students go free next week.) For many, that meant going eastward to the Oceanfront.
Surfing. That was the mission of Granby High junior Dustin Jones, who eased his tiny, blue hatchback into a space at Rudee Inlet around 9 a.m. He and four friends emerged from the car, packed themselves into wet suits and were on the beach 10 minutes.
``It's been really nice this week so far,'' Dustin said. ``But today it's kind of shady.'' Meaning flat, no waves.
Avoiding the ``fake and bake'' tanning booth was the mission of Western Branch High freshmen Kimberly Fields and Kristen Oldham. By 11 a.m. they had put on suntan lotion and were stretched out on the lee side of a North End dune. With prom a little more than a month away, they just had to work on their tans.
Heather Wade's plan: Trying out those new pink and white and purple and green roller blades that had been in the box since Christmas. The Linkhorn Park Elementary kindergarten student was on her first spring break ever. The ``crunch-crunch'' of her skates as she all but walked down the Boardwalk with her grandma proved her determination to learn something outside of class.
Dustin, Kristen and Heather were among scores of students who migrated to the beach Wednesday, despite a chilly breeze and the fact that it is still so quiet at the resort strip that the flap of the line on a flagpole on Pacific Avenue seems loud.
Everyone seemed relieved that instead of shaving spring break, administrators found other ways to make up for the winter snow. Even Saturday school was OK, many said.
Plus, said Virginia Beach Middle School sixth-graders Joey Strapach and Jeff Gilpin, Saturday school was a cinch.
``Everyone was, like, asleep and stuff,'' Joey said.
``In class,'' Jeff added.
The pair were pretty much drifting through break, swimming in the heated hotel pool where Joey's mom works, ice skating at the Oceanfront rink or sleeping.
``You can get a good night's sleep knowing you don't have to get up for school,'' Joey said.
``Yea, definitely,'' Jeff added. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MOTOYA NAKAMURA, The Virginian-Pilot
Beverly Gross enjoys a sunny day at the Virginia Beach Boardwalk on
Wednesday with her grandchildren, Curtis, 3, and Heather Wade, 5.
Heather was trying out a new pair of roller blades that she had
gotten for Christmas. It was the kindergartner's first spring
break.
by CNB