THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 16, 1996 TAG: 9606140174
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 88 lines
Thursday, June 6
1:05 p.m. - Pembroke area fast-food restaurant.
A first-time mother of a 2-week-old - the bundled-up baby held carefully and closely in her arms - strikes up a conversation with a more-experienced mother at the next table.
The new mother goes on and on about her baby: how cute, how precious, how tiny. She holds the little one close, wrapped tight in a blanket against the air conditioning. The woman at the next table joins in marveling at the long fingers on the small hand. The baby will grow up tall, no doubt, the experienced mother agrees.
After a few minutes, the proud new mother heads outside, puts her dozing infant in the arms of a woman in the back seat of a compact car - no child safety seat as required by law, no seat belt - and drives off into the six busy lanes of Virginia Beach Boulevard traffic.
- Matthew Bowers
Saturday, June 8
5 p.m. - B.J.'s Wholesale Club.
A pair of doting grandparents are standing in line, waiting to check out. Their toddler grandson sits in the shopping cart, clutching a bear-shaped canister of animal crackers, which appears to be about as big as he is.
The little one's face crumples as the grandmother attempts to remove the cookie jar from his grasp so that it can be rung up.
``Oh, oh, looks like an emergency to me,'' the motherly cashier says. In one swift motion, she extracts the prized possession, runs her wand over it and hands it back to the stunned toddler before the howls have a chance to start.
``Now that wasn't so bad, was it?'' she asks. The toddler smiles, the grandparents exchange relieved glances and everyone leaves happy.
- Jo-Ann Clegg
10:12 p.m. - Boardwalk at 17th Street.
In their heydey, The Beatles revered Bob Dylan. So it's a little more than ironic that, as an enthusiastic, standing-room-only crowd surges out of a concert by a Beatles tribute band a few blocks away, it passes the outdoor screening of a Dylan documentary film - where a lone couple are the only ones sitting in front of the oversized screen.
- Matthew Bowers
Tuesday, June 11
11 a.m. - Nimmo United Methodist Church.
Although the day had started out with promises of good weather, the skies have recently opened and a downpour falls over the Sandbridge area as scores of mourners make their way into the old country church for Judge Richard Kellam's funeral service.
``Somehow it seems right for such as a sad moment,'' a passerby observes.
``He certainly was a fine man.''
- Jo-Ann Clegg
11 a.m. - Voting precinct at Windsor Woods Elementary School.
The man is voting in one of several booths, but appears to be taking a long time. One of the poll workers moseys over to ask if everything is OK. ``I have to study the ballot,'' the man says.
``There are only two people on the ballot,'' the poll worker counters.
- Carole O'Keefe
Wednesday, June 12
3 p.m. - South Plaza Trail.
A former convenience store turned police goodwill outlet turned, briefly, a decorator's shop has a new sign in the window announcing a new business will be, ``comming soon.''
A few hundred feet away sits an automobile with a ``for sell'' sign in its window.
- Carole O'Keefe
4 p.m. - Kempsville.
Three middle-aged men, all long-time Beach residents, are discussing the city's rapid growth and the changes attendant to that, such as traffic.
One sums up the conversation philosophically:
``You know,'' he says, ``There are few certainties in life. Death and taxes, of course. In addition to those, there are these: If your parents didn't have children, you won't. Everything you eat, drink or touch will cause cancer. And VDOT will always be working on a road somewhere.''
- Gary Edwards ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH
Herb Van Vleek plants liriope in front of the new Harris Teeter
grocery store at Princess Anne Plaza. Van Vleek, who works for
Winesett Nursery in Pungo, was doing the landscaping on Thursday.
The store is scheduled to open this Wednesday. by CNB