THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606230042
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SOUTH HILL, VA. LENGTH: 137 lines
Fourteen-year-old Allison Van Dyke could have been speaking for teens in small towns everywhere when she described life in this south-central Virginia community of 4,200 Saturday.
``Nothing really happens here,'' she said.
But something happened Saturday, something many residents could scarcely believe, even as it took place before their eyes.
South Hill, an old tobacco-industry town best known as the place where Interstate 85 and U.S. Route 58 intersect, hosted the Olympic flame Saturday afternoon. For the better part of an hour, the Olympic Torch Relay and its entourage of vendors, corporate reps, Olympic staff members and Georgia state patrolmen made this six-square-mile town Torch Central.
Reaction was best captured by the sign outside Commonwealth Propane, on Danville Street: ``We are Proud!'' the sign said, with ``Proud'' underlined.
The flame, which was lit in Greece, is making an 84-day, 15,000-mile trip across the U.S. on its way to Atlanta. Saturday's journey took it from Richmond to Raleigh. That made South Hill, about halfway between the state capitals, the perfect place for a 30-minute, mid-day break.
A crowd of about 5,000 gathered at Dogwood Triangle Park to await the flame's arrival. Many carried small American Flags. They were entertained by music groups like the Clarksville Squares, who boasted they can take any song, change a few words, and make it a square-dancing song.
The Squares then danced to ``God Bless America Again.''
The flame arrived right on time, hitting the north end of town on U.S. Route 1 at 1:23 p.m. As it came south on Route 1, carried by local dentist John Bass, someone in the park shouted: ``There it is!''
The site of the flame brought cheers, applause, even tears.
``It's heart-wrenching to see your own people,'' said Betsy Sjurseth, who runs the local United Way.
Sjurseth wiped her eyes. So did others who said they were honored that the flame, which could have gone anywhere, came here.
``To do this at home, it was awesome,'' said Bass, a marathon runner who estimates he has run 23,000 miles in a 23-year career.
Carol Van Dyke, mother of Allison, said the town's reaction was rooted in its closeness: ``We're sort of like a big family.''
So were many of the residents of Richmond, at least for a short time. They greeted the flame Friday night, and then sent it southbound Saturday morning.
One effect of events like the torch relay is that while they can put South Hill and other small towns on the map, they can make cities such as Richmond seem like small towns.
That was the case Friday night, when the relay pulled off Interstate 64 and entered Richmond at Broad Street. Ruth Walker of Richmond, with three family members, was there to see it.
Walker saw the evening's first runner light his torch from the ``mother flame'' and then start jogging. She was so excited she hopped in her car and got ahead of the relay again, on Franklin Street.
``I'm all pumped up,'' Walker said. ``We even went to Kmart to get some more film.''
One of the biggest crowds Friday night along Franklin Street was at Laurel Avenue, on the Virginia Commonwealth University campus. As the relay approached, it was obvious that the run is a celebration not only of patriotism, but one of America's other favorite ``isms'' - commercialism.
The relay's advance men were hawkers, selling T-shirts, pennants, plastic rings that glow in the dark. Coca-Cola vendors set up shop and sold 20-ounce Cokes for a dollar.
A man wondered out loud why they weren't selling Pepsi.
His answer came rolling down the street a few minutes later: Coke vans, Coke trucks, Coke motorcycles with giant Coke bottle sidecars.
Coca-Cola is the relay's main sponsor. BMW is also a sponsor, and several of the automaker's finest vehicles rode by. Even Georgia patrolmen were driving Beemers.
The biggest cheer came when a van pulled up and lowered Virginia Wesleyan student Jamie Labbe, sitting in his wheelchair, into the intersection.
Labbe held his 3-pound, 32-inch-tall torch in his left hand. After taking the flame from the previous runner, Labbe turned and rolled down Franklin, his right hand cocked over the control on his electric wheelchair.
A wave of smiles washed down Franklin Street as Labbe carried the torch.
``It was amazing,'' Labbe said afterward. ``There were so many people lined up on those streets. It's hard to explain the feeling.''
The flame moved on to the Tredegar Iron Works, where police estimated the crowd at 15,000, and had to turn people away. The mother flame spent the night at a local Holiday Inn where, according to the joke making the rounds, it had a smoking room.
The flame was on the road again early Saturday. The first torch was lit at the state Capitol at 7 a.m. About 15 minutes later, a van dropped Virginia Beach teacher Rosa Edwards at the corner of Main and 15th, where she would carry the torch.
Waiting for Edwards were about 100 people. Some were students and teachers from her school, Alanton Elementary. Also on hand were members of her church, First Baptist of Bute Street, as well as family and friends. They held signs that said ``Run, Rosa, Run'' and ``Go, Mrs. Edwards, Go.''
Edwards hugged nearly everyone, then touched her torch to the previous runner's, and started up a hill that would have challenged a marathoner. She jogged a couple of blocks, then walked.
Nearly everyone walked alongside her. She finished her leg at 10th street.
``Every time I didn't think I could make it, I would look over and see his face,'' Edwards said, pointing to one of her students, 8-year-old Scott O'Donell. ``All of their faces were saying, `You can do it, Mrs. Edwards.' ''
Edwards was one of 5,400 runners nationwide picked to carry the torch through the United Way's Community Heroes program. She was nominated by Virginia Beach school official Lindsay Shepheard.
``The hardest part was trying to write about Rosa in 100 words or less,'' Shepheard said.
From there, the relay left Richmond, paused in Petersburg, and went south on Route 1, right by the home of John and Mary Cliborne in Dinwiddie County.
A few days before the relay, the Clibornes received a note from county supervisor Lee Nora Everett, asking if they wouldn't mind decorating their property for the relay.
So the Clibornes got up early Saturday, as did neighbors Mike and Linda Bridgeman. They spent a couple of hours putting red, white and blue bunting along the 360 feet of fence that separates the Clibornes' property from Route 1.
``It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing,'' John Cliborne said.
It was for South Hill, too, and it was over almost too fast. After some speeches and some singing, it was time for the torch to go.
But before the flame left, the organizers of South Hill's big day had one more trick up their sleeves. As a fanfare played, 100 homing pigeons were released from behind the stage. The pigeons were brought by a Hampton man, Steve Smith.
The crowd gasped as the pigeons swirled into the sky. In just a few seconds they got their bearings, and began flying east.
As for the flame, it was headed south, to North Carolina. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by LAWRENCE JACKSON, The Virginian-Pilot
Brooke Hawks, a native of Richmond, exalts at carrying the torch
across the Robert E. Lee Bridge in the state capital. Saturday was
the 57th day of the relay to the Games in Atlanta.
LAWRENCE JACKSON photos, The Virginian-Pilot
Rosa Edwards, a physical education teacher at Alanton Elementary
School in Virginia Beach, carries the torch up Main Street in
Richmond on Saturday. Edwards was one of 11 South Hampton Roads
residents who carried the torch on Friday and Saturday. Local
participants were chosen by a United Way committee to honor their
civic contributions.
Fans and friends of those bearing the torch gather along Richmond
streets on Saturday. In the capital, at least for the morning, many
Richmonders celebrated patriotism - and commercialism. by CNB