THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 24, 1996 TAG: 9608260329
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 53 lines
Despite the fire that destroyed much of the Virginia Beach Farmer's Market the night before, Elsie Creekmore was hard at work Friday morning at her stall, Creekmore's Place.
As always this time of year, the 76-year-old Creekmore was shelling butterbeans. Her deft fingers split open the shells and stripped out beans in one sure movement. Around her feet, green pint and quart baskets were filling up with tiny, tasty butterbeans.
``She's shucked right through the storm,'' said a cousin, Louise Capps, who stopped at the market Friday morning to check on Creekmore.
Capps found that Creekmore's Place is one of a handful of stalls on the market's inner circle that did not burn down in the fire.
Creekmore was on the job at 8:30 a.m. Friday, and her daughters, Pat Lewis and Sharon Mosly, were there, too, adding up charges on a paper bag because there was no electricity for the cash register.
Known for her hand-shucked butterbeans, Creekmore had orders to fill - fire or no fire.
Creekmore, who has been with the Virginia Beach Farmer's Market for 30 years, certainly wasn't going to let a blaze keep her from filling her orders.
She is the only remaining tenant of those who moved from the old Farmer's Market on Diamond Springs Road when the city built the existing market in 1976.
In the late 1960s or early '70s, half the Diamond Springs market burned, too, Mosly recalled. Creekmore's Place was one of the stalls destroyed in that fire.
Creekmore didn't quit then, either. She just moved across the street and sold her produce from the shade of several big sun umbrellas.
``When they called last night, that was the first thing I thought of - us getting burned at the old market,'' Mosly said.
The phone has been ringing constantly since then. Folks who had heard the news of the fire on television were calling to check on Creekmore and her old familiar stand at the market.
Despite an upbeat attitude, the Creekmore family all had one underlying concern: Now that there has been a fire, what will happen to the market?
``That sure is worrying me, because I don't want to go home and sit,'' Creekmore said. ``Seems like if you go home and sit, you go right on down.
``I love being out here shelling beans and peas and meeting people.''
And the feeling is mutual. Jane Holt, a longtime customer, was there to purchase Creekmore's fresh shucked butterbeans for a birthday dinner Friday evening.
``It wouldn't be summertime,'' Holt said, ``without coming here and seeing her shelling butterbeans.''
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH FARMER'S MARKET FIRE by CNB