DATE: Tuesday, July 29, 1997                TAG: 9707290298

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: EASTVILLE                         LENGTH:   49 lines

EASTVILLE PREPARES FOR TOWN CELEBRATION TOWN COURT RECORDS WILL BE 365 YEARS OLD, THE NATION'S OLDEST COURT DOCUMENTS.

The photographer hung in midair in the bucket of a cherry picker, sweat soaking through her shirt. Below, a crowd of happy people fanned themselves with paper plates - each one numbered so the folks could be identified later.

``The trick to this picture is, if you can see me, I can see you,'' boomed Ariel Skelley through a bullhorn into the festive confusion.

Skelley often works as a fashion photographer, but she helped the people of Eastville make history Monday.

About 250 gathered on the courthouse green for her to take their picture. The picture will be buried in a time capsule in September as part of a celebration to honor the 365th anniversary of the town's court records - the oldest continuous court records in the nation.

``It's a big deal,'' said Melody Scalley, one of the event's organizers, about the photo shoot. ``Everyone has been included.''

Only 185 people live in Eastville, Northampton's county seat. But the crowd swelled with those who just work in town. Elected officials mugged at the camera eagerly, as did lawyers, historians, babies, teachers, teenagers, real estate agents, secretaries, social workers, the mayor and a number of old people who suffered in the heat.

The group photo will be one of many buried in the time capsule. Scalley said they have taken pictures of all the offices in town, as well as the sheriff, his deputies and Eastville's volunteer firefighters.

The stainless steel time capsule will be opened every 25 years for each generation of the community to add its contribution, said Scalley. It will be buried in the town park, under a big rock left over from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel construction.

On Monday, the crowd broke up as slowly as it had gathered. Baskets of free, home-made cookies circulated, and anyone who wanted to wait in line got free lemonade. Scalley and Skelley mopped the sweat from their foreheads and marveled at how happy everyone seemed to be. ``Just the fact that we pulled it off,'' Scalley said, ``that's the best part.'' ILLUSTRATION: VICKI CRONIS photos/The Virginian-Pilot

Janet Whitehead, left, and Francis Fischer, both lifelong residents

of Eastville, fan themselves with paper plates as they wait in the

shade to have their picture taken with other town residents for a

photograph to be placed in a time capsule in September.

About 250 gathered on the courthouse green in Eastville Monday to be

photographed by Ariel Skelley, who perched in a cherry picker.

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