
DATE: Sunday, August 3, 1997                TAG: 9708010336

SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS     PAGE: 02   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth 

SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan 

                                            LENGTH:   70 lines

PORTSMOUTH GATHERINGS ATTRACT ALL SORTS OF FOLKS

Portsmouth people do love a party.

The Chamber's annual seafood outing at the Coast Guard Support Base Wednesday attracted about 2,500 people. Threatening clouds all day and even some rain did not deter them.

A few weeks ago, the annual Portsmouth Rotary Club barbecue on the Tidewater Community College campus drew a similar crowd.

Any night and especially Thursday nights at Portside, when the bands play, the people gather.

At all of these places, people come from all walks of life, all parts of the city. They're young and old, rich and poor, black and white.

The food at the Chamber and Rotary outings always is pretty good, considering the caterers are preparing it in such large quantities and serving it in all kinds of weather. But, if you only want to go out to eat, there are nicer, easier ways to do it. So scratch the food as the attraction.

The live music always is good. Portsmouth-born Bill Deal and Ammon Tharp played for the Chamber event. But that's simply an added attraction.

Is it the beer trucks? I don't think so. You can drink beer anywhere. Besides, I bet there were a lot of folks out there Wednesday whose drink of choice was Diet Coke.

Why are we drawn to these events? Some people call it networking and see the outing as a business event. To some extent, that's true. Businesses see the Chamber outing as a business opportunity. Many set up booths to tout their services. Others donate items and services for a silent auction that adds another dimension to the event. I left before the bidding was over so I don't know whether I bought everything or nothing, but I guess I'll find out this week.

For the average Portsmouth person, it's all part of community. They seem to enjoy eating outside with other people - even if they don't know them and don't even have any conversation much with them.

Recently, I've seen more and more young people at these events whom I have never seen anywhere else. In fact, at the Rotary barbecue Jimmy Smith, a Portsmouth-born Olde Town resident, and I were talking about how many people we did NOT know - and he and I between us know a heck of a lot of people here.

We decided we didn't know many of them because they are not involved in the city in any other way.

It set me to thinking about the need here for more involvement and leadership in the community - especially by younger people. Portsmouth's volunteers too often are all gray-headed and there doesn't seem to be much desire to volunteer and lead among younger people.

That's not to say all young people are indifferent to community needs. We do have many who volunteer and work hard to make projects work. But we don't have enough.

I love the community fellowship of the outings - both big like the Chamber do and small like Tuesday night at Portside. The friendliness that spills over to strangers is very important to the city's image.

Now we need to take it all a step farther to more involvement and volunteer contributions. Anybody got any ideas about how we can get this enjoyment of the parties and fellow citizens to translate into work for the community? ILLUSTRATION: FEEDING 2,500

Bill Moody of Doughtie's Food Service said Wednesday's crowd

consumed the following:

650 lbs. of steamed shrimp

600 lbs. of fried fish

400 lbs. of chicken

350 lbs. of Cole slaw

275 lbs. of baked beans

240 lbs. of hush puppies

24 gallons of cocktail sauce

16 gallons of tartar sauce