DATE: Friday, August 8, 1997                TAG: 9708060144

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 02   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:  106 lines

TOWN TALK

The ``Taste of Chesapeake'' cookbook should be on sale just in time for Thanksgiving.

The cookbook, produced by the the women's division of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce - Chesapeake, is a collection of Chesapeake's favorite recipes, sprinkled with biographies of some of Chesapeake's leading women. The women's division plans to sell the cookbooks for $10 each.

Just in time to give you ideas what to do with those left-overs.

- Liz Szabo Powder-room coup

Maybe it's not a feminist victory. But it's a definite advance for women's rights. Or at least, an advance in the line to the ladies' powder room at the soon to be completed Chesapeake Conference Center.

``We've got potty parity in the restrooms,'' said general manager Bill Lindley. ``We've got twice as many toilets in the women's room as in the men's room.''

The $9 million conference center is on schedule for its Sept. 1 opening, with about 85 percent of work completed.

- Liz Szabo Grassroots movement

Recently on one of those 100 degree July afternoons, a pick-up truck pulled up to the intersection at Battlefield and Cedar Road. Packed into the cab shoulder to shoulder were three tired, sweaty looking hombres who looked like they had spent the day plowing the back forty.

When the light changed and they pulled away, the sign on their trailer indicated what the threesome had really been up to, and it was a close guess.

Instead of plowing, ``The Crew Cut'' landscaping service had obviously been mowing the back forty.

- Susan Smith Faith rains down

The recent tornado that swept through South Norfolk tested the faith of many. Amongst those tried, were participants and staff of the joint Vacation Bible School held by Portlock United Methodist Church and Chesapeake Avenue United Methodist Church.

When the twister hit town, during the last half hour of the Bible school classes that day, church leaders herded children and teachers into a safe spot at Portlock church.

``We gathered everyone in the vestibule of the church, away from the doors and windows,'' said Jennifer Andrews, one of the Bible school leaders. ``We sang the songs we'd been learning all week.

``It was a powerful feeling to sing `They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love' as the wind and rain pounded away outside.''

- Betsy Matthews Wright Keeping the faith

She better move the car, Lillie Sloan thought.

The television said a storm was coming, and she didn't want her son's blue Jeep to get caught in the weather. But when she went outside onto Liberty Street, she was blown away at what she saw.

Actually, the car wash next door was blown away. Literally.

The twister that visited South Norfolk on July 24 had parked at the car wash, next to the house of Sloan's cousin. The brick car wash was destroyed. But the house was virtually untouched, as the twister veered off in another direction.

Sloan, who watched the swirling dark grey funnel cloud, couldn't believe that the twister could wreak such havoc right next door, but spare the house.

``I was like, did this really happen,'' she said. ``I know one thing . . . it makes me believe that He can perform miracles.''

- Lewis Krauskopf Where's Dorothy?

The Tin Man survived.

The tornado sent by Tropical Storm Danny leveled a storage shed at Townsend Brothers fuel company in South Norfolk, but one of the company's most-prized possessions escaped the twister mostly intact.

The sheet-metal shed had been lifted a foot off the ground by the twister, according to Robert Bell, a Townsend Brothers driver, who witnessed the episode from the office 20 feet away. The storm turned it into scrap metal.

The company mascot, a 20-year-old tin man that the Townsend Brothers employees constructed from spare metal parts, had been in the shed.

Miraculously, the Tin Man was OK - although his right leg was severed below the knee.

With a Tin Man and tornado, Bell continued the ``Wizard of Oz'' theme.

``Just call me Toto,'' he said.

- Lewis Krauskopf Diner fit for a King

When Cindy and Cosmo Walker opened their Western Branch eatery, Cosmo's Diner, in June, they expected some of their clientele to be drawn to the establishment out of nostalgia.

But it was the Walkers who were pleasantly surprised when Elvis, the king himself, walked into their restaurant the other day.

``He just came in, sat down and ordered dinner,'' Cindy Walker said.

No, aliens didn't land in the Cosmo's Diner parking lot and release the King from their clutches, this Elvis was none other than South Norfolk singer and King impersonator, Sterling Riggs, a winner at the 1996 Elvis Is Everywhere festival.

Riggs and his entourage of fans thought the diner would be the perfect place to advertise Riggs' services as a performer . . . and maybe grab a bite.

But if you're thinking Riggs ordered a fried peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwich, think again.

``I had the bacon cheeseburger,'' Riggs said. ``And it was good. It was real good.''

And alas, no one got a free scarf or brand new Cadillac, either.

- Jennifer O'Donnell

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