DATE: Friday, September 26, 1997            TAG: 9709240108

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 02   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:  100 lines

TOWN TALK

How proud is the neighborhood of their own John Curtice, the 1997 Great Bridge High School graduate and stellar high school baseball ace?

Plenty proud.

His Heritage Point neighborhood in Great Bridge was so proud of their own soon-to-be-major-leaguer that the day before his scheduled departure to a Boston Red Sox training camp his street was adorned with, you guessed it, red socks.

Curtice, a lefthanded pitcher, was the Red Sox first-round draft pick and No. 17 overall in the June amateur draft. He was the youngest player drafted during the first round.

Last spring during high school competition, Curtice compiled a 9-1 record with a 0.72 earned-run average and 104 strikeouts.

A letter from ``The Neighborhood Friends of John Curtice,'' which was circulated on Sept. 18, declared the following Friday to be ``Red Socks Day'' in honor of the pitching whiz.

It asked any and all proud neighbors to hang red socks (and those words were even printed in red ink on the letter) on their flagpole, mailbox or whatever to show support for Curtice.

And comply they did.

According to one of our own Clipper spies who lives in Curtice's neck of the woods, the majority of homes along his street and throughout the neighborhood were adorned with crimson stockings.

In short, there were red socks everywhere in Heritage Point. They were spotted on flagpoles, mailboxes, front porch bannisters, fences and wherever else a pair of socks could be hung.

Too bad they didn't hang a pair of red socks somewhere at Chesapeake City Hall. Good luck John, do Chesapeake proud!

- Eric Feber/Deloris Moyler Sweet sound of success

It was standing room only at the Virginia Symphony's most recent Chesapeake concert, ``Symphony Under the Stars.'' Approximately 5,000 attended the concert, said Chesapeake Fine Arts Coordinator L. Randy Harrison.

That's more than twice the number of people who attended last year's free outdoor concert.

``I couldn't believe it - they just kept coming and coming,'' Harrison said. ``They were there an hour and a half or two before the concert.''

Harrison said the crowds who come out to see the Symphony every year at City Park aren't snooty highbrows in formal wear, either. She said they include young, old, families, young couples, grandma and gramps. She said she was heartened to see so many families bring along their children for a fun evening of play at the park's Fun Forest and then an evening exposed to the joyous sounds of a crack symphony orchestra at full speed.

Chesapeake City Park could barely contain those who flocked to see symphony associate director Wes Kenny and the symphony, who are still celebrating their critical success at New York's Carnegie Hall earlier this year.

If the crowds continue to grow at this pace, the parks and recreation department will need to bump up its sound system - or even find more space, Harrison said.

``It was really terrific,'' Harrison said. ``It says that the people here are really interested. We're the only city that gives this to their citizens free. We were more than excited.''

- Liz Szabo Hot off the presses

It may be the biggest thing to hit Chesapeake cuisine since Pepperidge Farms decided to name a chocolate chip cookie after us. Local cooking will be celebrated in a new cookbook, ``Intracoastal Cuisine - A Taste of Chesapeake,'' produced by the women's division of the Chesapeake chapter of the Women's Chamber of Commerce.

The $10 cookbook includes 221 recipes in a three-ring binder, with a cover illustration provided by Janet and Richard Lantz and illustrations by Clipper artist Mark Carey, according to the women's division president Beth Banks.

The cookbook will be on sale from women's division members by November, just in time for the holidays.

Here's hoping they'll have a recipe for recycling fruitcake. . .

- Liz Szabo Not their last supper

Several patrons walking out of Cara's Restaurant in Great Bridge last week did a double take as 11 Episcopal pastors entered the restaurant, clerical collars and all.

But they weren't there to bless Chesapeake's water and rid it of its unholy saline excess. They were there to dine.

The reverends came from Episcopal churches in Chesapeake, Suffolk and Portsmouth and were taking their lunch hour to meet their new bishop, David Bane.

According to Father Michael Jones, rector of Chesapeake's St. Thomas Episcopal Church, rubberneckers are nothing new to men of the cloth.

``We get used to it,'' said Jones. ``Sometimes conversations stop when we enter the room. I guess some people think they can't continue their conversations because they think we're listening.''

While Jones said he's never known the staff at Cara's to be less than exemplary, he admitted he chose Cara's partly for its prices.

``They have several mid-priced items and that's always a factor,'' said Jones.

- Jennifer O'Donnell ILLUSTRATION: Photo

John Curtice

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