Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990 TAG: 9005170440
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TRACY VAN MOORLEHEM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The walls are scuffed and dirty and the carpeting is worn. Three pool tables, a juke box and a few video games are the principal furniture. Kids and adults drift in and out, playing pool and exchanging neighborhood gossip.
Mary's Consignment Shop and Game Room isn't fancy, but kids keep coming back for entertainment and for Mary's special brand of tough love.
Brogan, the owner, doesn't allow swearing, alcohol or drugs in her establishment. She doesn't allow two people to sit on the same chair or kiss in public because "it doesn't look right."
"This one four-letter word was used fluently four months ago when I opened the place. Now it slips out and kids cover their mouths," Brogan said.
Brogan opened the game room at 1120 Main St. near Wasena Park in February because she saw that kids got off the bus after school and had nowhere to go. She asked a couple of boys one day if they would use a game room. They told her they would need a Foosball table, pool table and sodas. Two days later, they had them.
Mary's, as they call it, soon became a home away from home for kids and adults in need of fellowship, entertainment and, sometimes, discipline. It's the closest thing the neighborhood has to a meeting place. And it keeps kids off the streets by providing them with a place of their own. It provides a modest living for Mary, but she says she "doesn't get rich off it."
But Sunday, the police came to Brogan's neighborhood pool tournament and told her she had 30 minutes to clear the building of minors or face misdemeanor charges. A city statute prohibits anyone younger than 18 from playing or being in any poolroom. The statute does not, however, define "poolroom."
Brogan says other establishments in Roanoke that have pool tables are allowed to admit minors. She said police told her that even if escorted by their parents, kids are not allowed inside for any reason, not even to look at the second-hand items in her consignment shop.
City Attorney Will Dibling said that he suspects that at one time in city history poolrooms were unsavory places unsuitable for children. Whether Mary's place is "unsavory" he does not know, but he said the director of administration and public safety will look at her entire establishment and decide if it should be classified as a poolroom.
"We want to be absolutely certain that enforcement is uniform," Dibling said.
In the four months since she opened the place, Brogan said, there has been no trouble. She says there has never been a fight and she's never had "quarter one" stolen from her change money at the desk.
Tuesday night, Brogan called a meeting of kids and parents on the front yard of her home, next door to the game room. She said the purpose was to talk about allegations that she allowed minors to drink alcohol in her game room, and to help decide whether she should get rid of the pool tables so young kids again can hang out at Mary's.
About 30 adults and kids from the neighborhood came to show their support.
"There are drugs and alcohol everywhere in the world, but not in that establishment," said Wayne Thomas, a neighborhood parent. "All this lady's trying to do is take care of kids and in some cases adults. The city should be over here giving her an award. If they close her down, the crime rate's going to go up for sure," he said.
Gary Lookadoo, who patronizes Mary's with his three young children, said he often hears other parents say, "For once in I-don't-know-how-long, my kids aren't in trouble."
David Flores, 18, said boredom is one of the biggest reasons kids get into trouble. "There's nothing bad about this place," he said. "Most of these kids would be out causing trouble in their neighborhoods" if Mary's was closed.
Brogan said the kids are not unsupervised, that she and usually a parent or two are always in the game room.
She said that occasionally the tenant in an adjacent apartment will call and complain about the juke box being too loud. She said that she turns it down when that happens.
Other neighbors are against her, Brogan said, because they don't understand the kids who hang out there.
"There is not a bad kid in this world. People who won't listen to kids are the problem, not the kids," she said. "Some of these kids have been in trouble, but they can change, can't they?"
Brogan said she has three children of her own, one with a master's degree and one who will graduate from the University of Virginia on Sunday with a 3.7 grade-point average. "I've always been around children. I would never hurt children," said Brogan, who said that before moving to Roanoke, she managed skating rinks in Richmond and California.
Pam McBride, who lives a couple of houses away from the game room, is not a big fan of Brogan's establishment. She said that having the game room in the neighborhood has "been a disaster."
McBride said she is sympathetic to the need for such a place, but that there has to be more control over the kids hanging out in the area - "the loitering part of it."
McBride has a small child who is afraid of the kids who go to the game room. McBride said she is afraid that if she complains, kids from the neighborhood will hurt her or her property.
"What are they scared of?" said Jack Krueger, 20. "If they'd come around and see or know kids, they wouldn't be scared."
Another neighbor, Kay Gardner, said that she has never had any problem with the game room and she lives directly above it.
"The kids have improved since they've come to the store," she said. "Mary's been the best thing that's ever happened to these kids."
Brogan said that she doesn't know what she is going to do. For now, she is complying with police orders and confining minors to her front steps and to chairs outside.
"The kids need something; they need somebody," she said. "I thought it was me."
by CNB