Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 19, 1990 TAG: 9005190290
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ED SHAMY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: THAXTON LENGTH: Medium
Braving flag-snapping gales that threatened to smash the sculpture into a monstrous pile of roadside fruit cocktail, a small group of people muscled the apple onto a 15-foot pole. A bit of welding and bolting polished off the job.
For decades, the big little fruit adorned the roof of the country store just west of Bedford. It became a lodestar to travelers, a landmark for residents and a conversation piece for all who saw it.
The apple came off the roof in December 1988, when market owner Danny Johnson started renovating the store.
Johnson commissioned Mark Cline of Rockbridge Baths to sculpt a new giant fruit of fiberglass and lumber and lots and lots of paint.
Finally, after 17 desolate, apple-less months, the huge apple was hoisted onto a new perch in front of the market Friday.
At high noon, Kenny Callaway of Bedford and Tony Prettyman of Lynchburg showed up in an aerial crane. They work for ACL Sign Co. of Bedford, which volunteered to help Johnson replace his apple.
Strapped and strung, the 12-foot apple rose slowly and got caught in the steady 20 mph winds. Prettyman grappled with a taut rope, Callaway worked the crane and Johnson teetered on the top step of a ladder, guiding the effort.
Cline kept his fingers crossed that his project wouldn't end in the world's biggest little pile of applesauce.
Johnson was beaming. He calls the apple the biggest little apple in the world. Sure, somebody could build a bigger apple, but nobody could build a bigger little apple, he reasons.
In 20 minutes, it was all over. The strapping big apple once again loomed over four lanes of Bedford-Roanoke traffic.
Bedford County again was whole.
by CNB