Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 29, 1993 TAG: 9303290037
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY REED
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A: People are becoming productive citizens there.
Four have gotten GEDs, 10 have completed vocational training classes and several have gone on to full-time jobs.
Not bad for a six-month-old project for young adults who are developing work and interpersonal skills that employers will buy.
This group has been fixing up city parks, including the building that's its base of operations. No one had touched the old museum since the flood of 1985, but this group has cleaned, painted and put in new lighting. The city is about to rename it River Center.
Today, these workers are scheduled to start helping the Roanoke County Parks and Recreation Department build trails in Happy Hollow Gardens, a new park near Bent Mountain.
Thursday, they're scheduled to do some work with Botetourt County, said Howard Bullen, the project coordinator.
The group's name is the Roanoke Valley Conservation and Service Corps, and yes, it's modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps that built parks in the 1930s.
For the people, ages 18 to 25, this is a new life.
Remember that suggestion to make the Lucy Addison Magnet Middle School the new home of Wasena Park's Jupiter rocket - the idea that needed some movers?
The corps members think that's just their line of work.
Bullen, at the Fifth District Employment and Training Consortium, invites questions at 981-2520.
Old gun, few clues
Q: I've been trying to find out what happened to the Bat Masterson pistol that was sold in Roanoke years ago. I never heard any more about the guy who bought it. A.S., Dublin
A: This is a long, cold trail but it did turn up some interesting items. That classic piece of Americana was auctioned from a Roanoke gun collection in 1962. A few months, and two owners, later it was proven to have belonged to the lawman of Dodge City, Kan.
The man who held the gun at that time was Paul J. Pasko Sr. of Palatine, Ill., who had paid about $155 for what he thought was just an old Colt .45 revolver.
Pasko's family says he sold it to Herb Glass, a New York dealer in antique firearms. Glass' son, who has run the business since his father retired, says he doesn't remember that particular Colt.
The younger Glass says the gun might have changed hands as many as 25 times by now.
James Nottage, curator of the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in Los Angeles, says Masterson ordered several .45 revolvers similar to this one. "Even more of them are around today," Nottage said, referring to some fakes with altered serial numbers.
On stationery from the Opera House Saloon in Dodge City, Masterson gave these specifications for the revolver: nickel-plated, short, easy on trigger, barrel about the same length as the ejecting rod.
Colt confirmed shipping the gun to Masterson on July 30, 1885.
Got a question about something that might affect other people too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.
by CNB