THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 30, 1995 TAG: 9503290180
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS
SOURCE: MIKE KNEPLER
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
On what day in Norfolk's history would you most like to have been present?
How about these: When the Monitor met the Virginia in the first battle of ironclads? At the triumphant return of Marquis de Lafayette? When Princess Anne County became Virginia Beach.
(Oops. Wrong city.)
The Norfolk Historical Society challenged seventh- and eighth-graders to write of their favorite days from the past for an annual contest.
``We wanted to get the kids to focus on something specifically local in their historical studies,'' said William C. Wooldridge, president of the historical society.
``You need to have a connection with your own family and to your community roots before you can begin with your larger state and national heritage.''
That attitude is catching on with Will Cervarich, first-place winner.
Will, an eightth-grader at Blair Middle School, admits to not having liked history very much before his teacher, Paula Williams, required her students to enter the contest.
His favorite subjects are math and science. He wants to become a professional actor.
If a history essay contest is sort of a forum, then something funny happened to Will on the way there. He started to like history.
Will used his interest in acting as the starting point for his research. He likes the Wells Theatre, home of the Virginia Stage Co., and he played a role there, in ``Peter Pan.''
So the date Will chose for his essay was Aug. 23, 1913, grand-opening night for the Wells.
Will credits his mother, Gail, with the idea. His imagination took over from there.
Writing in journal form, Will cleverly wove scenes such as this:
After watching the cigars being made by hand in the front windows of a couple of cigar `manufactories' on Main Street, I mosied over to Tazewell Street to get an ice cream cone from Mr. Doumar's.
Remember, this was 1913, and there were many things downtown that are not there now, or are in different locations.
Seeing huge lines right next to the shop, I asked Mr. Doumar what was going on. `The theater's opening, son,' he said.
Will had himself riding a streetcar, sipping limeaid at the Tea Room at the Smith & Welton department store and watching lumber barges at the waterfront.
He found pleasure in such details, learning them from a book on Norfolk and newspaper accounts.
``The history of Norfolk is the history of lots of little things,'' Will said. ``I like that a lot better than the things we read about in our (school) books, big things like wars. . . . It focuses more on things you can relate with.''
Will's advice for teachers: ``They have to teach the big stuff, but if they could spend a little more time on the little stuff, too.''
Here are the second and third place winners:
Blair's Gillian Field wrote of Ocean View Amusement Park: ``My screams blended with others as we plunged downward on the Sky-Rocket, the famous wooden roller coaster.''
Tiffany Haskins, from Tom Martin's class at Lake Taylor Middle School, chose Jan. 1, 1863, the day of the Emancipation Proclamation:
``The parade was led by a line of hacks filled with black women. Some of the women were dressed in white, the rest in Union colors.''
Wooldridge was pleased. ``If students can get that feeling from their own community and connect to things that happened before them, it will help them see what's going on in current events and over the perspective of time,'' he said.
What day would you choose? It's a good exercise for any of us. by CNB