THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996 TAG: 9603160123
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
Monday, March 4
8:30 p.m. - Food Lion, Shore Drive.
Two lone women stand about a yard apart comparing prices in the coffee aisle when from over on the cereal aisle comes a loooong, vibrating belch followed by male laughter.
The women's eyes meet. They wince.
``Sounds like my ex-boyfriend,'' one says.
- Lorraine Eaton
Friday, March 8
7 p.m. - Kemps River Crossing cinemas.
Movie-goers are filing into the lobby as the first of the weekend's prime-time showings are almost under way.
It's hard to miss the preschooler in blond curls standing in the concession area. She's trying to get her young brother's attention while their father is waiting nearby to purchase refreshments.
``C'mon, let's count 'em,'' she tells her sibling follower.
Standing in the center of the lobby, it's unclear what she intends to number. Another coaxing, and she has her brother in tow heading for the display case filled with yellow popcorn.
She puts her finger to the glass and begins counting the thousands of popped kernels.
``One, two, three . . . ,'' she begins. Suddenly her dad emerges from the line with some 'corn of his own. The youngster never makes it to 10 before she bounds away headed for the darkened theater.
- Kevin Armstrong
Sunday, March 10
4 p.m. - Food Lion at the corner of Holland and South Plaza Trail.
A woman and her young daughter, about, 2 years old, are preparing to leave the grocery store. The woman gently lifts the little girl up and out of their not empty basket to put her into another basket full of bagged groceries.
In the process of switching carts, the woman realizes that ``The Pillow,'' the treasured pillow her child carries everywhere is missing.
``Oh no!'' yells the woman. ``The Pillow's gone!''
``Excuse me,'' the woman pleads to two men in line. ``Do you see a small ragged-looking pillow down there somewhere?''
With looks of concern, the two young men begin searching, but don't find anything.
Getting desperate, the mother whips the cart around to do an aisle-by-aisle search for the precious pillow that she says her daughter has loved and cradled in her sleep for the past 2 1/2 years.
Breaking into a run, the woman steers the cart to the first aisle.
Suddenly, she stops.
``There it is!'' she yells, and takes off down the aisle, heading straight for the threadbare pillow that is stuck up under a frozen food display case.
The woman stops the cart with a screech and hastily bends down to retrieve the pillow.
``Thank goodness,'' says mom, looking skyward.
She hugs the pillow once and then gently passes it on to her wide-eyed daughter.
- Lori A. Denney
Monday, March 11
Noon - Hallway at Pembroke Elementary School.
Two teachers are standing in the hallway outside a classroom practicing their newly-acquired sign language skills.
The school interpreter, Stephanie Parker, pauses to watch and suddenly feels the urge to apologize.
``I'm sorry,'' she says verbally. ``I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I couldn't help overhearing your conversation.''
- Gary Edwards
3:15 p.m. - Lake Pembroke.
One by one, heavy concrete blocks are placed across the spillway to slow the flow of water and create pools for shad to jump through on their way to the freshwater lake.
Building the fish ladder is a joint effort between residents along the lake and city and state officials who want to save the shad. The shad have not been able to negotiate the steep spillway to get to their springtime spawning grounds.
One of the residents has his gloved hands wrapped under one block as it's lowered into the water. Before he realizes it, the block has hit bottom and one of his hands is still under it.
Watching the scene, a state fisheries official flinches and his jaw drops.
The man easily removes his hand. Only the glove is trapped.
- Debbie Messina
Tuesday, March 12
12:30 p.m. - A fast-food franchise on Independence Boulevard.
A couple of construction workers are eating their burgers and talking about the job.
``My girl friend asked me the other day why I was working just four days a week,'' says one. ``I told her I couldn't get by on three. She didn't think it was funny.''
``Yeah, neither does the boss,'' says the other man.
``Oh . . . '' says the first. ``Now I might be in serious trouble.''
- Gary Edwards
Wednesday, March 13
10:30 a.m. - Virginia Marine Science Museum.
River otters Tango and Cash, the museum's newest residents, race around their cage trying to get a closer look, or scent, of a group of visitors.
They stop, poke their blunt, whiskered noses through the cage. Cash grunts. Tango chirps.
Suddenly, all that can be seen are their wide flat tails as the otters dive into the pool for a swim.
The curious creatures return as quickly as they retreated.
They're just in time for a training session.
Museum trainers are teaching the otters to follow a buoy on a stick and to recognize an assigned shape. When they go to the buoy or shape, they're rewarded with smelt, mice and chicken.
The behaviors will be used to move the otters around their habitat when it's finished and open to the public next month and to aid in doing medical examinations.
- Debbie Messina ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Patrick Coyle, left, and Dan Abernathy practice the ``Exhibition
with Arms'' drill at Princess Anne High School. Coyle, 18, and
Abernathy, 17, are members of the NJROTC. Coyle is the commander and
Abernathy the assistant commander.
by CNB