THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996 TAG: 9604060108
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Sun Spots
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
1:45 p.m. - Municipal Center, Suffolk
Outside, balmy weather signals spring's arrival, even if only for a visit. Inside, workers want to play hooky.
One fellow employee is at lunch, the man says. And the other one is also on her lunch hour, he adds.
``Oh, and you must have already been to lunch,'' the visitor says.
No, he typically eats at his desk.
``I'd be afraid to go out,'' he says. ``I might not come back.''
- Susie Stoughton Monday, March 25
6:30 p.m. - Wendy's, Armory Drive, Franklin
He chooses a sandwich; she orders a salad from the buffet bar, not knowing it's BYOF night.
``I have to tell you before you order,'' the cashier says, ``that we don't have any forks.''
The day before, a huge crowd of spectators at a sporting event nearby had stopped at the restaurant and decimated the fork supply.
Another employee has gone to Food Lion to buy some plastic forks and should be back soon, the cashier says.
``Do you have a spoon?'' the customer asks.
Yes. It's the utensil of the hour. All around the dining area, customers munch on rabbit food by the spoonful.
- Susie Stoughton
12:10 p.m. - Oliver's Grocery, Holland Road, Suffolk
Sandra Brown just shakes her head and continues to chop tomatoes behind the lunch counter.
She's also heard the rumor but it's not true, she says. Her sister-in-law didn't have the winning lottery ticket after all.
``She thought she did,'' says Brown, whose husband Pete won $2 million last year. ``But she checked and she didn't.''
Brown had just talked with her on the phone.
``Well, maybe you and Pete will just have to show her how to pick the winner,'' the curious customer says before leaving.
- Susie Stoughton Wednesday, April 3
7:50 p.m. Off U.S. Route 13, Suffolk
The couple - he 50 and she not far behind - has finally spotted a place that looks suitably dark for watching the lunar eclipse and to get a final glimpse of the comet Hyakutake.
Gazing into the sky from their very dark spot just off Airport Road, they barely notice when another car enters the area next to a ball field. Is this a popular ``parking'' spot - for much younger people, of course - or are the occupants just more sky watchers?
Oh, they joke, let's just return to our youthful ways. And with our luck, the wife says, we'll be visited by police.
Pulling out onto the road, they pause to let a car pass. A police car.
- John Pruitt Thursday, April 4
2:38 p.m. - Milner's Road, Suffolk
Progress.
You can't escape it. Even in Suffolk.
Have you looked around lately? At Lake Prince Road? At Milner's Road? Even in Isle of Wight? There were forests. Now only carefully planned devastation.
That's progress.
Progress can make a forest look like the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Progress can take that devastation and create homes, Wal-Marts - even the newspaper that you're reading.
It will take the small town charm of Suffolk and turn it into a Beach clone with too much tract housing and too little character.
Remember that Chesapeake used to be a lot like Suffolk. Then progress came.
But at what price for Suffolk?
What is one more home, one more strip shopping mall, one more Western Sizzlin worth - really worth - in the big picture?
What is that worth when compared to the sanctity of life and respect for the other creatures we share the planet with?
If progress can touch Suffolk, then how long will it be before it reaches Holland? Driver? Chuckatuck? Newsoms?
We need to keep those bulldozers running.
We'll need them to dig our graves.
- Mike Kernels ILLUSTRATION: Spring on wings
Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Seagulls flock to dive for worms and seeds that a tractor turns over
as it breaks ground for spring planting on a farm off Route 58 in
Isle of Wight.
by CNB