THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 19, 1996 TAG: 9610190249
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: 57 lines
An augury of autumn Thursday was the sight of six parents at Norfolk's Maury High School stuffing envelopes with bright brochures announcing monthly sales of citrus fruit starting in November and extending into April.
They looked like they were having fun, smiling, chatting, laughing.
I'd have hung around, but it makes me nervous to distract people at work, especially those laboring for the public good.
First thing you know, I'd have been stuffing brochures wrong side up and failing to seal the envelopes to suit them - envelopes have a way of knowing when an inept hand is processing them.
You can't count the ways my efforts would throw the operation out of kilter.
So I tore myself away Thursday. My role is to consume grapefruit and oranges heroically. Profits from the sales improve the school.
Devouring citrus as a civic duty, I helped send a Maury class on a trip to New York City.
And every time I pass the Church of the Ascension on Newport Avenue in Norfolk, my eye notes with approval the roof my appetite helped repair. It is holding up well. The roof as well as my appetite.
Norfolk Collegiate spruced up its gym thanks to my taking on fruit twice daily like an elephant.
At heart - or stomach - I am a philanthropist. Can't help it.
And a healthy one. My truism goes: ``An orange a day keeps a cold at bay.'' In warding off colds, a grapefruit or orange daily is far more efficacious than an apple.
Just as the fruits of summer are fading, big trucks from Florida's citrus orchards arrive to fill the gap.
When a friend arises with a scratchy throat or a vagrant twinge where he fancies his lungs are anchored, he grabs a citrus fruit for breakfast and before retiring. Works wonders, he says.
For Maury, place your orders by Nov. 8 for oranges, grapefruit or tangerines by calling one of four numbers 441-2223 (an answering machine) or Beth Browne, 489-2350, Mary Barbara-Sykes, 423-6811, or Gene Field, 423-7075. Pick them up Nov. 21 at the west end of the school at the band room on Debree Avenue.
When the truck pulls in from Florida, students from various groups help carry and stack the boxes of fruit. Then they contribute their per-hour pay to a school project of their choice. The Boosters Association also funds a need. One recent donation was to upgrade the computer laboratory.
For the Church of the Ascension, phone 423-6715 and pick up your order on Nov. 22 or 23 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
For Norfolk Collegiate, place orders at the Country Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 26. ILLUSTRATION: My role is to consume grapefruit and oranges
heroically. Profits from the sales improve the school. Devouring
citrus as a civic duty, I helped send a Maury class on a trip to New
York City. by CNB