DATE: Friday, June 27, 1997                 TAG: 9706250126

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 02   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   98 lines

TOWN TALK

Another update for those folks eager for a special Chesapeake auto license plate with a design of a fisherman, a sunset and a tree.

Thanks to those who were too impatient, people who ordered the plate will have to wait just a little longer.

The special plates were being offered at $25 a piece through the Special Programs division of the Chesapeake Parks and Recreation Department. But those wanting the spiffy new designed plate, which celebrates the Dismal Swamp, had to wait until 350 were ordered. Then they would be manufactured and made available to proud, outdoors-loving Chesapeake motorists.

According to Gail McClure Bradshaw with Special Programs, they got close. In fact, if some folks had asked for a refund the plates would be rolling out now.

Bradshaw said recently that 44 people thought they had waited long enough and had asked for refunds. Take away those numbers and the Special Programs office still has 306 people who shelled out their 25 bucks and are on the current waiting list. Had those 44 waited just a little longer, the plates would have been a reality.

Just do the math.

``Forty-four people wanted their refunds,'' Bradshaw said. ``Most of them told us they thought it was taking far too long for the plates. . . . Now add 44 to 306 and you have a total of 350, just the target number we needed to get the plates made if no one had asked for a refund.''

Bradshaw said her office is hoping either those 44 change their minds and renew their orders or 44 new plate enthusiasts come forward.

For a special Chesapeake auto license plate, call the Special Programs office at 382-6411. And please have patience.

- Eric Feber Getting better with age?

They say they don't make 'em like they used to. Luckily, some of 'em are still around.

Public school teacher Diane Martin recently put in a plug for music funding from the Chesapeake Fine Arts Commission. The commission was debating whether or not to award Chesapeake public schools $3,000 for instruments to start up a new steel drum band.

It's a great investment, she told the commission. Those steel drums are almost guaranteed to last forever.

Her proof?

Her sixth-grade music class is still using drums labeled ``South Norfolk High School.''

South Norfolk and Norfolk County merged to form Chesapeake in 1963.

- Liz Szabo True Scots Eleanor Unger has true Scottish blood flowing in her veins.

The Virginia Beach resident is director of the Scottish Dance Theater of Virginia and is the president of the annual Hampton Roads Highland Games, taking place this weekend at Chesapeake City Park.

But don't ask her to eat any haggis, considered one of the national dishes of Scotland. Unger said she's tried it and that one taste was enough for her.

What is this stuff? It's basically the innards of a sheep or calf mixed with fat, seasoning and oats and boiled in a sheep's stomach. Sounds yummy, huh?

Unger has an accurate way of comparing its taste.

``I think it makes chitterlings seem like pate,' '' she said.

No wonder there's an event at the weekend festival called the Haggis Hurl.

The event also will feature the foods of Frank Lipoli, a well-known purveyor of Italian foods who will serve Scottish fare this weekend, sans the haggis.

``He'll drop the Italian food and sell tasty Scottish meat pies, sausages and bridies, another type of meat pastie,'' Unger said. ``He loves this festival and has been with us for years. In fact, during the festival, he temporarily changes his name to Frank MacLipoli!''

- Eric Feber A Darling yard

The Chesapeake Environmental Improvement Council's pick for the Indian River area's Yard of the Month is a Darling yard. Literally and figuratively.

The yard is at Mattox Drive and is tended and owned by Jennifer and Keith Darling.

For having their property chosen as Yard of the Month by a panel of Master Gardeners, the Darlings received a $50 gift certificate from White's Old Mill Garden Center, a certificate and a sign posted on the Darling's yard designating it to be Indian River's Yard of the Month.

It seems the Darlings, who say they share the yard duties, have planted both eye pleasing and palate pleasing plants on their side and front yards. Their back yard is the exclusive domain of their dogs.

Around the edges of the sidewalk, the Darlings dazzle passers-by with colors from pansies, pink dianthus, ajuga, ice plant, phlox, sedum and petunias. Their front yard features a small bed of wildflowers and a birdbath. Their side yards bloom with hibiscus, black-eyed Susan, irises, day lilies, Russian and Mexican sage, dahlias and oriental poppies, to name a few.

A small garden in the back is highlighted by an array of mouth-watering edibles including beans, garlic, Vidalia onions, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, watermelon and strawberries. Sounds like a salad bar at a fine restaurant, doesn't it?

Although the Darlings have yet to find a way to keep hungry feathered moochers from feeding on their planted edibles, they have kept their dogs out of the garden thanks to an electric fence.

- Eric Feber

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