Suffolk Living May-June 2013

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buzzzzz Radio memories, drama & a big burger

may/june 2013 • vol. 4, no. 3

“HoLy CoW”

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or Western Tidewater residents, Sentara Vascular Specialists provide convenient access to leading-edge vascular care. Our vascular specialists offer state-of-the-art diagnosis and treatment of blockages, clots, abnormal narrowing, and other disorders of the veins and arteries.

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may-june | 2013 contents EDITORIAL R.E. Spears III Editor Tracy Agnew News Editor Matthew A. Ward Staff Writer Beth Beck Land Staff Writer news@suffolklivingmag.com

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ADVERTISING

Earl Jones Marketing Consultant Michaela Chesson Marketing Consultant Hope Dennis Marketing Consultant

Building a better bee

Chuckatuck couple is working to see if it can improve the hardiness — and therefore the value — of queen bees and their drones. It’s exacting and sometimes painful work.

Melissa Hamlin Marketing Consultant

On the cover:

sales@suffolklivingmag.com

PRODUCTION Troy Cooper Designer

ADMINISTRATION Steve Stewart Publisher

Suffolk Living is published six times per year

by Suffolk Publications, LLC. P.O. Box 1220, Suffolk, VA 23439 www.suffolklivingmag.com (757) 539-3437

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Hometown sound Take the challenge Generations of Suffolk residents grew up listening to familiar voices on WLPM.

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buzzzzz Radio memoRies, dRama & a big buRgeR

Think you have what it takes to tackle this food challenge?

Think again, tough guy.

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WHERE AM I? | Guess the location correctly and you could win a $25 gift certificate.

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GET TO KNOW | She’s comfortable on the stage, but this NRHS teacher spends most of her time helping students find their places under the spotlight.

may/june 2013 • vol. 4, no. 3

Jan Kenny photo

Advertising rates and information available upon request.

Subscriptions are $18 annually in-state; $22 annually out-of-state; $30 for international subscriptions.

Please make checks payable to Suffolk Publications, LLC• P.O. Box 1220, Suffolk, VA 23439

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what to do Through June 6 "The Creative Mark" An Invitational Exhibition of Drawing Location: Suffolk Art Gallery, 118 Bosley Ave. The Suffolk Art Gallery and Suffolk Art League will present "The Creative Mark" An Invitational Exhibition of Drawing at the Suffolk Art Gallery, through June 8. Approximately 20 artists will display work using media such as graphite, conte, charcoal, color pencil, pen-and-ink and digital processes.

Many of the artists included teach at Hampton Roads’ colleges, universities and art centers. In conjunction with the exhibition, there will be a workshop, lectures and a drawing demonstration.

Contact the gallery at 514-7284 for complete information.

Youth Fishing Day

5/16 — B.A.R.K.S. Location: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 213 N. Main St. Suffolk Humane Society will hold a B.A.R.K.S. (Books And Reading for Kids in Suffolk) program from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The program allows children to read one on one to a therapy dog and its handler in a non-threatening environment and utilizes therapy dogs because they are nonjudgmental listeners. Treats for the children and coffee and donuts will also be available. To register or for more information, call Michele Thames at 5383030 or email michelethames@suffolkhumanesociety. com.

5/18 — Beer Bands & BBQ Location: Ruritan Hall, 8850 Eclipse Drive The CE&H Ruritan Club’s 13th annual Beer, Bands & BBQ will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. The event provides funds toward maintaining the clubhouse, an old school that is also headquarters for the Nansemond River Preservation Alliance and Suffolk River Heritage. Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door. The Main Street Band will perform, and event shirts will be on sale. For more information, call Ron at 538-3512.

5/18 — Great Dismal Swamp Bus Tour Location: Suffolk Visitor Center, 524 N. Main St. A narrated bus tour of the Great Dismal Swamp will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The cost is $10 for adults and $8 for seniors, military and children ages 12 and under. Registration is required, and tours depart from the Suffolk Visitor Center. For more information, call 514-4130 or visit www.Suffolk-Fun. com.

5/21 — American Red Cross Blood Drive Location: Sentara Obici Hospital, 2800 Godwin Blvd.

A blood drive will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Sentara Obici Hospital. For more information, visit www.redcrossblood.org.

5/25 — Lake Drummond Canoe Excursion Location: Suffolk Visitor Center, 524 N. Main St. A Lake Drummond canoe excursion will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The cost is $35 and includes all equipment. Registration is required, and tours depart from the Suffolk Visitor Center. For more information, call 514-4130 or visit www.Suffolk-Fun.com.

5/30 — Mingle on Main Street Location: Suffolk Visitor Center, 524 N. Main St. The Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce will present Mingle on Main Street from 4:30 to 7 p.m.

Send us your news To submit your calendar or news item, simply email it to: news@suffolklivingmag.com

at the Suffolk Visitor Center. Enjoy light refreshments and adult beverages while networking with professionals from throughout the region. The cost is $5 for members and $10 for prospective members.

For more information, call 622-2312 or visit http:// events.hamptonroadschamber.com.

6/1 — Great Dismal Swamp Bus Tour Location: Suffolk Visitor Center, 524 N. Main St. A narrated bus tour of the Great Dismal Swamp will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The cost is $10 for adults and $8 for seniors, military and children ages 12 and under. Registration is required, and tours depart from the Suffolk Visitor Center. For more information, call 514-4130 or visit www.Suffolk-Fun. com.

6/1 — Youth Fishing Day Location: Sleepy Hole Park, 4616 Sleepy Hole Road Come out to beautiful Sleepy Hole Park and enjoy a morning of fishing with the kids. Park rangers and a local fisheries biologist will be on site to assist and teach your child about the sport of fishing and about fish species identification. This is an excellent program to introduce kids to fishing, and it’s a popular annual event. For more information, call 9232385 or visit www.suffolkva.us/parks.

6/15 — Great Dismal Swamp Bus Tour Location: Suffolk Visitor Center, 524 N. Main St. A narrated bus tour of the Great Dismal Swamp will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The cost is $10 for adults and $8 for seniors, military and children ages 12 and under. Registration is required, and tours depart from the Suffolk Visitor Center. For more information, call 514-4130 or visit www.Suffolk-Fun. com.

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what to do 6/21 — Suffolk TGIF Summer Concert Series Location: Constant’s Wharf Park & Marina, 100 E. Constance Road Suffolk’s popular Friday-after-work tradition comes back for the season from 6 to 9:30 p.m. The concert series will continue June 21 and 28 and July 12 and 19. Bands will be announced at a later time. For more information, visit www.suffolk-fun. com.

American Girl: Meet Molly

6/29 — Lake Drummond Canoe Excursion Location: Suffolk Visitor Center, 524 N. Main St. A Lake Drummond canoe excursion will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The cost is $35 and includes all equipment.

Registration is required, and tours depart from the Suffolk Visitor Center. For more information, call 514-4130 or visit www.Suffolk-Fun.com.

7/4 — Stars & Stripes Spectacular Location: Constant’s Wharf Park & Marina, 100 E. Constance Road Bring your friends and family, along with beach blankets and lawn chairs, to this celebration of America’s independence.

There will be live music, festival food and, of course, a fireworks extravaganza. The event lasts from 6 to 9 p.m. and is free. For more information, call 514-7250.

7/20 — American Girl: Meet Molly Location: Riddick’s Folly House Museum, 510 N. Main St. This program is recommended for ages 5-11, and attendees will have the opportunity to meet "Molly," a lively, patriotic girl growing up on the home front in Jefferson, Ill., during World War II. The program includes stories, crafts and light refreshments. Participants must be accompanied by an adult.

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on vacation

SL visits key largo

Emily Hillard & Nick Grimsley were married in Key Largo, Fla., on April 6. Their friends and family from Suffolk brought along a few copies of Suffolk Living magazine to enjoy during their visit. Attending the wedding from Suffolk were Best Man Liam Riley, Maid of Honor Brenna Crosson, Lindy Riley, Kathy and Jesse Pruden, Brandon Brinkley, Steven and Kimberly Boone, Rishi and Alicia Sood, Shamus Riley, Megan Eash, Matt and Whitney Coppola, Marcos and Donna Saldarriaga, Pat and Kollette Hillard, Greg and Kathleen Nichols, Daryl Hein, Holly Anne Hillard, Rebecca and Kade Gagnon and Robert and Marie Baker.

Rebecca Keeling Studios photo

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in the news

suffolklivingmag.com

Suffolk Living earns top honor

F

or the second year in a row, Suffolk Living magazine designer Troy Cooper has won Best in Show for design in the Virginia Press Association’s annual news and advertising contest.

Cooper’s design was honored April 20 as the best among all specialty publication entries during the press association’s 2012 Advertising and News Conference and Annual Meeting. He won the same award last year in the magazine’s first year of participation as a member of the organization, which champions the common interests of Virginia newspapers and magazines, offers training opportunities for members’ employees and facili-

suffolklivingmag.com

suffolklivingmag.com

let's get out Picnics, Parks and throwing for Par

powwow

the green edition

TracTors, a Tribe and a canoe ride

Leafy, barky & recycLe-ready

march/april 2012 • vol. 3, no. 2

tates print and online advertising programs for its members. VPA’s news contest is one of the largest in the nation, annually attracting more than 5,000 entries, according to the organization’s Facebook profile. This year’s contest was judged by journalists from the Colorado Press Association.

Cooper’s first-place entry in the specialty publications’ design and presentation category included copies of the March/ April, May/June and September/October editions from 2012. Writing about the entry, a judge stated: “Compelling covers with tightly cropped photos utilizing colored text in unencumbered placement. …

Plenty of great feature story layouts in each

may/june 2012 • vol. 3, no. 3

september/ october 2012 vol. 3, no. 5

issue.”

Cooper also won a third-place award among specialty publications in the page-design category for his layouts in three features: “Farmfresh fare,” “Suffolk High School 90th anniversary” and “Stumpy’s Bikes.”

Cooper and editor Res Spears shared a thirdplace specialty-publications award in the front page or front cover category.

“We’re very proud to have earned these honors after such a short time publishing Suffolk Living magazine,” Spears said. “Virginia has some extraordinary publications, and it’s exciting for our small staff to be recognized among them.”

“I’m especially proud of Troy for his award,” Spears added. “He’s an incredibly talented designer, and we’re blessed to have him leaving his mark on each edition of the magazine.” ←

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suffolk scene

Eggstravaganza

The Suffolk Parks and Recreation Department’s Eggstravaganza was held at Bennett’s Creek Park on March 23, three days after spring officially began.

Clockwise from left: Heather Cameron of Suffolk and boys Joshua, 5, and Zachary, 3; Courtland family Jeff and Amy Fisk came out to enjoy the sun with 1-yearold Easton Fisk; Ursula Baker and daughter Sophia Baker, 5, smile for a photograph with the Easter Bunny; and at the petting zoo are Suffolk’s Olivia Woodruff, 6, and Portsmouth’s Ryleigh Webb, 5.

PHOTOS BY MATTHEW A. WARD

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suffolk scene Suffolk's First Citizen

The Suffolk and North Suffolk Rotary Clubs awarded the First Citizen recognition to Dr. R. Leroy Howell in an April 18 ceremony at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts. Clockwise from below, Marie Baker and Fred Quayle chat during cocktail hour before the ceremony; Dr. Howell and his sister, Evelyn Howell, celebrate after his acceptance speech; Dr. Howell was surrounded by family, friends and employees at the event; Aubrey Myers, Ashley Howell Winslow, Pam Brooks and Tony Brooks enjoy the reception; and Philip Ford, left, president of North Suffolk Rotary Club, and Wayne Scott, right, president of Suffolk Rotary Club, present the award to Dr. Howell.

PHOTOS BY Tracy Agnew

FB-071 Suffolk Living Print Ad May 2013_FIN_OL.pdf

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4/5/13

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suffolk scene

March for Babies

The March of Dimes March for Babies took place April 27 at Constant's Wharf. The event raised money for research on premature birth and birth defects. Clockwise from below, Jennifer and Katelyn Manzie and Holly Byrum prepare to set out on the course; Hillpoint Elementary School assistant principal Catherine Pichon, Joseph Hogue and Hillpoint kindergarten teacher Carol Johnson wore purple for the March for Babies; Kevin, Miki and Kobe Coleman enjoy the opening ceremonies; and the walkers get set for the March for Babies.

PHOTOS BY Tracy Agnew

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on vacation

SL Goes to Aruba

Dr. Robert D’Haem and his wife, Susan, took a copy of Suffolk Living magazine with them on their visit to Aruba in February. This photo was taken at the Grand Hyatt in Aruba.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

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suffolk scene Second-Chance Prom

Project Lifesaver held a Second-Chance Prom at the Planters Club on April 27 to raise money for the program, which outfits children and older adults prone to wander with tracking devices, making it easier to find them. Clockwise from right, Project Lifesaver board members, from left Robert Nelms, Hilary Gersbach, Roberta Powell, Mary Marlins, Jeanne Banks, Mason Copeland and Pam King, show off a scooter the program is raffling; Gus Copeland and Irene Lassiter enjoy the prom; Joyce and Thomas Alba relax at their table; Willie and Mary Marlins take a break from dancing; hopeful scooter winners Mary and Frank Wysocki.

PHOTOS BY Tracy Agnew

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Making Memories for a Lifetime.

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17111 CourtHouse Hwy. • Isle of Wight, VA 23397 757.357.3866 • Mr. Benjamin Vaughan, Headmaster

suffolk living

where am I?

I

n each edition the Suffolk Living staff provides a challenge of sorts, testing how much of Suffolk you really know.

We photograph some location in Suffolk that is readily accessible and open to the public, and see if you can tell us where it is.

If you know where this photo was taken, submit your answer, along with your name and contact information to news@suffolklivingmag.com. If you’re right, you will be entered for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to any one of our partner advertisers.

So, if you know where this is, let us know. If you’re right, you could be a winner.

Go out and enjoy Suffolk!

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building a better bee

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story by Tracy Agnew photography by R.E. Spears III and Jan Kenny

Family shares space with a million honeybees

E

veryone has a job in the hive, even the queen.

While the worker-bees go about tending the young, gathering food, producing energy sources for the winter and even evicting the corpses of dead workers, the queen bee is busy producing more workers.

These hives — actually, they’re white boxes filled with frames covered in bees — occupy a corner of the property around the home of Sean and Jan Kenny. Visitors can easily see the activity of bees coming and going even from a distance that makes a bulky beekeeping suit unnecessary.

But Sean Kenny isn’t satisfied with keeping a safe distance. Lately he has chosen to get up close and personal with his bees, all in pursuit of the perfect queen.

Sean and Jan Kenny are on the leading edge of honeybee eugenics.

The Chuckatuck-area residents received a grant from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to help them breed a superior strain of bees that will be more resistant to diseases and parasites, especially the varroa mite.

The grant paid for equipment and training for Sean Kenny to learn how to artificially inseminate queen bees. It’s a process that takes place on a kitchen table, sans bee suit, under a powerful and expensive microscope.

The Kennys will obtain genetic material from lines of bees known to be more resistant to invaders, propagate those genetics among their more than 60 colonies and eventually create a better bee population in eastern Virginia.

Sean Kenny demonstrates the procedure of artificially inseminating a queen bee at his home. Kenny and his wife aim to improve the bee population in eastern Virginia through their work.

The Kennys didn’t get into beekeeping thinking they would be inseminating bees only a few years down the road. It all started when they met a beekeeper at the Driver Days festival shortly after moving to Suffolk.

For Sean Kenny, it harkened back to a day when he was a kid, sitting on a porch with his brother. A swarm of bees landed on a pine tree right next to the porch, and the boys were intrigued.

See BEES page 22

22 suffolk living BEES continued from page 21

The event apparently had a profound effect on both boys. When Sean got his first hive and called his brother to tell him what he’d done, his brother’s incredulous first response was to turn to his wife and say, “What have I always wanted to do?” Her hesitant answer: “Be a beekeeper?”

The Kennys have become increasingly involved in beekeeping since that first hive. They are members of the Tidewater Beekeepers Association, and he has been a vice president of the organization. Today they have roughly 60 hives spread throughout the Chuckatuck area on their own property and on farmers’ acreage.

The farmers — and their neighbors — love the attention paid to their crops. Joseph and Shelly Barlow get pollination for their community-supported agriculture garden, which raises various produce throughout the year, and they likely get a higher yield on their cotton — which doesn’t require pollination, but it helps.

A neighbors’ apple tree never produced anything until the Kennys got their bees, and now the branches sag with the weight of the fruit. Another neighbor “is always coming over and bringing us blueberries and thanking us for having the bees,” Jan Kenny said.

“It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement,” Sean Kenny said.

Sean Kenny, in a bee suit, works in one of his 60 or so beehives with a smoker in the foreground. The smoke confuses the bees and calms them down while he works. Below, Kenny shows off a honeybee drone on his finger.

But before they can create a better bee, the Kennys must first pollinate the bees themselves.

In late April, they received a shipment of eight queen bees from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, already inseminated with preferred lineage. Each bee is marked with a color-coded cap on her head — her crown, since she’s a queen — and the cap has a code written on it that will stay there for the rest of her life, allowing the USDA to trace her lineage.

Kenny puts the container with the queen into a queenless hive and lets the workers eat away at a sugar plug blocking them from their new queen. Once she is free, the queen — it is hoped — will begin laying eggs that will develop into better bees.

The Kennys will keep detailed records on how the new brood behaves and performs.

He also will inseminate some queens himself.

The queen bee is anesthetized with carbon dioxide and held in place on a microscope with forceps. A syringe filled with bee semen is lowered, and the genetic material is inserted into her abdomen. The process is labor-intensive, but See BEES page 23

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Above left, a queen bee and several workers that accompanied her on the trip sit in a capsule waiting for Kenny to put the queen into one of his colonies. The queen, shipped from Louisiana, already has been inseminated with superior genes that will allow her progeny to be more resistant to parasites and diseases. Above center, Kenny prepares the smoker to calm the honeybees. Above right, he shows off a frame full of bees from one of his hives. Below, he is relieved not to have gotten stung while working with the bees.

BEES continued from page 22

Kenny says his work as a NASA engineer is harder.

Throughout all of this, of course, they hope not to get stung. Honeybees don’t take kindly to people stealing their honey or messing about their hives.

Considering the Kennys’ hives are home to more than a million bees, they have been stung remarkably few times. Sean Kenny is pretty used to it by now, but he hates the thought of getting stung on the face.

Even so, the Kennys harvest the honey three seasons out of the year, selling it at festivals, farmers’ markets, retail stores and sometimes straight from their back door. Some jars they save to sell the following year to allergy sufferers, who say eating the season’s raw honey cures their symptoms. Their honey is not pasteurized, because heating it negates its health benefits.

It is an expensive, time-consuming and surprisingly technical hobby, but the Kennys hope their work will soon result in a better bee in southeastern Virginia.

“We hope to have the area flooded with this kind of genetics,” Sean Kenny said. ←

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get to know

Quiet on the set!

Joleen Neighbours instills a passion for the arts at NRHS story by Tracy Agnew photography by Troy Cooper

Wearing a green print dress and with her red hair piled on top of her head in the typical 1950s fashion, a very pregnant woman, her husband and her two children are watching television in their living room when smoke suddenly starts pouring from the set.

The husband dials 911, and repairmen rush in and stabilize the television, then

transport it to the hospital. The pregnant woman waddles down the aisle after her family, and the four of them watch anxiously and then breathe sighs of relief as the repairmen fix the TV. The pregnant woman was Nansemond River High School theater and choral director Joleen Neighbours, 14 years ago. At the time, she was the theater director at Regent

University, and a student needed a pregnant woman for his film project.

She gave birth a week later.

“I was as pregnant as it gets,” she said.

It may have been one of Neighbours’ more unusual roles. As an actress, she has also had extra parts in movies like “Hearts in Atlantis,” “What the Deaf Man Heard,” “Immortal” and “Navy Seals,” and was See NEIGHBOURS page 28

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Nansemond River High School drama students, with director Joleen Neighbours, top left, show off their trophy and medals following a Virginia High School League regional one-act play competition in 2011.

Neighbours continued from page 26

part of the crew for “Hannibal,” serving as a stand-in for Julianne Moore.

But her favorite role — and the one she likes to discuss the most — is her current one. Her most prized possession is a scrapbook of notes from students.

“I can’t even begin to explain the impact that has when you read something like, ‘You helped me find my voice,’” Neighbours said.

“Sometimes we need to know that, as educators.”

Neighbours entered Elon University to major in vocal performance, which led her to an interest in musical theater. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Elon and then received master’s and doctoral degrees.

The theater program she leads at Nansemond River receives no funding from the school system. It is an extracurricular activity for which the students raise money themselves, through ticket sales, soliciting sponsorships and other fundraisers.

But after a full day of chorus, she still shows up in the auditorium almost every day to lead the students.

Neighbours is so hands-on that she doesn’t even have a director’s chair. She starts rehearsals for a new play on the stage, showing the students what she wants them to do. Then she sits in the audito-

rium’s seats, moving farther back as rehearsals go on. She uses a bullhorn to get her point across from the back row.

The school’s most recent show, “The Little Mermaid,” had an impact on the students when they saw folks who didn’t even have a student at the school showing up to see the play.

“My students told me one of the absolute best things they got was when I was trying to tell them about how the arts can reach kids of all ages,” she said. “Between the performers and the audience, there is such an unbelievable experience of communication.”

Beyond Disney musicals, Neighbours admits her taste is all over the map, from bluegrass to rock-and-roll. In the same breath, she half-jokingly calls early ’90s grunge “holy music” and says her dream is to meet Dolly Parton and have her sing “Jolene” to her.

Even though it was released around the time she was born, Neighbours says she wasn’t named after the song — her mom thought she had made the name up.

Neighbours doesn’t see herself leaving her current role anytime soon. She still has a lot of lines to do.

“I love taking the kids places and showing them life beyond Suffolk — but you can take what you learned and bring it back to Suffolk,” she said. ←

Priorities at The Village—

{ fun is at the top of the list.} At our retirement community, we place a lot of importance on having a good time. That’s why we offer a completely maintenance-free lifestyle, allowing you to never have to worry about cutting the grass, cleaning the gutters, shoveling snow or any number of other chores. This leaves a lot more time for having fun. And there’s plenty of fun to be had at The Village, with delightful people all around, a full schedule of activities and events and fun trips. So come and get a first taste of life at The Village.

Learn more about the maintenance-free lifestyle at The Village by calling (757) 562-3100 or visiting www.villageatwoodsedge.com.

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The Village at Woods Edge

Small town charm. Engaging senior living.

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Small town charm. Engaging senior living.

30 suffolk living

n u o S n w o t e Hom ice of PM was the vo gone by, WL ys da of s nt de or Suffolk resi for . n letters stood the tow n, whose call io at st me, o di le ra n the tow gu The AM in an ode to t” ke ar ows M sh ut lk st Pean ews, ta d broadcast n “World’s Large an 40 19 e ay er D w games . Patrick's and football s started on St de ra d pa om co being vere ive reports fr ssed without pa er and music. L ev n al iv st d a Peanut Fe common, an . store n io at st radio s above a drug on site by the g from office n ti as dc ter la oa It br arted stands.

The station st urthouse now co e th re t, he at righ near Suffolk, w reet, pictured St in downtown n ai .

M th e Farm Fresh ilding on Nor in front of th ch an moved to a bu br T & BB cation of the ation. the current lo the WFOG st h it w g in ol students to ild bu e olk High Scho ff It shared th Su d te vi in equently at right.

The station fr l of the photos ra ve se in as “Uncle Sam en se lar contest w u op visit for tours, p e n O . about curcted contests er questions sw an It also condu y tl ec rr to co ctured asked callers ly Brooks, pi Calls,” which such as Waver s, lk fo r e m ri so ter. Typew te s prizes, on a typewri rent events. A w t, gh ri r r, fa rite oto to the ing the typew at left in the ph shown deliver is n w ro B d mon salesman Ray presentative. dio station re dy and Frank ra a h along wit Hart, Leo Bro ed Fr by d te as star ladys Greene, The station w Roland and G y, le s, d un H l er, Ken Given lks like Ear Frances Joyn , en Butler, and fo ch it K fo e ill B d ther r , Ida Barrett, Baydish worke d E d Helen Spivey an s m illia ars. iams, Betty W n in its later ye Eleanor Will ned the statio ow .

Jr who g s lk un fo ubert Yo 0s. But in the early ’9 many years. H ed ld fo on’t n w io ce existen y, the stat des it was in Unfortunatel ca de e fiv e th ffolk during grew up in Su et WLPM. be able to forg

F

story by Tracy Agnew photographs courtesy of Suffolk-Nansemond Historical Society and Hubert H. Young Jr.

und

suffolk living 31

32 suffolk living

through the lens: troy cooper

D

uring my four years at the Suffolk News-Herald, I have had several opportunities to photograph the face of Suffolk — its events and functions, the presentable, ready-for-the-spotlight side of Suffolk. As a photographer, that is all well and good, a routine and essential part of producing a newspaper. But, as an artist, it is always the behind-the-curtain moments that interested me most. To me, the moments when Suffolk's makeup comes off, its streets are bare and faces are not staring at the camera give the city its personality. To me, these images reflect Suffolk's truest, most intriguing side. It's the Suffolk that I see when I hold up my camera. It is the one that keeps me coming back.

Through the Lens is a monthly Suffolk Living magazine feature that highlights a single photographer’s views of Suffolk.

To have your work evaluated for this feature, email Res Spears at news@suffolklivingmag.com.

Suffolk Living All Year

suffolk living 33

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34 suffolk living

Beefy Challenge The Baronator remains unbeaten story & photography by R.E. Spears III

T

homas “Smiley” Matthews is a soft-spoken, lean young man who works in maintenance at the Robert House Wastewater Treatment Plant in Chuckatuck.

Whatever sort of person it takes to conquer a challenge consisting of seven pounds worth of food, he is probably not the sort that readily comes to mind.

As Matthews sat with a group of friends and co-workers at The Baron’s Pub in downtown Suffolk recently, he was the quietest in the group. There was no bluster regarding the plate full of food that was coming his way, and as he waited at the head of a table of nearly 20 people who had come to watch him take on the Baronator, he kept glancing over at Candice, his wife of seven months, who seemed to accept the situation with something approaching quiet resignation.

Smiley would do what he would do, she seemed to say.

Or he might not.

The Baronator is a gargantuan amount of food — a threepound hamburger patty atop a one-pound bun, with two pounds of cheese, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and other fixin’s, served on a pizza pan alongside a pound of French fries.

“I had not seen a picture going into it, so I was pretty surprised,” Matthews said. “For the first half hour or so, I had some hope.”

But the Baronator has proved to be too big a challenge for all those who have tackled it since Baron’s owner Mike Williams introduced it in the summer of 2009, and Matthews was not destined to be the first to succeed.

“I’ve never been a fast eater,” he said. “If I had a couple of hours, See CHallenge page 35

suffolk living 35

Mike Williams, owner of The Baron’s Pub at the corner of Market and North Main streets in downtown Suffolk, cooks up a burger for the restaurant’s Baronator challenge.

With three pounds of hamburger and a total of seven pounds of food, all served on a pizza pan, the one-hour food challenge is unbeaten since being created in 2009.

Challenge continued from page 34

I might have been able to do it.”

But the rules are clear: Anyone attempting the challenge must finish everything on the plate within one hour without getting up from the table or pay the $18.95 cost of the meal.

“Nobody has ever finished,” Williams says. “One guy got down to one bite and just couldn’t finish.”

Williams hasn’t tried to conquer the Baronator himself, but one of his chefs, Chris Riddick, tucked into one of the burgers — equal to six of the restaurant’s popular Baron Burgers — in January 2010, as two other guests in the restaurant made their own attempts.

All three failed.

“I don’t think it’s impossible, but it’s far from possible,” Riddick said at the time, adding with no sense of irony that the quantity of food on the platter had been chosen because, “We wanted to do something that was going to be realistic.”

Just halfway through the burger as his time ran out, he asked, “Who can eat six burgers?”

Matthews came closer to finishing the heaping plate of food than one might have expected, considering his lean frame. He ate all the toppings, about half of the burger and half of the bun.

The French fries remained mostly untouched.

There are other food challenges in Suffolk — a hot-wings challenge at Buffalo Wild Wings and a breakfast-skillet behemoth at The Egg Bistro, for instance — and Matthews said he might try to conquer one of them one day.

“But maybe not this one, not anytime soon.” ←

“I don’t think it’s impossible, but it’s far from possible, We wanted to do something that was going to be realistic.”

Chris Riddick — Chef

36 suffolk living

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index of advertisers Academy Animal Care.......18 Autumn Care.....................36 Blair Brothers...................36 Bond's Fine Cigar Shop.....25 Bronco FCU......................16 Chorey & Associates.........40 Cornerstone Private Practice..16 The Cove.............................9 Davis Drug........................12 Davis Lakes........................36 D.B. Bowles Jewelers.......18 Denison's...................….25 Drs. Jett, Sellers and LaRusso...9 Dr. Steven Gwaltney, DDS.......24 Duke Automotive..............14 East Coast Homes............25 East End Baptist Church….18 Ellen Drames..................2, 39 Farmers Bank....................14 Franklin Business Incubator...36 Harbour Veterinary Office...36 Home Instead Senior Care...9

Last edition’s Where Am I?

Isle of Wight Academy........18 Ivor Furniture Company….25 Meals on Wheels…..............4 Mega 'Dors........................36 Mike Duman Auto Sales....10 Nancy's Calico Patch.........25 Nansemond-Suffolk Academy...36 Rawlings Mechanical........37 R.L. Howell........................7 Sentara............................3 Suffolk Pest Control............37 Suffolk Public Schools.........9 Triple T Sports..................18 Velveteen Rabbit...............37 The Village at Woods Edge..29 Virginia Fire Extinguishers...18 YMCA..........................8

A few people were able to scope out the location of the statue pictured in the March/April edition of Suffolk Living magazine’s Where Am I contest. Nancy Fowler of Suffolk wins the prize after having her name drawn from among all those who guessed correctly that the gentleman with the binoculars where am I? stands at the I corner of Harbour View Boulevard and River Club Drive, at the entrance to the Riverfront community.

Fowler wins a $25 gift certificate to the advertiser of her choice. For this month’s challenge, see Page 19.

24 suffolk living

n each edition the Suffolk Living staff provides a challenge of sorts, testing how much of Suffolk you really know.

We photograph some location in Suffolk that is readily accessible and open to the public, and see if you can tell us where it is.

If you know where this photo was taken, submit your answer, along with your name and contact information to news@suffolklivingmag.com. If you’re right, you will be entered for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to any one of our partner advertisers.

So, if you know where this is, let us know. If you’re right, you could be a winner.

Go out and enjoy Suffolk!

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38 suffolk living

scrapbook

Working the Rails: R.W. Stripling, J.B. Matthews and R.W. Baker replace rails on the Norfolk Southern line at the Liberty Street crossing in Suffolk, near the Norfolk and Western Station, sometime in the 1970s.

— Photo courtesy of the Suffolk-Nansemond Historical Society

“HOLY COW” Are You Ready To “MOOOVE”?

13.1

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