Suffolk Living November-December 2020

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Daredevils of the field AG PILOTS HELP KEEP THE FOOD SUPPLY STEADY

november/december 2020 • vol. 11, no. 6

2 suffolk living

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37

FEATURE

16

Agricultural pilots maneuver their planes with precision accuracy to plant cover crops and do anything else needed for local farmers.

CONTENTS nov - dec | 2020 11

WHERE AM I? | Think you know Suffolk well? Then see if you can identify this photo.

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

12 In the News

Suffolk’s Brandon Lowe shined in the World Series with the Tampa Bay Rays.

ON THE COVER suffolklivingmag.com

Daredevils of the field AG PILOTS HELP KEEP THE FOOD SUPPLY STEADY

Making a Turkey

22 Want to use a 5-year-old’s recipe to make a turkey this year? It won’t look like the one above, but it will be humorous.

november/december 2020 • vol. 11, no. 6

Photo by John H. Sheally II

editor's note nov - dec

2020

Flying high, hitting far and happy holidays Flying low over fields, power lines and country roads in Suffolk, folks like Justin Davis are working hard to make sure the world gets fed.

Using their planes for all manner of aerial agricultural services — including, in the fall, planting cover crops — ag pilots are among the greatest specialists ever to step into a cockpit.

EDITORIAL

Many farmers in Suffolk use them, and travelers on country roads in Suffolk are bound to spot

Tracy Agnew Editor

some of their maneuvers as they make their rounds.

Jen Jaqua Photographer

page 16.

Jimmy LaRoue Writer

the wisdom of our area’s youngest citizens. We asked chefs ages

news@suffolklivingmag.com

humorous responses on pages 22 to 26 — but we wouldn’t

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recommend using their recipes on Thanksgiving Day.

Earl Jones Marketing Consultant Lindsay Richardson Marketing Consultant Amanda Gwaltney Marketing Consultant sales@suffolklivingmag.com

PRODUCTION

You can read about Justin Davis and his work in this issue on You’ll also find a uniquely autumnal feature that draws on 3 to 11 how they would cook a turkey, and you can read their

You can also read about Nansemond River High School alumnus Brandon Lowe. From the Warriors to the Terrapins to the Rays, he has been hitting home runs for years and helped his Tampa Bay team stay in the World Series up through Game 6 in October.

This will be a unique holiday season in Suffolk as many of the traditional events are canceled and we’re encouraged to limit gatherings due to the pandemic. We urge you, dear reader, to celebrate your holidays safely, joyfully and peacefully, and look forward to the day when we can

Troy Cooper Designer

all be together again.

ADMINISTRATION

you for story ideas, submissions for the Through The Lens and On Vacation features, guesses for

Betty J. Ramsey Publisher Hope Rose Production

We’re always looking for your submissions to help us make Suffolk Living better. We need the Where Am I? feature and any other suggestions you may have. Please send these items to news@suffolklivingmag.com.

God bless, Tracy Agnew, Editor

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

suffolk living 7

SUFFOLK TOURISM presents MOVIES on the Big Screen Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts | 110 West Finney Ave. | 757.923.0003

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8 suffolk living

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

Juried Exhibition THROUGH DECEMBER 4

The Suffolk Art League’s annual Juried Exhibition will be on display through Dec. 4. This year’s juror was Chris Gregson, founder of the artist collective “Constructs” and guest critic and speaker at Virginia Commonwealth University. The first place winner was “Sentinel 1” by Heather Nygaard, pictured. In all, 84 artworks are displayed in this perennial favorite exhibit for artists in the Greater Hampton Roads area. The Suffolk Art Gallery, 118 Bosley Ave., is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Tuesdays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. Call 925-0448 or visit www. suffolkartleague.com for more information.

suffolk living 9

what to do NOVEMBER 18

A Great Dismal Swamp Guided Nature Walk will take place from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Meet the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in a new way — up close and personal!

Enjoy a biologist-led nature walk as you learn about the flora, fauna, wildlife and history that abound in the 111,000-acre wilderness. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for seniors, military and children ages 3 to 12. Reservations are required, and cancellations are expected no less than 48 hours prior to scheduled tour.

Call the Suffolk Visitor Center at 514-4130 to reserve your spot. The tour meets at the Washington Ditch Boardwalk parking lot. Visit www.visitsuffolkva.com for more information.

Great Dismal Swamp Guided Nature Walk

NOVEMBER 20

Downstairs at the Center: Jim Newsom & The Cloudless Sky will take place from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, 110 W. Finney Ave. Jim Newsom is an award-winning singer, songwriter and multiinstrumentalist who was raised in Suffolk and graduated from Suffolk High School — the former life of the building where this show will

Providing the personal touch in a contactless world During these difficult times we are especially thankful for our customers and our community. Farmers Bank is here to serve you and is proud to be a community partner—proving that prompt and courteous service never goes out of style.

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10 suffolk living take place. His new band is called Jim Newsom and the Cloudless Sky, featuring Gail Keller Smith on keyboards and harmony vocals, and Rick Jebavy on drums. The band’s concert repertoire draws primarily from Jim’s catalog of original songs, in particular, material from his three CDs released over the last four years.

Tickets are $17 in advance or $23 on the day of the event. Visit www.suffolkcenter.org or call 923-2900.

GIVE the GIFT of ART

NOVEMBER 21

Suffolk’s citizens, like in most other American localities, have served and sacrificed in the name of freedom. The 60-minute Hometown Heroes of Cedar Hill Cemetery walking tour highlights and honors the graves and memorials of soldiers from Suffolk and old Nansemond County who died in combat during the two World Wars, Korean War and Vietnam War. Advance reservations required. Participants will meet at the porch of the Seaboard Station Railroad Museum, 326 N. Main St. The tour is from 11 a.m. to noon. The cost is $7 for adults; $5 for seniors, military and children. Not recommended for children under 12.

Concert Tickets

NOVEMBER 21

Riddick’s Folly, 510 N. Main St., will host an American Girl program featuring Joss Kendrick, the Girl of the Year for 2020. There will be three sittings at 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Space is limited, and reservations are required. One girl who attends will receive a free doll. Ages 5 to 12 are welcome; all children must be accompanied by an adult. Call 925-0822 or email riddicksfolly@verizon.net for reservations.

DECEMBER 12

The Suffolk Division of Tourism, in partnership with the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, is pleased to present the enchanting animated film, “Frozen II,” at the Suffolk Center, 110 W. Finney Ave., at 2 p.m. Families will love revisiting the adventures of Anna, Elsa, Kristoff and everyone’s favorite snowman, Olaf, in the popular sequel to the highest-grossing animated film of all time.

Admission is $1 per person. Only 100 seats are available, to allow for social distancing in the 530-seat Birdsong Theater; masks are required. Children are welcome to wear their “Frozen” costumes.

For more information, contact the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts box office at 757-923-2900.

Do you have an event you'd like to share?

Contact Suffolk Living at news@suffolkliving.com

Artwork

CLASSES & WORKSHOPS

VISIT Suffolk Center!

SHOP Jester’s Gallery Shop OPEN Tuesday - Saturday 11 am- 4 pm SuffolkCenter.org | 757.923.0003

suffolk living 11

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 card.

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

Go out and enjoy Suffolk!

12 suffolk living

in the news

Lowe doesn’t get ring, but stands out in season, series

Story by Jimmy LaRoue Submitted Photos

B

randon Lowe and the Tampa Bay Rays did not get a World Series title, but his team-MVP season and the impact he had against the Los Angeles Dodgers was one not to forget.

Lowe and the Rays dropped a 3-1 decision to the Dodgers Oct. 27 in Game 6, giving the SoCal team the title, but the former Nansemond River High School star continued his rise into one of the elite players in Major League Baseball.

In just his second full season in the majors, Lowe was the Rays’ most valuable player, hitting .269 with 14 home runs and 37 runsbatted-in. He also hit a pair of home runs in Game 2 against the Dodgers to tie the series,

and in Game 4, hit a three-run home run to help the Rays to tie the series again at 2-2. L.A. won the next two games to take the series.

In Game 6, Lowe had a walk and two strikeouts in going 0-for-3, finishing the World Series batting .125 for the postseason, but that doesn’t diminish what he and the Rays accomplished.

Lowe’s season helped lead the Rays to a 40-20 regular-season record in winning the American League East division by seven games.

In the postseason, Lowe got a pair of hits in a series win over Toronto, and after getting shut out in the hit column against the New York Yankees, he picked up a trio of hits in the

seven-game series win against the Houston Astros to reach the World Series.

In a tweet, Lowe called the Game 4 comeback win by the Rays over the Dodgers the “best game I’ve been a part of.”

It was an unusual season with COVID-19 forcing the start of the season back to the end of July from its normal spring start, and then shortening the regular season to 60 games.

“It’s been an interesting season, let’s put it this way,” said his father and Nansemond River assistant baseball coach Tom Lowe.

“On the road, you stay in the hotel room. It’s not like you’re going out and doing anything.

When you’re home, you’re sitting at home and just waiting to go play, and during the pan-

suffolk living 13 demic, they had to stay in shape because they never knew when they were going to start.”

Before the series ended, Tom Lowe said his son and the rest of his Rays teammates would not be focused on saying they had already had a great season when there were still games to play.

“The takeaway is that it’s been a phenomenal year for everybody, for him and for his teammates,” Tom Lowe said last week before the series ended. “But their goal is to win the last game of the year.”

They didn’t win that last game, but Brandon Lowe likely won’t soon forget a most unique and special season. And there’s a message in how he has overcome adversity through injuries, slumps and now, the disappointment in getting within two games of a World Series title.

“You can never be satisfied with how good you are,” Tom Lowe said. “You know you always have to try to get better, because if you don’t, someone’s going to pass you. It’s a constant drive to get better.”

14 suffolk living

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september/october 2018 • vol. 9, no. 5

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Community Garden AND VOLUNTEERS THAT LOVE BOOKS may/june 2019 • vol. 10, no. 3

suffolk living 15

on vacation

Suffolk Living Editor Tracy Agnew and designer Troy Cooper, who are married, visited the Gatlinburg, Tenn., area in September. Top left, Agnew holds a copy of Suffolk Living and points out some salt and pepper shaker sets shaped like Mr. Peanut, who also hails from Suffolk, at the Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum. Top right, Cooper with one of the many black bears who inhabit the area, although thankfully not a real one. Above, the Gatlinburg SkyBridge at night.

16 suffolk living

Flying a mission to help feed the world Story by Phyllis Speidell Photos by John H. Sheally II

D

rive along a rural road in the early fall and you may see a small aircraft flying low, swooping and turning as it flies a gracefully controlled pattern over fields of mature cotton and soybeans.

No, it’s not a barnstorming crop duster out of early 1900s folklore, but rather an ag pilot flying a mission to help agriculture and the environment by sowing a cover crop. The pilot’s seemingly daredevil aerobatics aren’t just for show. Precise flying is critical in avoiding the hazards inherent to the job — power lines, taller structures and other low-flying aircraft such as helicopters.

While the north end of Suffolk is bristling with business and residential development, the southern end of the city remains rural with most of the city’s 60,000 acres of planted crops, according to Melanie Lassiter, county executive director of the Farm Service Agency. As cash crops are harvested on some of that acreage, cover crops grow up in their place. Cover crops, such as winter wheat, are planted primarily to prevent erosion, improve the soil, suppress weeds and control some diseases and pests.

Tara Williams, district manager of the Peanut Soil and Water Conservation District, explained that putting down a cover

crop can qualify for a rebate for the farmer under the Virginia Agricultural BMP CostShare (VACS) Program that supports good conservation practices.

All of that is important Suffolk farmers, including Bennie Speight, who owns Greenway Farms.

“It’s a time thing,” Speight said. “You want a cover crop in the ground and growing by the time the winter rain, cold and snow comes in. If we had to wait until we finished harvesting cotton and soybeans, we would miss that timing and the cover crop also makes a nice mulch cover.”

Speight, whose farm includes 1,000 acres, used an aerial service for the first See PILOT page 19

suffolk living 17

Agricultural pilot Justin Davis spreads a barely perceptible batch of seeds out of his plane on a recent venture.

18 suffolk living

A crew member helps to load seed into pilot Justin Davis’ plane before a flight.

suffolk living 19

Equipment at the Suffolk Executive Airport works on preparing seed for spreading by an ag pilot.

PILOT continued from page 16

time last year after talking to some farming friends in North Carolina. Aerial sowing allows the seeds to be planted without disturbing the maturing cash crop.

Speight was familiar with the process because his father owned a crop-dusting service in Suffolk in the 1970s. In his teens, Speight loaded the planes and learned to fly. He doesn’t do crop dusting, however, so he hired Craft Air Services LLC from Hertford, N.C. Craft covers coastal Carolina and Southeast Virginia, aerially applying fertilizers, seeds and pest control.

“Times have changed for the aerial crop services,” Speight said. “We used to drive along and spot fields with flags for the crop dusters, but now we send them a scan of our field maps from the Farm Service Agency.”

Justin Davis, who flies for Craft Air Services, has flown precision aerial applications for 48 years. Craig Craft, owner of the service, flies himself and considers Davis “one of the most experienced ag pilots in the industry.”

“Ag pilots are a specialty occupation,” Craft said. “We use only full-time ag pilots — no banner plane pilots or commercial airline pilots.”

On a recent sunny morning at the Suffolk Executive Airport, Davis, after making several passes over Speight’s Greenway Farms cotton fields, returned to the airport. He unfolded his lanky frame from the compact cockpit of a single-seater, turbo-powered Air Tractor #502.

Painted Air Tractor’s trademark bright yellow, the plane can carry 300 pounds of seed, enough to sow about 30 acres of a cover crop

— on this morning, winter wheat.

Davis climbed down from the plane to consult with his ground crewman, Matt Perry, who was waiting to refill the plane’s hopper.

Perry explained how Davis relies on digital maps of the farm fields he will be working, an aviation-specific GPS and real-time weather radar to plot his course.

Through the course of his flying career, Davis has seen ag planes become bigger and more dependable with more powerful engines than the crop dusters that inspired his boyhood dream. When his family broke up, he dropped out of school and enlisted in the Navy at 17, serving as an airman, including a stint on the USS Coral Sea. When injuries cut short his Naval career not quite four years later, he went to flight school in Greeley, Colo., See PILOT page 20

20 suffolk living

Above, equipment at the Suffolk Executive Airport prepares a plane for departure. Below, pilot Justin Davis looks through photos of a plane he crashed early in his career.

PILOT continued from page 19

and went on to earn multiple aviation certifications.

Davis started flying as a crop duster and then, in the 1970s, flew for the U.S. State Department in its war on drugs, eradicating coca, opium and marijuana crops in South America.

While that job might have carried more risks than flying as an ag pilot in the United States, Davis and other ag pilots face hazards daily.

During the busy season, which usually ends around early November, ag pilots work long days of frequent take-offs and landings, countless inflight turns and maneuvers, and low altitude flight over fields bounded by power lines, trees, roads and structures. Davis crashed and burned once, 22 years ago, when he was flying a night run over a corn field in Georgia. An unexpectedly misplaced irrigation pivot forced him to choose between crashing into the metal arms of the pivot or pulling up into rows of

power lines. He went with the former and lived but suffered a broken back and multiple other injuries.

In the following six months he rehabbed, learned to walk again and climbed back into a plane.

“I love flying — all by myself working in the air,” he said. “To me, it’s not work.”

Davis agreed with Craft that one of the industry’s challenges is the number of people who have moved from urban areas into rural settings and are unaware of and intimidated by what the aerial application services do.

“We are well regulated and everything is EPA approved,” Craft said.

“I would tell residents unfamiliar with farming that when they see the ag planes overhead, relax and enjoy the air show — aerial services are safe, “ Speight added. ”All the years I’ve been around it, I still enjoy watching their precision flying.”

suffolk living 21

Top, pilot Justin Davis has been doing his job for more than 50 years. Above, he’s relaxing at his home. At right, Matt Perry is a ground crewman who also works for Craft Air Services.

22 suffolk living

How Do You Cook a Turkey?

Anna Woodward Age: 6 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? We go to the store.

How do you cook a turkey? Put it in the oven for a long time.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving?

Biscuits.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? Play with my cousins.

Cailyn Walker Age: 7 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? My Grandma and Grandpa in Ohio already have the turkey for us.

How do you cook a turkey? They cook it with stuffing in the oven at 15 degrees. It gets hotter because it is raw.

It doesn’t taste good.

So when it’s hotter, it tastes better, especially with stuffing. It takes 3 minutes to cook the turkey.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving? The turkey.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? I usually brush my teeth and go to bed.

Ben Hardison Age: 6 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? We get our turkey from the grocery store.

How do you cook a turkey? We put it in the oven for 2 hours.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving?

My favorite thing to eat is ice cream on Thanksgiving.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? We watch a movie.

Cathryn Walker Age: 7 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? The store.

How do you cook a turkey? Grandma and Grandpa cook it. They cook it at 50 degrees, then let it cool off. It takes 50 minutes to cook the turkey.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving? The turkey.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? We get back to what we were doing, like playing.

suffolk living 23

Christopher Applewhite Age: 4 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? At the store.

How do you cook a turkey? Put it in the oven, get the oven super hot.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving?

Strawberry cake.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? Play with my cousins and watch TV.

Emmette Claire Bartlett Age: 5 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? My Daddy gets it from Kroger.

How do you cook a turkey? I think we cook it on the grill for 10 minutes.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving?

At the end of dinner, we have strawberries.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? Normally we watch a movie.

It’s just Grady and me.

Connor King Age: 6 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? Grandma buys it at the store.

How do you cook a turkey? Put it in the oven for 30 minutes.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving?

Mac and cheese and apple pie.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? Play with my family inside.

Hattie Jane Hardison Age: 3 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? From the cooking store.

How do you cook a turkey? Bake it for a long time.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving?

Cookies.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? Play with friends.

24 suffolk living

Jack Webb Age: 6 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? We buy it at the store.

How do you cook a turkey? In the oven with spices for a whole day.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving?

Turkey.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? Play with my cousins, we play football.

Jaleah Hamlin Age: 8 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? I think from Walmart.

How do you cook a turkey? They put it in the oven on 40 degrees. Sometimes it gets burnt and really hot; that’s when we put it in the fridge. It takes 20-25 minutes to cook a turkey.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving?

Cornbread.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner?

I go play with my grandma’s dog.

Sometimes we play games and watch fireworks.

Jadyn Bushnell Age: 11 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? Food Lion.

How do you cook a turkey? Put it in the oven with seasoning on 300 degrees and the oven uses heat to cook it. It takes 40 minutes to cook the turkey.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving cookies What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? Nap with my dog.

Jameerah Hamlin Age: 5 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? I don’t know.

How do you cook a turkey? They do it in the oven on 10 degrees. It gets brown, some of the stuff breaks off. It takes 6,098 hours to cook a turkey.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving?

Chicken and cornbread.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? All of us gather around the TV, tell stories and sing songs.

suffolk living 25

James Williams Age: 6 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? In the woods.

How do you cook a turkey?

In the oven for 7 minutes on medium heat.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving?

Mashed potatoes.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? Play on my video games.

Joydan Hamlin Age: 10 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? Food Lion.

How do you cook a turkey? In a smoker and 30 degrees.

It cooks and the turkey is a different color, like dark brown. It takes 4 hours to cook the turkey.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving? The turkey.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? We go outside to dance and watch fireworks.

John Cole Willman Age: 3 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? From the store How do you cook a turkey? Get a fire, put it in the fire, and eat it.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving?

Hot dogs.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? Get a treat.

Leighton Baiza Age: 6 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? Harris Teeter.

How do you cook a turkey? Put it in the oven for one minute.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving?

Sweet corn.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? Watch Christmas movies.

26 suffolk living

Macy Hlinovsky

Sawyer Webb Age: 3 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? My dad and my brother found it in the woods.

How do you cook a turkey? On the grill.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving? Ice cream and apple pie.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? Play with my cousins.

Age: 5 Where do you get your Thanksgiving turkey? My momma buys it.

How do you cook a turkey? You don’t really cook it, you just leave it plain.

What’s your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving?

My brownies.

What do you usually do after you eat Thanksgiving dinner? We just play.

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10 great holiday movies

By Titus Mohler

It is that time of year when certain traditions really come to the forefront of people’s minds.

Extended and immediate family members reunite, epic feasts are prepared and blessings are counted.

For many, nestled among those traditions is the one where many sit down to take in a cherished holiday movie.

This is something I really enjoy doing each year, but honestly, most of the films I tend to watch with family around the holidays aren’t necessarily holiday-themed movies but rather all-time favorites that we choose to watch around that time of year, like Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy (extended editions, of course).

But for the sake of this list of 10 great holiday films, I will stick to overtly holiday-related examples as well as movies that feature the holiday season as a notable piece of context in the story. Story summaries and film information comes from IMDb.com.

2006 film directed by Catherine Hardwicke is not completely accurate to the biblical account and leaves out the key context for why Christ had to come. However, it is still a well-made, worthwhile family-friendly film that gets a great deal right about this all-important story that tells what Christmas is really all about.

It stars Keisha Castle-Hughes, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Oscar Isaac.

“MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET”

When a nice old man who claims to be Santa Claus is institutionalized as insane, a young lawyer decides to defend him by arguing in court that he is the real thing. Directed by George Seaton, who also wrote the screenplay based on a Valentine Davies story, this movie is another enduring holiday classic from the 1940s. It was released in 1947. frustrated businessman, George Bailey, in this 1946 film directed by Frank Capra that is an enduring classic. Simply put, this list would have been incomplete without this film.

“IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE”

An angel is sent from heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed. James Stewart stars as that

“THE NATIVITY STORY”

This is a drama focusing on the period in Mary and Joseph's life in which they journeyed to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus. This

“HOME ALONE”

An 8-year-old troublemaker must protect his house from a pair of burglars when he is accidentally left home alone by his family during Christmas vacation. This is the first film that came to my mind when I was forming this list. When this film came out in 1990, I was almost the same age as the troublemaker played by Macaulay Culkin. I loved the film

suffolk living 29

then and still do now. It was directed by Chris Columbus and written by John Hughes. (It’s sequel is cool too.)

raised as an elf at the North Pole decides to travel to New York City to locate his real father. Will Ferrell stars as this man and, together with director Jon Favreau, created a modern Christmas classic out of this beloved 2003 film. It also stars James Caan, Bob Newhart, Edward Asner, Zooey Deschanel and Peter Dinklage.

“HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS”

On the outskirts of Whoville lives a green, revenge-seeking Grinch who plans to ruin Christmas for all of the citizens of the town.

This 2000 live action film directed by Ron Howard features an outstanding performance by Jim Carrey as the Grinch. Before he redeems himself in the end, the depths of his despicableness were hilariously captured in great lines like this one that outlined a planned event on his personal schedule, “Solve world hunger, tell no one!”

“THE SANTA CLAUSE”

When a man inadvertently makes Santa fall off of his roof on Christmas Eve, he finds himself magically recruited to take his place.

Tim Allen, already a household name as the star of TV’s “Home Improvement” when this 1994 film came out, stars as the recruit to take Santa’s place. The movie is directed by John Pasquin.

“A CHRISTMAS CAROL” (1951)

Ebenezer Scrooge, a curmudgeonly, miserly businessman, has no time for sentimentality and largely views Christmas as a waste of time.

However, this Christmas Eve he will be visited by three spirits who will show him the errors of his ways. There have been many different adaptations of this story, but DenofGeek.com describes this 1951 variation, originally titled “Scrooge,” as arguably the movie version to which all others are compared, adding that Alastair Sim is absolutely superb as Scrooge.

The film is directed by Brian Desmond-Hurst.

“THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER” “JINGLE ALL THE WAY”

A father vows to get his son a Turbo Man action figure for Christmas. However, every store is sold out of them, and he must travel all over town and compete with everybody else in order to find one. This 1996 film directed by Brian Levant features Arnold Schwarzenegger in a great role as the aforementioned father.

“ELF”

After discovering he is a human, a man

Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the mail as each other's anonymous pen pal. Many may not be familiar with this gem of a film, but more should be. Released in 1940 and directed by Ernst Lubitsch, it boasts outstanding performances from James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan and features an excellent story that comes to a crescendo on Christmas Eve. Those who have seen Nora Ephron’s 1998 film “You’ve Got Mail” will recognize the story.

30 suffolk living

The market is

Last edition’s Where Am I? We had only one reader who was where am I? sharp enough to I get away with the right answer to the Where Am I? challenge for the September/ October issue.

We don’t even need to do a random drawing! James Powell knew the unusual-looking logo was at Albano Cleaners in Bennett’s Creek Crossing.

He’ll receive a $25 gift card for his guess. See this edition’s challenge on page 11.

suffolk living 11

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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suffolk living 31

scrapbook

PEANUT FEST: In the second decade of the 20th century, the Virginia Theater was located on present-day West Washington Street, according to the Suffolk-Nansemond Historical Society. It offered traveling shows and silent movies. D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” was shown here. By the 1920s, more modern movie theaters were built. This building was eventually demolished.

—COURTESY “SUFFOLK IN VINTAGE POSTCARDS” BY SUFFOLK-NANSEMOND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

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