Monday, October 22, 2007
Ghosts, legends, defunct companies
Tom Angleberger
The New River Valley-based reporter answers your questions Mondays in his column, What's on Your Mind?
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Welcome, readers, to our first ever Halloween-flavored installment of Ask the Readers.
Once again, I'm turning to you for hard-to-find answers to questions I've received. Some are pretty routine -- apple shopping, dish washing, pie baking -- but some are downright weird! We've got a ghost, a violet ray machine, a spooky house and a Monkey Man.
If you, or your fellow readers, can answer these questions we'll be in for a spooky column next week, just in time for Halloween. (See the end of the column for details about sending in your answers.)
Q: Does anyone know anything about the possible haunting of Valentine House, halfway between Rocky Mount and Ferrum? There was only a pile of bricks there where the house used to stand when I was a kid in the '60s. Many people, including my mom, would see a roaming light that moved about the woods and Story Creek bottom. The story went that someone died in that house ... something about a slave that pushed or was pushed down stairs of the house.
-- Joe Young, Texas
Q: Has anyone out there every heard of the violet ray?
It was a device that crackled and made noises. My stepfather and mother rubbed it over their arms and legs and swore they felt better.
-- Jewel Arrington, Troutville
Q: There is a house on Albemarle Avenue we used to call the "Old Munster Place." I'd love to know the story behind it.
-- Ken McLain, Vinton
Q: We've heard a story about a person in the late 1960s called the Monkey Man who was known to carry a small monkey in his car during Halloween and who had lured and taken local kids.
Supposedly this was a real person, but I wonder if it was an urban legend.
-- Misty Krinn, Roanoke
Q: I have been searching for years for Northern Spy apples. I used to be able to get them on the City Market, but no longer.
-- Suzanne Krueger, Roanoke
Q: I have a 1968 Frigidaire kitchen stove that is wearing out piece by piece, but I am still comfortable with it. Why do we sometimes remain so attached to old stuff? I will appreciate any information about having this item restored.
-- Elizabeth Wilson, Roanoke
Q: Where can I find a jar of Vegemite? (I wanna make a sandwich, mate!)
-- Todd Jennings, Dugspur
Q: I cook frequently, and occasionally my cooking includes summer squash, e.g., zucchini and/or yellow squash. When I cut the squash my knife gets coated in a slimy substance that I would guess is composed of some sort of mix of protein molecules. (I don't know what else could be so slimy.) It does not wash off the knife very easily using traditional kitchen dish detergent and nonabrasive cleaning pads. I am not interested in using any sort of scouring powder or abrasive material to remove it.
Do any of your readers know an easier way to remove this substance?
-- Dan Reichel, Roanoke
Q: H&C used to sell and give away coffee pots. What did the H&C coffee pots look like?
-- O.C. Proffitt, Pearisburg
Q: We found something in my late mother-in-law's kitchen cabinet called "salicylic acid." Google suggests that it helped with acne problems.
According to the label it was packaged by the "S.P.
Hite Co. Inc. in Roanoke, VA." Do any of your readers know about the Hite company?
-- Dennis Mitchell, Salem
Q: Today, I was playing in the back yard and digging in the dirt when I found this old rusted thing. It's a bottle opener, according to my Dad. And it says "John C. Brady & Sons, Big Whiskey Shippers, Roanoke, VA."
Can you tell me about John Brady -- what it was exactly, and what happened to it?
-- Will Landon, Roanoke
Q: I am wondering if you can help me solve a mystery in regard to a claw hammer which I have inherited from my father-in-law. It is a 13.5 inches long, wooden handle, with these words stamped or imprinted on the handle: "Roanoke Star 224 14 in Oct. A E Hammer." I have had and used this hammer for 20 plus years but only recently noted the inscription. Maybe some of your readers will know its history.
-- William H. Pugh, Marion
Q: Please see if you can come up with the origin and history of the use of the name "Shingle Block" as it is used for the name of a long stretch of Virginia 24 in Bedford County.
-- Bernard Meador, Bedford
Q: My question is about what I thought was the first -- or a very early -- Krispy Kreme store in Roanoke. It was located about a block west of Lafayette Boulevard on Melrose Avenue, on the spot of an electrical station now.
This must have been in the '40s and '50s. Inside, you could watch the doughnuts ride the assembly line, etc.
Was it Krispy Kreme, or a forerunner?
-- Rose Hussey, Roanoke
Q: Archie's Lobster House served the best pecan pie that I've ever had. I wonder if anyone has the recipe for that wonderful concoction?
-- B.R. Worrell Jr., Roanoke
Do you have an answer to one of these questions? Or do you have your own question you'd like to ask Roanoke Times readers?
Either way, e-mail is the best way to reach me. Send your responses, along with your name and location, to tomangleberger@yahoo.com.
If you'd rather leave an answer (or a question) on my voice mail, call 777-6476 and be sure to speak clearly. Leave your name, location and phone number. And don't forget to actually leave the information you want to share. (Some folks don't.) And please, please, don't repeat the question. Just hit me with your answer.
Look for Tom Angleberger's column on Mondays.
