Tom Angleberger

The New River Valley-based reporter answers your questions Mondays in his column, What's on Your Mind?

Recent columns

• Topping trees puts them at great risk
• A sweet taste of local history
• What did old railway station look like?
• Readers dish out insights on hang gliding
• And the answers just keep on coming
• Mountain road was closed recently

Readers, every week I work my fingers to the bone bringing you answers. I lift heavy dictionaries, sift through worthless Web sites and hurl queries to the far ends of the earth for you.

Now I turn to you for help. I could wander the streets for months looking for garden tiller parts, pawpaw trees and canned meat spread.

I could ask everyone I know about chicken salad recipes and old pizza parlors. I could set off on an epic quest for Ballyhack.

Or I could ask you, the reader, if you already know about such things.

If you do, please follow the instructions at the end of this column for submitting your answers, which may appear in upcoming columns.

Q: I have an old matchbox with a two-digit phone number on it. How long ago did Roanoke have phone numbers with just two digits?

Betty Willis, Roanoke

Q: There was a restaurant at Towers Shopping Center [in Roanoke] that had the best chicken salad. Does anyone have the recipe?

Joy Jenkins

Q: I live on Ellsworth Street in Northeast Roanoke. Who was Ellsworth and why did he or she get a street named for him or her?

Franklin Sykes, Roanoke

Q: My family has often climbed to the top of Masons Knob in South Roanoke County. At the very top there is a rotten wooden platform that we have been told was used for hang gliders to jump off of in the 1970s.

Some say it caused traffic accidents, others that people were killed jumping there and that's why it was partially dismantled. What is the real story? And who was Mason by the way?

Maxine Fraade, Roanoke

Q: I have tried everywhere for used parts for an old Clinton TroyBilt tiller engine, can anyone out there help me?

Don Stafford, Radford

Q: Where can you find a pawpaw bush or tree? I'd sure like to plant one for my grandchildren to see.

Bill King, Roanoke

Q: Whatever happened to the men who used to deliver ice cream in a wagon?

Cindy Jones, Stewartsville

Q: There used to be a meat spread product available in grocery stores. It was spicy and in a small glass jar with a tin lid. I wondered if anybody would remember the product and if you can still buy it.

Tom Hamilton, Roanoke

Q: Do you know what to do with old encyclopedias, besides taking them to the dump? Anybody?

L. Tarter

Q: Anyone remember the Lyric Theatre Shop where they used to sell a drink called the Green River?

Carol Anderson, Vinton

Q: Was there an area around Roanoke called Ballyhack?

Or was that just a disparaging joke?

Corrine Gravely

Q: Back in the late 1970s, there was a pizza place located in Lakedrive Plaza in Vinton. It was in the little walkway they used to have, and was between Radio Shack and Sidney's. It later became a Little Caesar's. I think they were the first to deliver to area homes (even during the big ice storm). Do any of your readers remember the name of this great place?

Bill Spears Roanoke County

Q: I have my grandmother's kitchen mixer, a Dormeyer, made in Chicago. It's 40 or 50 years old. Where can I find beaters for it?

Theresa Hixon

Note: Things like this can be purchased online, but perhaps we have a local collector who could help?

Q: I am a supporter of the West End Center, located on the southeast corner of Patterson Avenue and 13th Street Southwest. I recall that there was a restaurant/bar in that building in the 1950s. What was the name of it?

Richard Huffman Roanoke

Q: Why are there grills at the rest stops along Interstate 81 and do they get used? I understand the picnic tables, but have never seen anyone using the grills. Do travelers really happen by with some charcoal and a cooler full of shish kebabs?

Marianne Wilder Roanoke

Note: I think I know why they have them. But as for answering the question about the kebabs, I could either stake out a rest stop for a whole weekend or possibly do forensic testing on any grease stains found at the scene. Or I could just ask you. Do you ever use the grills at rest stops and, if so, what do you cook?

If you have an answer for this or any of the questions, I'd love to hear it.

E-mail replies are best. Send your answer, name and location to whatsonyourmind@roanoke.com.

If you'd rather call, please leave a message on my voice mail at 777-6476. Please be sure to speak clearly and tell me your answer first, then give your name, the spelling of your name and your phone number and your answer. You don't need to read me the original question, I'll figure it out. And, please, don't tease me by not leaving your answer.

Look for Tom Angleberger's column on Mondays.