Monday, March 16, 2009
Put on your thinking caps and solve these queries
Tom Angleberger
The New River Valley-based reporter answers your questions Mondays in his column, What's on Your Mind?
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It's time for another installment of Ask The Readers. Think of it as knowledge recycling. Your friends may think you've got a brain full of useless information, but here's your chance to show the world how useful it all is. (Instructions for sending answers can be found at the end of this column.)
Q: South of Buchanan there is a wigwam in a field. Why is it there?
Priscilla Richardson, Cloverdale
Q: Where did the Southwest Virginia tradition of buttering someone's nose on their birthday come from? We discovered that this was not a well-known birthday tradition while having a birthday lunch; friends from other places hadn't heard of it, but all of us from different parts of Southwest Virginia had.
Mike Jackson, Radford
Q: My husband had a letter opener that said Magic City Plating. Does anyone recall where this was and what they did?
Doris Mullen
Q: How do you get the stains out of the toilet left behind by the minerals in well water? I have tried everything including a cleaner made specifically for that, supposedly! Nothing. And when we go away for four days or so, it's worse just from the water standing in the bowl unused during that time. I am hoping there are some remedies out there short of having reached the point of needing to buy new toilet bowls because they look so bad!
Yvonne Baugh, Roanoke County
Q: There was a 19th century home on the location of the present airport. It was, according to a 1950s newspaper article, reputed to be haunted and shortly thereafter was torn down to make more room in the airport. It sat near the control tower if memory serves me right. Can anyone tell me who built the house and when?
Juanita Haley, Roanoke
Q: We used to stay at a very nice motel in Roanoke -- you traveled on a small bridge over a stream where you could feed ducks. Don't remember the name of the motel, but the restaurant was called The Feed Box and it had the best fried chicken our family had ever tasted. Does anyone know where this motel was located and what is there now?
Peggy Clutz, Union Hall
Q: What ever happened to the two old jets that used to be at Wasena Park back in the '60s and '70s? What year were they put there and what year were they removed?
Frankie Bobbitt, Salem
Q: I found a bottle buried in my yard. It was Moonbeam Beverage bottled by Spiffy Bottling Co. in Roanoke. Does anyone know about this company?
Susan Edlund, Blacksburg
Q: What do you know about a candy company that used to be in Salem called Old Dominion? They made the best buttercreams in milk and dark chocolate shells. A childhood friend had a father who would bring her mother a box of these every week. I had the pleasure of enjoying part of the "largest box of candy I had ever seen" with that family on many Friday nights. Does anyone know what happened to the owners or if another company bought the recipe?
L.A. Lewis
Q: On the corner of Mountain Avenue and Third Street Southeast [in Roanoke], there used to be a coal company back in the '40s and '50s. What was the name of it?
Bill Wilcox, Wirtz
Got a question? Got an answer? Call Tom Angleberger at 777-6476 or send an e-mail to woym@roanoke.com. Don't forget to provide your full name, its proper spelling and your hometown.
Look for Tom Angleberger's column on Mondays.
