The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 13

Chadotte Observer Monday June 13 1988 Section Comics6B )etAll News an Thins reed( reedom Lo Cruising 'I ark Crowd st Polly Paddock i 4 Polly s- Paddock 'Brotherhood Of Slumber 4 -4 --1 -m--7A :04 Pi A 1 i 1 i 4 -13 It 4 1 r7 2-- c1M44(0 1 i 114 il 11 '4a Nia44 4 iiillit 1 A 44-- i I 'fk i' 7' :4 1 1 4 ''A'')! '1'4''' ti 2111 0 It i ii 1 :1 -i eptootommopms-TAA -40 1-7-----''' if! me31pta- ii i 1 gok 4 44 '1 Wi''' By KEVIN O'BRIEN Staff Writer Charlotte police on Sunday began cracking down on automobile cruising in Freedom Park a move that drastically cut attendance angered many longtime patrons and frustrated food vendors Members of the Charlotte Park Service estimated park attendance at 1000 about half the number on a normal Sunday Concession operators reported sales were down by 40 to 50 For the first time park rangers and county police officers prevented drive-through traffic by requiring visitors to park their cars Officers at the East Boulevard entrance advised motorists they would not be allowed to reenter the park once they left "I think this is bull said Rodney Sellers 24 who is black "What they're saying is that when too many blacks get together there's going to be trouble That's ridiculous" A row of 255 orange reflective cones and barrels prevented drivers from parking along the traditionally congested two-lane drive between the tennis and basketball courts Motorists were instead forced to park in the very rear lot near Cumberland Avenue The visible enforcement effort which required 1 I park rangers and county sheriffs deputies pleased a few visitors who brought small children "There was too much in-andout traffic before I like what See CRUISING Page 4B JEFF SiNEREtall Officer Anthony Brown directs traffic through Freedom Park Sunday afternoon From All Walks Of Life Convenience Stores Hit By 1 obberies 5 Stores Within Chain Targeted Within 24 Hours J' 'i-i-f-: '1'f'e'i- j- cs 1s trifiA i -p- 4 1 't'' i '1- AL' it -'-'1- 4 :7::::: -1: I i i zi 4 1 t4' 'rl'' ----z-- 1 v406541a644 1: i i ''-lk--1' 1 i 77' 1 k'' i "1 '41 v' l''- ltt' git1 1 1 -s': 0 IL: 44 a1 I 4 5- '''f :5 vt' i --i' -4 17-0 r- lit" 4 t'--t i-- i' i 1(-'- 4'' 1 0 4' 4 1' ::1:::4:1:::::: -l' 4 4-4'-i" I 1 6z --q5 5 1 :::1 4 1 c- L0: i-1 4- I s10" lii: "0'" 4- 44:74 'Hc's: it 4 i1 1 i 1 i 2: ffr 11' ittv F' r' ofq (i-- 'J'''-' -t 4- 4: t''I''' l''I'' 47- iiit''' '''4 i 4: 11 4 401 ::1:: -'1 i ::4: It: 4tr 1- 1 i 4' i in a 01'9'' p-osr 'r 4 11 111' 1) 'i: ''t 4 'V ''1-17 i 1 1 ''''1Hi': 1 '''-'-''4' i''1' 4-'7' -f 1: ''I'25''r i' )-- 7'' --is 7'2-- -0' 4 4 4 ''1 'i: it j- JEFF EINERStatt Schools Supt Peter Relic (center) was the keynote speaker at CPCC's graduation Sunday By JOHN MINTER Staff Wrtter Robbers struck at five Circle convenience stores within 24 hours late Saturday and Sunday according to Charlotte police reports That brings the Circle robbery total to at least 10 over the past two weeks While the same bandit may have robbed several stores Charlotte police haven't determined that the same man committed each robbery Some stores for example the one at 4804 Monroe Rd have been robbed more than once The latest occurred about 8 pm at the Circle store on Bradford Drive off Hovis Road in west Charlotte Details were not available late Sunday The Circle robberies are part of what seems to be a rash of convenience store robberies in Charlotte "It does appear that somebody out there is doing a bunch of robberies" said Charlotte Police Capt RF Atwell "Like everything else it comes and goes" Atwell said statistics weren't available Sunday to compare recent robberies with other periods But he said "We have had a little bit more than normal" Circle stores have had their share About 11:30 Saturday night a man walked in the Circle store at 6600 Independence Blvd and demanded the clerk open the cash register He took an undisclosed amount of cash The robber did not show a weapon but told the clerk he had a gun About 1:10 am Sunday a man attempted to rob the Circle at 125 Hawthorne Ln by telling the clerk he had a gun He told the clerk to give him "all his money" but the clerk refused and the man left the store An hour later a man pointed a double-barreled shotgun at the Circle clerk at 2626 Little Rock Rd and forced the clerk to give him money from the cash register At 6:15 am Sunday a man robbed the Circle clerk at 4804 Monroe Rd after putting his hands in his pants and demanding the clerk open the register When the clerk responded the robber grabbed money and fled on foot According to police reports the suspect in the 6:15 robbery matched the description of the man who had robbed a Gate service station Saturday CPCC Grads Beginning New Careers '''''17'' --fe 'Alt l''''''' ft6 K-- 11' '-'''-''W tfr'' 1 'Y'''''': -zze! iv 2 i i-A 14::: 1 i :411 mik 1 I 'k 1 1:: ii :::) 4 i 2-i (9''''' 1 i ic 'I kl' k- Ai' $1 1-0 i' :40 4 i y- iv A4 50t- -14 i 41R 4- i k- '7's --k 4 ---1' l''' 'i -Y -0- i' There's something about sleeping people that makes them look so vulnerable so ordinary so human Snoring softly with pillows plumped under their heads and cotton blankets pulled under their chins these 15 men could be anybody Summer campers after lights-out perhaps Soldiers in their racks A bunch of guys at a hunting lodge In fact they are street people Now they are sleeping in a makeshift shelter at Dilworth United Methodist Church And as I spend this recent evening volunteering to staff the shelter I am struck by several things To a man they are polite soft-spoken orderly Nobody appears to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs no one is contentious or threatening I'm not sure what I expected to find working the 8-11 pm shift with fellow volunteer Charles Hastings a local architect What I do find is a group of ordinary human beings folks who may be down on their luck but are nevertheless not much different from you or me An obvious point? Perhaps Yet too often I think we view the homeless among us as something less than human creatures we can look right through when we encounter them on the street Now watching them prepare for bed I can't do that They wash up in the men's room place their shoes neatly under their cots maybe go outside for one last cigarette or sprawl on their cots to read a bit Gratitude Abounds "Thanks" one young man says when I offer him a smoke on the steps "And thanks" he adds gesturing toward the air-conditioned building "for this" I have nothing to do with the shelter of course It's one of two temporary shelters now operating in Charlotte the other with beds for 51 men is in the United Way auditorium The Salvation Army houses about 35 men each night and provides breakfast and lunch for many others Rebound an alcoholic rehabilitation program for the homeless houses another 20 The Dilworth Methodist and United Way shelters will operate until July 31 A permanent shelter is scheduled to open on North Tryon Street in late November or early December No one is certain what will happen in the interim But for now local church congregations are providing the manpower to keep the temporary shelters open At Dilworth Methodist for example St Peter's Catholic provides workers for Monday nights the Unitarian Church and First Methodist take over on Tuesdays Other church members drive vans which pick the men up at the Salvation Army after supper and return them for breakfast Mon day's drivers are from the Central Church of God for example: Tuesday's are from Christ Episcopal Volunteers Needed "We have wonderful volunteers" says April Wilson who coordinates the shelters for the United Way "but we always need more" It's not a difficult job I find Our only real tasks are to call the roll when the men arrive turn out the lights at 10 pm and enforce the shelter rules: no weapons li quor drugs fighting smoking and no returning if you leave No one gives us trouble on any of these counts And lest we forget the pamphlet for volunteers reminds us that these men are our "guests" We should not talk down to them We should not be judgmen- tal We should not force such physical contact as hand-shaking "The only thing they have is their bodies" the pamphlet ad-vices Some will feel violated" By 9 pm most of the men are already asleep By 10 when we turn out the lights you could hear a pin drop We are three blankets short to night I notice the three unlucky men shifting restlessly on their cots You wouldn't think they'd care I say to Charles It's hot after all Charles a shelter veteran says he used to wonder about the same thing "1 hen it occurred to me" he says "that there's a certain degree of privacy in a blanket Privacy is something they don't have much of and maybe it's the least we can give them" 'That and a roof over their heads To volunteer call April Wilson at 332-5121 and leave a message anytime By DAVID PERLMUTT Staff Writer Today Joan Voorhees walks into Charlotte Memorial Hospital dressed in the white scrubs of a registered nurse Sunday she strolled the Grady Cole Center a white commencement robe over her white nurse's dress one of Central Piedmont Community College's (CPCC) 28 newest nurses thrust into the world of medical care At 47 her's has been a circuitous often painful route So has Anne Miller's minus the pain Three years ago she graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in industrial chemistry It took Miller only a year of working for a Greensboro chemical disposal company to decide she didn't like the work So remembering her summer jobs as a hostess and cashier at a Charlotte restaurant she decided on an early career change Inside Joan Voorhees (left) got her degree in nursing while Anne Miller left the graduation with a degree in hotel and restaurant management College Notes Sunday she too became one of the college's latest graduates with a degree in hotel and restaurant management The two women represent the school's remarkable collection of Voorhees is a mother of five grandmother of four divorced and widowed who decided finally to reach for a new life Miller is 25 and single Last week See GRADUATES Page 3B More than 100 colleges across the country have discovered CompanyCollege Gifts-In-Kind Clearing House a unique enterprise that solicits surplus and cast-offs from businesses then finds colleges that need the stuff Page 40 District Judges Enforce Law And An Informal Dress Code 1 4e i i ii Irr11'1777pf txt41 1 t' 1 ii0 pt 'w i 5 y4 4yI: pAs -A K4 -Ng A 1'i- i A 1 I i 4t 115 It: i j'' si i' -A 'l til 5''4 r''' 'il 'J fl'-' :1 "I -k :4 ia t''' 3 "-i' i 1 i i' it 4 1''''e'' :7: f-A -1''' ss 1 1 --19: 4' :4 AJA 1 'k J1 l's- 3f14 i' -7: i 11 it i LI "Warning By order of the court absolutely no shorts cutoffs T-shirts sleeveless shirts or tank tops will be permitted in this courtroom" Previous message outside Judge Marilyn Bissell's courtroom 7' 4 40 Doing the 'Big Apple at New York's Hollywood Club in 1937 are (from left) Dottie Eden the late Bill Spivey Jean Foreman Creighton Spivey Betty Henderson and Kenneth Clarke 1: -1 00''' i'''' 1''' Ad '14-4 By GARY WRIGHT Staff Writer Mecklenburg District Court Judge Marilyn Bissell expects defendants appearing before her to show a little l77717' -7: respect for the judicial i system 14: That goes for the clothes they wear too -r- 41 So Bissell has set down 14:: a dress code of her own fK 'F Last week three signs 9 taped outside her court- room warned: "No 1 cSh ss Or Cutoff Last summer the sign Bissell was more explicit: "Warning By order of the court absolutely no shorts cutoffs T-shirts sleeveless shirts or tank tops will be permitted in this courtroom "If you are not properly attired give the deputy your name leave and get proper clothes and return to court by the end of this session" Mecklenburg's district court judges have talked informally about whether they should impose some minimal dress standards for the courtroom But no such standards have ever been adopted leaving it up to each judge to deal with the annoyance in his or her own way Bissell isn't the only one who sends defendants home to change clothes "I have a rule" Judge William Scarborough says "I will not divorce a lady in blue jeans unless she can prove to me she was married in blue jeans "It does offend me when people come into court barefoot in short-shorts and no bras" Scarborough also sends home defendants who appear wearing T-shirts hearing vulgar 'Big Apple' May Have SC Origins messages "There are children in my courtroom" he explains Judges say they don't expect every defendant to appear wearing suits and ties or dresses "We have the authority to maintain decorum" Bissell says "And I put clothing under that authority "There ought to be some respect for the system Not me I'm not that important But the system demands some respect" Of those who dress inappropriately she says "They either have no respect or they think it's a big joke I just tell them they're not allowed in the courtroom" Bissell says she has seen just about every type of clothing since becoming a district court judge in 1984 Men have dared to come into her courtroom with T-shirts cut off midway up their stomachs and as Bissell puts it "their hairy bellies sticking out" Women stroll into court with shorts cut up the side and other tight or suggestive clothing "I can't figure out how they get into them" Bissell says "They look like they've been poured in You name it It's been in here And the language you see on some of the -I-shirts 6 Ily DAVID PERIMUTT Staff Writer Last month gail Van Buren's advice column included a letter asking how New York got its nickname "The 4 9 Big Apple" In the column she replied she didn't know so she called New York Mayor Ed Koch who didn't know either Finally she asked if any of her A Creighton Spivey of Charlotte and Columbia Mayor Patton Adams think they do So they both wrote the advice columnist "Dear Abby" Spivey's letter starts "I am originally from Columbia SC where the 'Big Apple' dance was originated by blacks in an old abandoned synagogue building "In reading your column I have often wondered if the calling of New York as the Big Apple could possibly be a spinoff of the dance that became so popular See 'BIG APPLE' Page 4B A LI 'L Spivey readers did ivey.