MORNING STAR • SEPT. 27 - OCT. 3, 2007
PAGE 15
The tale of a bug, and the woman who vanquished it A friend recently told me that his daughter, who is a sophomore YNN ARKS at the University of Delaware, was happy in the dorm room into which My daughter picked up she moved at the start of this semester. There was, however, one the smashed shoe, but the problem, he said: She had had a tenacious bug was still run-in with a cockroach. “The upside, perhaps, is that it alive. “It was wiggling,” gave her an opportunity to befriend she said. “I had to beat it some of the guys downstairs,” he added. with the shoe.” His story reminded me of my daughter’s encounter several years time the 12th girl picked up the shoe unago at the same university with the same der which it was hiding and, seeing its species of bug, and of the account of that hideousness, screamed. encounter that I wrote for this column In the safety of the hallway my daughspace. Both my daughter and her roomter finally regained her typical composure. mate have graduated, the bug, as you will Something had to be done, she realized, so see, met an untimely end. But the story, I she marched into the room and bravely hope, still amuses: dropped her bowling ball — yes, she has a bowling ball, actually two, at college; that My daughter is not one to scream at explanation is for another time — on the bugs. Rather, she is one to delight in torshoe under which the cockroach was hidmenting the bug screamer with a particuing. larly nasty specimen she has found. She’s lucky that the 12-pound bowling So she scoffed when her college roomball didn’t go through the floor and into mate ran from their dormitory room the room below. “Student killed in freak screaming about a cockroach. But that bowling accident,” the headline would scoffing, when the shoe under which the have read. insect was hiding was picked up, was My daughter picked up the smashed proved to be premature. shoe, but the tenacious bug was still alive. It started one evening last week. My “It was wiggling,” she said. “I had to beat daughter was seated at her desk (dare I it with the shoe.” say studying?) when her roommate Finally, the cockroach was vanquished. screamed. “It was a blood-curdling My daughter sounded the all-clear and the scream,” my daughter told me later. “The other girls returned to their rooms. kind that you would do if somebody was “I might dream about cockroaches coming toward you with an ax.” tonight,” her roommate told my daughter. My daughter whirled around, fully ex“If I do, I’m going to come get in bed pecting to see that character with the ax. with you.” Instead, she saw only the back of her That was fine, my daughter replied. roommate, who was running from the “But, will you be able to walk across the room. bare floor? In the dark? In your bare “It’s a cockroach!” her roommate feet?” yelled over her shoulder. “Kill it!” That — the tormentor and not the This was where the scoffing came in. screamer — is the daughter I know and Secure in her immunity to bug squeamishlove. Of course, once the image of stepness, my daughter sauntered over to the ping on a large cockroach was planted, her pile of shoes under which the bug was roommate was effectively banned from the hiding and picked up a shoe. floor. She stayed in her bed that night, “Mom, that cockroach was 2 and 1/2 even when going to the bathroom would inches long,” she said. “It was huge, and have made her more comfortable. really gross.” Cockroaches are typically not solitary She dropped the shoe and ran from the creatures. “Likely to thrive in large numroom. Screaming. bers of their kind,” says my trusty “FieldAll the to-do brought fellow students into the hall, ready to defend whoever was book of Natural History.” “I think that ‘large numbers’ means in being attacked by that ax-wielding madthe millions,” I told my daughter. “Bilman. One by one they were told about the lions even.” cockroach, one by one they ventured into “I know, I know,” she replied. “You the room to kill it. didn’t have to remind me of that.” One by one they ran out, screaming. I Tormenting, even just a little, is so can only imagine the complex the poor much more fun than being tormented. cockroach must have developed by the
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Daisy Construction to pave intersections The Department of Transportation announces that Daisy Construction Company has been awarded a contract to make improvements at several intersections on U.S. 13 in Laurel. The New Castle-based firm submitted the lowest of six bids, just over $3.26 million. The project consists of patching and repaving the following intersections:
U.S. 13 and Trussum Pond Road U.S. 13 and Sycamore Road U.S. 13 and Delaware 24 U.S. 13 and U.S. 9 Alternate U.S. 13 and Woodland Ferry Road Construction is set to begin in early October, and will be completed in approximately 208 days.
Cailee and Shannon Layton
Sisters to be on Broadway A picture of Cailee and Shannon Layton of Seaford will appear on Broadway Sunday, Sept. 30, as part of the National Down Syndrome Society’s video production to demonstrate that people with Down syndrome can be included in community activities, education and employment. The photo of Cailee, who has Down syndrome, and her sister was selected from over 2,500 entries in the NDSS nationwide call for photos. Approximately 215 photographs will appear in a video production to be shown on the Newscorp Astrovision by Panasonic, in the heart of Times Square. Panasonic has donated 40
minutes of time on the Astrovision in honor of October, National Down Syndrome Awareness month. The video production, coordinated by NDSS, illustrates children, teens and adults with Down syndrome working, playing and learning with friends and family. The Times Square video production kicks off National Down Syndrome Awareness Month, which includes the 2007 Buddy Walk. This year, walks will be held in more than 275 cities across the country, as well as internationally.
Angie Zebley Cell:
228-7653 Office:
628-9000
angie@TullRamey.com
Downtown Seaford 107 Pennsylvania Avenue, Seaford, DE 19973
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