Seventeen Years Ago in Hampton Roads
Excerpt from today’s Ledger-Star
Let’s take a moment to remember an event that occurred on this day 17 years ago: the day Mt Trashmore exploded. Thanks to Tommy Griffiths and Henry “The Bull” del Toro of WNOR, the only members of the local media with the courage to report the seismic anomalies and chemical irregularities, thousands of lives were saved. Though they were warned of the panic that would ensue, their commitment to truth and public safety set an example for local news to come.
“I told them, ‘The people that live around [Trashmore] are just a bunch of ignorant rednecks who’ll eventually die in meth lab explosions or tractor demolition derbies’,” said WAVY-TV 10’s Alveta Ewell. “‘Saving them will only forestall the inevitable’. But Griffiths and del Toro showed me the true measure of a newsman that day and I have striven to atone for my words ever since”.
Others were not so flattering. “For their defiance of the Council of The Trapezoid [the cabal of local news organizations in Hampton Roads], they should have been thrown into the Pit of Argonzac!” said Jim Kincaid, formerly of WVEC from his basalt tower in Elam, Virginia. “But that dastardly FCC stepped in and inflicted their own mediocre punishment before we could act. Oh, the agonies we had in store for them! When a man spends seven months with a broken back in a Vietnamese hospital, he learns a lot about the peripheral nervous system.”
In closing, we have only to say thank you, Tommy and “The Bull”, for you service to our region.
Keys to the cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach were presented by Mayors Fraim and Sessoms to Griffiths and the del Toro’s widow, Glenda “The Cow” del Toro.
Happy April Fool’s Day to everyone back home.

