Junk Puts Friendly Road Peddlers on Top of the Heap

--They lounge in front of a pile of junk on a pair of folding chairs and wave as cars go by--a father and son on a self-appointed mission to show that people have not forgotten how to be friendly (and sell a little junk). Clarence and Sam Chapman are fixtures along U.S. 51 on the north edge of Tamaroa, Ill. (pop. 885). Except in bad weather, every day they man their posts outside Clarence Chapman’s dilapidated one-room junk shop. When a car slows down to avoid speeding through town, the Chapmans raise their arms to wave. Frequently, the drivers are puzzled. Clarence, 63, chuckles at motorists’ reactions. “It’s kind of hard to believe, but some places people have just forgotten how to wave and be friendly.” So he and Sam, 36, make friends and barter for buckets, bottles, books and baubles. “It may not be much money, but it keeps us alive,” Clarence said recently. His only son and best friend, Sam, who has a master’s degree in philosophy, takes a more classic look at his days of leisure and waving: “Let Socrates keep his mountain. I’ve got my junk yard.” His father, waving at another passing motorist, agreed. “I see all those people hurrying to get somewhere in their car,” Clarence said. “And I can’t help thinking: ‘We’re having more fun than anybody just a-sittin’ here.’ ”

--Claus von Bulow paid the legal expenses of his two attempted-murder trials with a $1-million loan from oil magnate John Paul Getty Jr., who said he gave his close friend Von Bulow the money because the trials would have left the Danish socialite broke, Vanity Fair magazine reported. Von Bulow was acquitted in June of charges of attempted murder of his wife, Martha.

--Produce manager Dennis Thiel was alone in a Milwaukee supermarket getting ready for the day’s work when he heard a scream. An intruder clad only in a loincloth had just dropped through the ceiling and landed between the onions and the watermelons. Thiel knocked him out. “I don’t know if it was like Tarzan, but it was loud,” Thiel, 37, said of the scream. “I didn’t know if I should slug him or call the police. I guess I sort of did both.” Police said Francis Bredeau, 21, took off most of his clothes and squeezed through a cooling vent and into a crawl space between the roof and a suspended ceiling. Bredeau was charged with attempted burglary.