Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, October 17, 1994                   TAG: 9410180055
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                 LENGTH: Medium

`MAYBE SOME THINGS DID HAPPEN HERE. SO WHAT?'

Young, rich and exclusive.

Brimming with "all-night parties, all the cocaine you could possibly want, coke whores, paid prostitutes and wild sex,'' according to a book about the legend.

It was where Gov. Charles Robb used to blow off a little steam. Nowadays, when Senator Chuck Robb says he has ``dents in his armor,'' you can assume Croatan put them there. With a jackhammer.

If such innuendo can scar a political golden boy, think what it can do to the innocent, God-fearing, non-coke-snorting populace.

``And it was all somebody's imagination,'' said long-time Croatan resident John McClintock.

``Really, I just don't know where they come up with that stuff.''

The unvarnished truth: Some people used cocaine in Croatan during the high-flying time between 1982 and 1986 when Robb was governor.

The modern-day reality: If the governor hadn't visited, no one would care.

``This neighborhood is no different than any other upper-middle-class neighborhood in America,'' said Rich Dillon, an admittedly perturbed 43-year-old salesman, who lives in the older, wealthier section of Croatan.

``Maybe some things did happen here. So what? Things happened all over the country back then. But to generalize about the neighborhood is pretty irresponsible.''

The south-beach neighborhood has long suffered bouts with inferiority. Bordered by Rudee Inlet to the north and a Navy base to the south, it's not as upper-crusty as Virginia Beach's north shore. The money is new, not old.

The rumors about Croatan's wild side sprouted with the revelation that Robb, while governor, used to spend his private time with some of the neighborhood's more notorious night-lifers.

His associates were diverse: among the many partygoers, some were convicted on drug charges, a few others were granted immunity from prosecution.

And you might say a few of Robb's exploits were inappropriate for a married man. He says it, in fact. He just doesn't say what that means.

The residents don't know, and most don't seem to care.

The people doing the sniffing around Croatan these days are the reporters, they say.

Consider the well-publicized Christmas party 10 years ago, which nearly every resident of the then-burgeoning community seems to have attended. Robb sat on the sofa as a woman snorted cocaine off the coffee table in front of him, the legend goes. A blonde was spotted at his side with her bare leg on the table.

Well, McClintock's wife, Nancy, says she's ready to 'fess up. She was the blonde.

``And I was on crutches,'' she said. ``I sat there with my leg on the table because I was in pain. I still can't walk.'' The part about the woman snorting coke, she said, is fiction.

Dillon moved to the quiet, flashy, secluded enclave in 1988. He liked the neighborhood. It had distinction, not snobbery.

But he hadn't been there a month when the local paper branded Croatan a place where everyone had a BMW in the driveway, a half-million in the bank and a cocaine straw up the nose.

It was the cocaine part that really irked him. He's been reading The New York Times ever since.

Keywords:
POLITICS