Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 23, 1995 TAG: 9503230055
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETH MACY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
New-wave Big Boy stands tall atop the Star City Diner. So does the Big Man lumberjack who keeps watch over JR's Service Center on Williamson Road.
But in just eight short days, the city known for a neon star, Mini-Graceland and a downtown building once the color of Pepto-Bismol will become one kitsch shy of a load.
It reminds me of my old neighbor Ercil, who took off on his annual trek to the hills of Kentucky one year - and ended up in Indiana. Asked to explain why he got lost, his answer became neighborhood folklore: They'd taken down the Pepsi billboard near Cincinnati, his signal to turn left, and he unknowingly drove smack into Hoosierland.
So it will go for drivers approaching the intersection of Peters Creek Road and Melrose Avenue. Oh, the smell of nearby Krispy Kreme will still waft through the air. And those tinnitus-in-training drivers will still cruise the streets with their muddled, ominous stereos.
But the upcoming extension of Peters Creek Road means that Bill Hite soon will dismantle an icon:
The 1960 VW Bug perched atop his Plaza Service Center garage is coming down.
For 25 years, it's been a beacon to newcomers looking for Lakeside down the road, a landmark for Hollie Collies maneuvering their Beemers back to campus after a dim-sum dinner at Empire Wok.
It's also been a mainstay for stimulation-starved kids strapped into car seats. For them, the orange Bug adds a whole new dimension to the obligatory car-ride game, Punch Bug.
Example: "Look, Susie! Punchbug!" wherein Johnny wallops Susie in the bicep every time he spots a VW Bug. Susie counters by spotting the Plaza Bug first, affording her both a punch and a wedgie.
Hite says the inspiration to elevate the Bug came in '48, "when I was just, you know, not too old. I was in Chapel Hill, and a guy had one on a pole, and I said, 'Some day, I'm gonna have a car on top of my roof.' "
The dream became reality in 1970, when the used-car dealer bought three rusted-out Bugs from a Northeast Roanoke backyard for his son Pete's fledgling VW-repair shop. Pete fixed two of them up, and his dad put the third on the roof.
In the early days, the Bug's headlights flashed at night. A U.S. flag was added later via a pole on the car's roof. The city eventually forced Hite to disconnect the flashers, citing a law that prohibits blinking lights within 75 feet of a federal highway.
But out of patriotism, Hite says, he kept the headlights beaming - even without the blinkers - because "you're not supposed to have a flag up at night unless it has lights on it.
"It took 'em 20 years to tell me to turn the flash off," the 64-year-old says. "I've found that sometimes if you ignore problems, they do go away."
Another for instance: Hite says the city sent him a letter in the early '70s telling him to remove the Bug from his roof. "I never did answer 'em, and nobody said any more about it."
But the Virginia Department of Transportation hasn't been as easily ignored. Hite says VDOT condemned his land on Valentine's Day so it could evict him on March 31 to make way for road construction. Lawyers for the two sides are presently duking it out over how much VDOT will pay the Hites for their land.
Meanwhile, Plaza is moving across the street, setting up temporary shop in the old Firestone building at the Plaza of Roanoke-Salem. Hite says both the city and shopping-center management have made it clear:
No more Bugs on the roof.
He'll eventually move the business to a spot in North Roanoke County where the family owns land. There, he's considering three options: Attaching a Bug to the side of the building in a Spiderman-like pose, re-erecting one on the roof, or hoisting one atop a pole.
As for the motorless '60 model that's riding out its last days beside Melrose, that Bug is already spoken for. Lawyer Marc Small, a longtime Plaza customer, is buying it.
And no, his neighbors needn't worry about it turning up as a backyard planter. Small plans to use it for parts.
Long live the landmark.
THE BEST OF READER MAIL: Roanoker Bettylou West sent this letter March 2 after reading our story on Nannette Morrison's "Echoes of Valor," wherein Morrison claims to have captured on film the ghosts of Civil War soldiers:
"After looking at the picture, you can tell [the ghost is of] ELVIS.
"Maybe, if you look at the picture real good, you will also see it. Then all of the Elvis Fans will know. He is really dead."
Beth Macy is a features department staff writer, Thursday columnist and the mother of Max, whose favorite Roanoke landmark is the "MOOOO!" - or moon.
by CNB