THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505140028
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 152 lines
There are a million stories along the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway, that 20-mile strip of concrete that has sucked up commuters' change since it opened in 1967.
There's the guy whose arm got stuck while trying to rob a toll machine, and the one who used a Wheat Thin as a coin.
There's the woman who couldn't put a coin in the basket no matter how hard she tried, and the pastor who was gripped with holy fear because he didn't get the green light on the day of his first sermon.
There are a million stories along the toll road. And on June 1, the date when the tolls finally come off, much of this weirdness will come to an end.
Here are some of history's better toll tales, compiled with the help of people who ride the road.
We begin one month ago, around midnight at the Rosemont exit. A Virginia Beach K-9 officer was coming off the expressway when he saw a man at the 10-cent coin collector, bending over.
The officer asked to see the man's hands. The man didn't respond. He couldn't. The machine had caught him.
Apparently, the man had used a crowbar to jimmy the coin collector. He reached in with his free hand, grasping for cash, but the crowbar slipped into the machine and the machine closed around his fumbling hand. The man was trapped until the officer arrived, the tolls saved.
The man didn't show for a scheduled court date and was fined $1,000.
About 1988, Richard Gayle, now a 29-year-old real estate broker, would drive the 66 miles from Gloucester to the Oceanfront every weekend, depositing quarters at the plaza.
One day, driving from the Beach with several friends to see a movie at Lynnhaven Mall, Gayle had a quarter, a nickel and a penny as he approached the dime machine.
``I was of the opinion that the toll collectors owed me 15 cents because I threw a quarter in previously,'' said Gayle. ``So I just took a Wheat Thin out of the box I was eating from and flicked it into the basket.''
It worked.
``The end result,'' he said, ``was clear passage, a green light and three amazed fellows.''
A pair of revelers took the food exchange to its absurd extreme.
In the late 1980s, for four or five years in a row, two 40ish bachelors made a habit of driving through the tolls every Good Friday dressed as six-foot rabbits, according to one of the bunnies.
The pair would drive from the Oceanfront to Norfolk in a gold Volkswagen convertible. When they came to the toll plaza, they always handed the attendant a carrot and drove off. They were never stopped.
The tradition ended after the rabbits married and had kids. ``It's what happens to all good bunnies,'' said one. ``They multiplied.''
Then there are the people for whom the toll booths are more of a physical obstacle than a financial burden. Despite painstaking efforts, Vendetta Reynolds, 40, found that she frequently couldn't hit the toll basket to save her life.
Maybe her workday was a factor, starting as it did with her traveling from Virginia Beach at 5:45 a.m. every day to work a 12-hour shift at the Navy Family Service Center in Norfolk.
``I don't know what happened but it would mainly happen on the trip home. I guess I just didn't have the energy.
``If the quarter was on the ground, to me, that's as good as it being in the basket. But it seemed to happen at least once a week. I think it was psychological at one point. Finally, I discovered the toll tickets - after about 2 1/2 years.''
The tolls have a way of taking over one's thoughts and actions. Ask Maureen Kennon, 47, of Virginia Beach, who works as sales merchandiser for a food broker.
She had been paying tolls on Route 44 since the road opened, and such habits can be hard to break - even miles from the expressway.
Kennon recalled one day when guards were checking IDs at Oceana Naval Air Station, where she was going to visit her husband.
``There was a line of cars ahead of me,'' she said, ``but I'm still fishing for coins and not thinking, I guess. I just pushed the ID card aside and grabbed a dime. And as I rolled by, with the guard looking straight at me, I threw a dime at him.
``It just landed there on the sidewalk. The guard had this look like: Thanks for the tip,lady, but I need an ID card. I just looked at him and said, `Whoops!'
``I guess it was a tip,'' she added, noting that she didn't get her dime back because she was laughing so hard. ``As far as I know, it's still sitting there today,'' she said.
Mark Emory, 38, an interior designer from Norfolk, recalled the time he couldn't get the toll machine to keep his money.
``I always come to a dead stop and precisely throw it into the basket,'' said Emory. ``But this one time, the quarter bounced back through my open window and into the passenger's seat. I threw it back, and the same thing happened. And after it fell on the passenger's seat a second time, the gate goes up and the green light blinked on.''
Emory sped away.
``I felt kinda guilty at first, but as I drove through, I thought: Hey, I got a quarter for the next time.''
Janet Matthews, a 42-year-old real estate agent, is a firm believer in toll karma. After moving to Virginia Beach in 1985, she said she paid her tolls reluctantly, feeling as though ``I was throwing my money into an endless bucket.''
So she started making a wish with each toss.
``I figured,'' she said, ``at least a wish would come true.''
Being a real estate agent, she usually wished for a settlement on a tenuous housing contract. However, nothing ever came true.
Then Oprah stepped in.
``About 1 1/2 years ago, I saw the Oprah show where Oprah paid her toll as well as those of 20 cars behind her,'' said Matthews.
Matthews scaled it back. ``She has more money than I do,'' she said, so Matthews began to pay for the car behind her.
On the first night of her benevolence, Matthews and her visiting mother won $100 playing Bingo. ``I didn't wish for anything,'' said Matthews. ``When I paid for the person behind me, I never wished. So that just shows that when you pay for someone behind you, good things happen.''
Matthews said the people whose tolls she paid would often catch up with her on the road, wave and thank her.
Matthews is glad to see the tolls go, but when they come off next month, she will be looking for another way of earning good karma.
``I guess I'll just have to do something else nice,'' she said.
Brad Rose, a salesman at Colonial Cadillac in Virginia Beach, will also be looking for something to replace a different kind of toll magic. He uses them to help sell cars.
``It's one way I charm the customers,'' said Rose, who takes clients on test drives on the toll road. When they approach the tolls, Rose cavalierly takes a coin from his pocket and hook-shoots it across the roof of the car from the passenger's side.
``I've never missed to this day,'' said Rose. ``It's amazing what that does to help you sell a car; it breaks the tension, and then you start talking about sports or something. They think I'm kidding, and then they're equally amazed when it goes in.''
Anyone who has traveled the toll road regularly knows the frustration of tossing in a coin then having it ignored by the automatic machines.
Imagine the dilemma this posed to Rev. Brad Hill, 34, pastor of Calvary Chapel of Hampton Roads in Virginia Beach, who was stymied on the way to his first sermon.
Hill drives a Toyota Celica adorned with a Peace dove and ``Fear God'' sticker.
``I always wait for the light to turn green,'' he said. ``It didn't. And there are three cars in back of me.
``I knew in God's eyes I was OK. But it was everyone else's eyes that I was worried about. The last thing you want is people who go to your church seeing you pulled over to the side of the road and getting slapped with a ticket. All I can think is: If I go, this thing's going to ding, and I'm going to get pulled over.
``I sat there for 20 seconds thinking about what I should do,'' he said. ``I went ahead anyway. And the thing dinged.''
There was divine justice this day - no flashing lights or embarrassing moments.
``I got to church,'' he said, ``and I was teaching on Romans Chapter 6, which deals with sin. It was a great example of my message this morning. The Lord used it for his glory. It was a situation that would have made any person mad, but God used it for good.'' by CNB