Toll workers tell of encounters both bemusing and bizarre

With the last day for toll collections looming on Friday, it’s a bittersweet time for those who will soon be out of work or moving on to new jobs. A total of 46 contracted positions and four state positions will be eliminated with the closure of the toll plaza.

The State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) has provided some resume and job training and has posted job openings elsewhere. The SRTA did not know how many hadn’t found employment as of Monday.

“They’re sad,” said Smith-Calloway, toll operations manager for State Road and Tollway Authority. “But they’re proud of the work they’ve done.”

It’s not just the end of an era for Georgia. Across the nation, cashiers are being replaced with electronics that let drivers pay tolls via a transponder stickers on their windshields.

Before their jobs vanish, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked toll plaza employees to share some memorable experiences.

That’s one way to get a date

Kuzshua “Kaz” Jones has worked at the toll plaza for 17 months. The first two months were in the toll booth.

A kindly older woman offered a Bible. And a flirty girl dropped off a Chick-fil-A lunch.

He even witnessed exhibitionist couples getting frisky in front of him.

“You see the most X-rated of things,” Jones said.”It just shocks you.”

Jones often brought extra change to work just in case drivers in his lane forgot their fare. He earned a lot of loyal customers that way — drivers that would purposely steer into his lane.

Jones, a sharp-dressed man with a sly smile, was apparently winning hearts while making change on one day in particular. A woman made a bold demand for his phone number and refused to drive off until she got it.

Then she dialed the number in front of him just to make sure he hadn’t provide the wrong one.

It may seem strange, but Jones has gone on dates with several women he met at the booth.

“I guess I’m somewhat attractive, right?” Jones laughed. “The young girls will come through and try to talk. It’s kind of like speed dating.”

Flash and dash

Toll operations manager Andrea Smith-Calloway has been surprised to learn how many women get a kick out of flashing their breasts at the toll booth, particularly those coming from the Buckhead nightclubs on Friday and Saturday night.

She usually pays no attention. She just makes sure the toll is paid. But sometimes the women just sit there until they get a reaction.

“I’m like, ‘What do you want me to say?’” Smith-Calloway said. “‘Looks fine to me, go ahead!’”

Pickles and ice cream

Roslyn McDonald has spent two-and-a-half years at the toll booth. The petite single mom said people will ask her name, or inquire about her life and her two kids.

McDonald said it’s not unusual for motorists to say that her friendly demeanor made their day.

“I’ve been told by people a lot that they’ve been working all day and nobody has smiled or said hello to them,” McDonald said.

Drivers occasionally bring gifts of chocolates, or fruits and vegetables. Once, a mother and daughter who were practicing their baking skills dropped off a heart-shaped cake.

McDonald remembers one man in particular who befriended her when his wife was eight months pregnant. He would pull up to the toll booth while talking to his wife on the phone. While stopped, he would hold up the phone for her to shout a greeting to McDonald.

After the couple’s baby was born, the father stopped at the toll operations center beside the toll plaza to show McDonald pictures.

“He came up here a few times, but I was never at work,” McDonald said.

On the subject of births, they’ve happened a couple of times at the toll plaza, according to the first toll plaza manager, Robert E. Smith, who retired in 2011 after 18 years in the job. Once it happened in a toll lane. Another time it occurred in the toll plaza parking lot, after a couple en route to the hospital realized they couldn’t make it in time, he said.

A not-so-smooth getaway

There has been one infamous robbery at the toll plaza, back in 1999.

Two men ambushed toll-takers late at night and demanded money. But they apparently failed to take into account that the cash stocked in the booths is primarily quarters.

They tried to haul off their hefty loot in plastic bags, which ripped open as they ran to a getaway car nearby. Coins went rolling all over the pavement.

The men scrambled to their car and sped away, leaving behind the money.

“I don’t know if they ever caught them or not,” chuckled Smith. “But the radio people made so much fun of them for trying to take all the coins that we never had a problem again.”