I miss the toll booths of my youth.  Pulling up to see those toll booth (cranky) operators whose goal in life was to collect the money and get exposed too high amounts of exhaust fumes.  It’s was a part of the charming misery of this place that I miss.

My first memory of encountering an operator was when I was traveling to see my future spouse using an AAA trip tic and clearly misreading it.  I was crossing a bridge that was covered in fog when out of it appeared the booth and I asked the operator, “where am I?”  They asked where I was headed, when I told them, they told me to turn around and head back over the bridge and didn’t charge me for my error.

I also miss the game I played when I would throw the change into the bucket and not miss, without even slowing down, what am I to do with that skill set now?  For the toll booth of the past are disappearing, being replaced by machines.  No more is there the strategy being applied to finding the faster lane when sitting in endless delays at the toll booths, by cutting off other cars aggressively.  Now we just cruise right on thru.  What fun is there in that?

I also miss the dread of my car breaking down on a highway and by the time I got back to it with help, all that would be left is a shell up on blocks.  There were crews that would roam the highways and stripe the cars in a matter of minutes.  Another skill not in use in this area anymore.