Under The Sun

By Jed Martinez

Do you believe in omens? I do.

The most memorable omen in my life took place in late 1992 – 18 months after Dad passed away, and Mom finally sold the family home in Elmont, NY. She was destined to go down to Margate, FL and move into my late father’s condo at Oriole Gardens, while I decided to head west towards Reading, PA and start a whole new life.

Of course, I should’ve taken my venture as an omen, after acquiring a basement apartment in Reading. (The realtor told me it was a ‘lower level’ apartment, but when you can see the sidewalk at eye level through the living room window, that’s a basement apartment!) It was one of seven apartments in a refurbished ‘Little Red School House’… located next door to a bar, with the appropriate name “Boo-Boo’s”!

Long story short, things didn’t work out for me in Reading, so – with Mom’s help – I was able to relocate to Margate in early 1994, where she’d found lodgings for me within walking distance of her condominium.

Now, it was just a matter of finding steady work to support myself.

Needless to say, most of the omens in my life involved various vocations. For instance, during the 1970s and 1980s, I had stock work in a number of New York department stores – including Times Square Stores, S. Klein, Korvette’s, and even Gimbels – each one of which would eventually go out of business. (I even worked at a Boca Raton Burdine’s in 2000, which, unbeknownst to Florida residents, would eventually be purchased by Macy’s a few years later.)

Since moving down to South Florida in 1994, I’ve been unable to hold down a full-time job for more than three years. In all that time, I’ve been a telemarketer (twice), a supermarket ‘bag boy’, a car parts deliverer, a permit clerk, a shipping clerk, a file clerk, a mail-room clerk, a toll collector, and (currently) a janitor. I’ve been in and out of work so many times, the Job Center ought to install a revolving door, just for me!

The most memorable job-related omen involved my toll collecting gig. Mind you, I didn’t work for the Florida Department of Transportation; I worked for the company that worked for the F.D.O.T. – thus resulting in a ‘trickle-down’ paycheck.

The omen – indicating that this gig was ‘bad news’ – occurred on my very first day… or should I say night? I had to show up at 4:30 in the morning in mid-December, 2004 at the Deerfield Beach end of the Sawgrass Expressway. I wore my ‘uniform’: a short-sleeved floral shirt with the names of major cities and roadways throughout Florida, and dark blue pants. What I had neglected to wear that morning was a heavy winter jacket…

I’d showed up for work on (what turned out to be) the coldest day of the year, with overnight lows in the 40s and a ‘wind chill factor’ close to freezing! I assumed, however, that I was going to be given a toll booth with decent heating…

After collecting $200 (of coins and paper currency) in the Counting Room, I was given a ‘trainer’ (who’d show me how to collect the tolls from motorists), and was assigned to work in the booth at Lane 16 – the furthest booth from the main building.

My ‘trainer’ – an Indian woman one head shorter than me – led me through an underground passageway, emerging between Lanes 13 and 14. We had to cross additional lanes, in order to get to the Lane 16 booth.

The booth itself had two sliding doors: one for entering, and one for sticking your hand out to collect said toll. In my case, both doors were stuck in the open position. A cross breeze made the booth’s interior feel more like we’re inside a square igloo!

As for warmth, it was provided by a floor heater… which, despite being set on ‘high’, was not working. Informing my ‘trainer’ about this, she told me to call the office in the main building and report this to them…

The telephone in my booth didn’t work.

So, there I was, sharing a open-air one-man booth with a second person, wearing summer-like clothes in winter-like conditions, with nothing working except for the lights and the terminal (that counts each toll I collect). All for just $6.00 an hour…

Eventually, I would work sporadically at either terminus of the Sawgrass Expressway (one day in Deerfield Beach; the next day in Sunrise). A few months later, I got a permanent location at the Oakland Park Boulevard Toll Plaza in Sunrise, just minutes away from the Office Depot Center – formerly, National Car Rental Center, and soon-to-be Bank Atlantic Center.

I’d worked the middle of three lanes at that toll plaza – with a view of the Center on one side one day, and the Everglades on the other side other days – and had the dubious distinction of working the only lanes in the entire Florida Turnpike system that didn’t take SunPass (the prepaid toll program), but that didn’t stop drivers – too busy talking on their cellular phones – from zooming down my lane without paying (despite the fact that the SunPass lane had a sign over it as big as most cars)!

Eventually, I got fired in March, 2007 (less than three years after I was hired, as usual) for reasons too mundane to go into, but it was just as well. Had I kept this job, my days as a toll collector would still be numbered, since the F.D.O.T. is now converting the entire system into “SunPass-accessible” roadways…

Recently, my younger brother drove me up to Delray Beach, taking the Sawgrass Expressway connection to Florida’s Turnpike. As we passed through Lane 15 of the Deerfield Beach Toll Plaza, I saw to my right the very booth I began my toll collecting stint in was gone. Lane 16 is now a “SunPass only” lane…

Another omen officially came true.