
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 18, 1993                   TAG: 9308180004
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NOT A BARREL OF MONKEYS, BUT LEGOS ENLIVEN LAYOVER

Airports can be pretty interesting places in the Third World - I once saw a man with a monkey on his shoulder selling sugar-cane juice at an airport in Bolivia - but in the highly regulated, highly homogenized atmosphere of our country, an airport can be a dreadful place. (The man was selling the sugar-cane juice; the monkey appeared to be just lending moral support.)

You can inhale only so much jet exhaust, peruse the racks of triple-priced merchandise in the gift shop so many times before even the most infrequent of flyers gets bored.

Roanoke's Woodrum Field isn't, sadly, an exception. Take a few rides on the luggage carousel, vandalize a toilet or two, check all the coin returns in the pay phones for loose change and there isn't much to do. Given the long layovers for connecting flights to Pittsburgh and Charlotte, it leaves a lot of dead time for wayward souls too fatigued to traipse through the ragweed strip between the terminal and Sam's Wholesale Club.

Lo, we now have something to do.

Early this summer, the airport commission sprang for a pair of Lego tables.

The low-slung tables, 3 feet by 3 feet, are topped by red, green, yellow and blue patches. The surface looks like a mini-Montvale - miniature tank farms rise from the otherwise flat tabletop. Unlike Montvale, the table isn't explosive.

At the table's center is a hole, and a net hangs down. In there are the colorful blocks, including the coveted curvy ones that are essential for building race cars and other vehicles.

Also included are some accessories far too eccentric to afford at home. Monster heads, swinging doors - the stuff you see on Saturday morning commercials but never really buy.

The airport bought them. Each table cost $300, purchased from a Louisiana company that hasn't answered its phone in the past week, even to spread the word about the Lego table fad sweeping the nation.

Airport waifs are immediately drawn to the Lego tables.

The business travelers are slower studies. Like the airplanes in which they travel, they tend to circle for a while, assessing the landing strip.

But they do tinker. Watch for a while in the lobbies - one is upstairs, the other down - and you'll see some tired stiff set down his briefcase and tinker with the Legos.

It's a nice touch, not quite as much fun as riding the luggage carousel, but a whole lot better than busting public toilets.

by CNB