2jakes
I'll Lock Up
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"I won’t say a word”...
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Tourist cabins, auto and motor courts
- Thread starter Ghostsoldier
- Start date
"I won’t say a word”...
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- 10,626
- Location
- My mother's basement
Nothing subtle about that.
Me, I prefer my sleaze and debauchery a bit more euphemistically expressed.
2jakes
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 9,680
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- Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
- Messages
- 10,626
- Location
- My mother's basement
I'm thinking it might be profitable to open a combination rest home, mortuary, and used clothing store.
There's a cemetery in my hometown named "Rest Haven," so that name on a motel would be disturbing.
We've stayed in cabins on some of our trips. One such place was on the North Shore of Lake Superior, where I don't remember, but we went all the way to Canada on that trip and stayed in two different places for just one night each. The other place was on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon I also recall there being tourist cabins near my hometown in the 1950s that didn't look like they were actually being rented even then. That road has been bypassed but I still go over that road for old time's sake when I'm back there, not that I've been for a couple of years. There were two "modern" motels in town then and they're still there. But just outside of town, near where the interstate crosses U.S. 460, are several chain hotels. Because of the crossroads, it has developed a fairly good hospitality industry, being about half-way between Canada and Florida, rather like Breezewood, Pennsylvania.
There was also a popular little amusement park just outside of town, too, called Shawnee Lake. There were a few rides, a huge swimming pool and probably things to eat, too. I also recall there were cabins but I never paid much attention to them. It also used to host live music, which was Country and Western when I went there. Previously, during the big band era, it also had dance bands. I guess there was a pavilion for dancing, too, but I think that sort of thing had gone out of style by the time we went there. It was owned by the same man who owned the big hotel in town, which also had dance bands back in the day. I dated his granddaughter for a while.
We've stayed in cabins on some of our trips. One such place was on the North Shore of Lake Superior, where I don't remember, but we went all the way to Canada on that trip and stayed in two different places for just one night each. The other place was on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon I also recall there being tourist cabins near my hometown in the 1950s that didn't look like they were actually being rented even then. That road has been bypassed but I still go over that road for old time's sake when I'm back there, not that I've been for a couple of years. There were two "modern" motels in town then and they're still there. But just outside of town, near where the interstate crosses U.S. 460, are several chain hotels. Because of the crossroads, it has developed a fairly good hospitality industry, being about half-way between Canada and Florida, rather like Breezewood, Pennsylvania.
There was also a popular little amusement park just outside of town, too, called Shawnee Lake. There were a few rides, a huge swimming pool and probably things to eat, too. I also recall there were cabins but I never paid much attention to them. It also used to host live music, which was Country and Western when I went there. Previously, during the big band era, it also had dance bands. I guess there was a pavilion for dancing, too, but I think that sort of thing had gone out of style by the time we went there. It was owned by the same man who owned the big hotel in town, which also had dance bands back in the day. I dated his granddaughter for a while.
While not a motel, auto court or tourist cabin, trailer parks (mobile home parks?) sometimes convey the same atmosphere. In fact, if you want to capture the past in a vivid way, just find a trailer park. There is a trailer park in the movie "Cry Danger" (1951), that is, or was, unique in having a good view of downtown Los Angeles at the time. Another movie that included a trailer park was The Long, Long Trailer. The people living in the trailer park called themselves "trailerite," I think. Desi Arnaz also wears a stylish leather jacket.
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- Northern California
Sweet! More pictures would be appreciated.Texaco Porcelain gas station door knob:
View attachment 77695
Is now the stick-shift knob.
Radiator cap by Texaco:
’46 GM. Inside glove-compartment are old Texaco & Mobil maps.
View attachment 77697
Ghostsoldier
Call Me a Cab
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- 2,408
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- Starke, Florida, USA
Rob
There is a place near Luray, Virginia, on the way to Shenandoah National Park that has a nice restaurant and cabins for rent. These days, however, the aren't little shacks but rather larger units with all the mod cons. Some have hot tubs and most have wi-fi (or wee-fee, as the French say). It more than a roadside motel but something approaching a honeymoon sort of place. No gas station, though. Just down the road there are other more conventional places to stay and even a place for SUVs and trailers. I've eaten at the restaurant ("American") but I haven't stayed in any of the cabins. We have stayed, however, in places in the park itself, which are rather more motel-like. The restaurants are all worth visiting.
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We stayed at Rock Cottage Court in Eureka Springs, Arkansas in 1983. It was an amazing B&B. Now called Rock Cottage Gardens it is a remodeled 1935 era roadside motor court.
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Lurvey's Court, Springfield, Missouri.
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Rock Fountain Court, Springfield, Missouri.
https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/route66/rock_fountain_court_springfield.html
https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/route66/rock_fountain_court_springfield.html
Places like that are actually few and far between these days, most of them having fallen in disrepair or torn down when something newer came along. Yet there are still old-fashioned motels here and there, mostly in places where there is too little traffic to support a Holiday Inn or a Ramada. Although never as nice as the more modern places and rarely have a breakfast room, they have a certain charm and are godsend when you've been driving all day long.
When I was in college, I went home now and then and it involved a trip from one end of the state to the other. Typically I would drive at night, too, timed to arrive home just as it was getting light or maybe a little later. I recall driving along fairly remote highways in the country passing isolated houses with a light burning in the back, probably in the kitchen, and thinking how homely and inviting to the traveler it looked. I get the same feeling when flying, when the plane is approaching the airport and houses and roads on the ground are close and visible.
When I was in college, I went home now and then and it involved a trip from one end of the state to the other. Typically I would drive at night, too, timed to arrive home just as it was getting light or maybe a little later. I recall driving along fairly remote highways in the country passing isolated houses with a light burning in the back, probably in the kitchen, and thinking how homely and inviting to the traveler it looked. I get the same feeling when flying, when the plane is approaching the airport and houses and roads on the ground are close and visible.
Ghostsoldier
Call Me a Cab
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- 2,408
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- Starke, Florida, USA
When we travel for leisure, we always use mom and pop motels...we use the website www.momandpopmotels.com.
Rob
Rob
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Thanks for the tip!
Ghostsoldier
Call Me a Cab
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- 2,408
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- Starke, Florida, USA
Yeah, you have to be careful, though...some of the sites listed can be pretty seedy!
Rob
Rob
Ghostsoldier
Call Me a Cab
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- 2,408
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- Starke, Florida, USA
Rob
- Messages
- 10,626
- Location
- My mother's basement
I'm all about seedy. East Colfax here in Denver/Aurora, Colorado has scores of motels the younger people might call "skeezy," which means the same thing, more or less.
Ghostsoldier
Call Me a Cab
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- 2,408
- Location
- Starke, Florida, USA
1938. "Traveller's Rest, Louisburg vicinity, Franklin County, North Carolina. Farm of A.T. Wilson; a roadside guest house."
Rob
Rob
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