LET'S GO FIRST CLASS across America: Part 8 - Plus a BONUS!

Here's the second oldest card I collected as a child. The Northern Motel in Indiana. Alas, it seems to be gone having been replaced by a Days Inn. No sense getting an image from today; we all know what it's going to look like.

Click on either image to see it larger.

This little motel looks like so many I remember. There was a sameness to a lot of these places, but they were more personal since a family ran it and not a corporation. You didn't expect to find cookie cutter sameness across the country. Now you can go to Days Inn in every state and eat at a Denny's and feel like you never left home. For some that makes travel seem secure. The food and lodging each night is the same and they don't even need to watch local tv channels because we're all hooked into the same networks.

You really have to spend some extra time looking for what once was America. The question is are people willing to spend the time doing that? I think a handful of us still are.
__________

UPDATE: It's time to head out to find AMERICA

Last year I did a post about the card below. Today I heard from a relative who is the grandchild of the man who built this station.

The emails reads:

The (this) Log Cabin Service Station was built in 1925 by my grandfather, Charles G. Lindquist.



This article gives some history about it. The 'Jim Knapp' in the article is my father.

And here is the article they referenced from the April 21, 2007 Fergus Falls Journal:

Fergus Falls retiree Jim Knapp’s grandfather, C.G. (Charles) Lindquist, came to Fergus Falls in 1925 from Fairmont, N.D., and built the Log Cabin gasoline station on the southwest corner of Lincoln and Vine, where Century 21 now stands.

Even though the Log Cabin has been gone since the mid-1960s, its memory lives on — through ceramic replicas. One is owned by Knapp and his wife, Janet.

“It’s a prized possession,” Janet said, “especially in light of the historical ties of the Log Cabin to Jim’s family.”

Jim’s cousin, Joe Forbes of Bemidji, also has a ceramic Log Cabin. Another Log Cabin ceramic replica, part of the House in Snow Village collection produced by Department 56 of Minneapolis — just like the one owned by the Knapps — is treasured by Obert and Mary Houg of Fergus Falls.

“Our daughter Sally saw the replica in Fargo and bought one for Obert as a Christmas gift in 1999,” Mary said. “Sally and our other daughter, Jill, remember eating at the Log Cabin lunchroom with Obert and me back in the 1960s, after some of Obert’s softball games.”

The lunchroom was added to the Log Cabin several years after the original construction in 1925. A long counter for customers faced Lincoln Avenue, to the north, and a second counter faced eastward, toward what’s now Service Food.

C.G. (Charles) Lindquist operated an oil business in Fairmont prior to moving to Fergus Falls and running the Log Cabin starting in the mid-1920s. Before that he was in the shipping business at Big Stone Lake and Lake Traverse. He began his business career as an elevator operator at Diamond, S.D., a town that no longer exists.

The Log Cabin survived a serious fire in 1930, only five years after it was built. The pumps and tanks were not damaged, so gasoline and oil service went on uninterrupted. But much of the wood was damaged and had to be replaced.

The father of Charles Lindquist — Jim Knapp’s great-grandfather John Lindquist — fought in the Civil War with the Minnesota One fighting unit. His final resting place is at Ortonville where veterans pay homage at his gravesite each Memorial Day.

Charles Lindquist sold the Log Cabin station in 1946, after 21 years of ownership.

John Schrom ran the Log Cabin gas station and lunchroom in the 1950s and early 1960s. Eventually the station made way for the Western Station, one of the early convenience stores in Fergus Falls, established in the late 1960s.

The Log Cabin lunchroom later was moved to Wendell and is now part of the Wendell Cafe owned by Diane and Rick Branson.

Today the renovated Holiday Station on South Union Avenue in Fergus Falls reminds many old-timers of the Log Cabin that once stood at the southwest corner of Lincoln and Vine.

“It’s fun to remember the former eating establishments and other businesses from bygone years in downtown Fergus Falls,” Houg said. “And It’s nice to know that we have family and historical ties to the Log Cabin through the Knapp family.” (SOURCE: Fergus Falls Journal)

Once again a little piece of paper ends up telling a story.

Thank you to the family of Mr. Lindquist for providing this information. I really appreciate it.

LET'S GO FIRST CLASS across America: Part 7

I think it's pretty obvious we've now moved away from first class travel. This is not The Broadmoor.

Click on image to see it larger.

Welcome to the Town House Motor Lodge, circa late 1950s. This is a place I stayed as a child. I don't know which year, but this is the very first post card I ever saved. Strangely, of all the times I took post cards from motel desks I actually now have very few. I don't know what happened to them. It's possible that anything from the 1950s got thrown away when my family moved to Hawaii or simply, along with a lot of other stuff, never came out of storage.

Click on image to see it larger.

Doing a quick search of the Town House Motor Lodge, I find that it still exists at the same address. Alas, it no longer has the charm it once had. It is drab looking with a hideous sign. The old sign was wonderful with the flashing arrow pointing to what awaited you. Times have been hard for the Town House.

Google Street View

You can see from the post card that at the time a selling point was a telephone and tv in every room. That was a big selling point back then because you still ran into a lot of places without tv. Telephones were getting pretty common. Nice old black heavy dial phones with a rumpled yellow pages on a shelf or in a drawer.

These days, according to the online Yellow Pages, the Town House offers:

Free Internet

Cable Television

Refrigerators

Weekly Rates

Aging takes a toll on all of us and if you don't change you don't survive.

Tomorrow: another oldie

Mom and Pop MOTOR COURTS

These vintage post cards most likely date from the mid-1940s to mid-50s. Back when you could stay at simple little Motor Courts. Remember those places with the little garages attached to each room? Or even separate little cottages? Usually there was a lawn somewhere around the office where you could go and sit on a warm summer night. And those metal chairs that sort of bounced with the seashell inspired back, various colors, but usually white metal for the curved base. Hot as all-get-out midday. Long before swimming pools were included with your stay.

Click on image to see it larger.

Most of these places are gone or so run down that communities want to condemn them. Sometimes I see them in nearly abandoned towns with weeds growing everywhere. Ghost motels. I'm glad I've got memories of when you got a bed and a bathroom, a Gideon Bible, maybe some stationary and a post card. That was it. No air conditioning. You hoped the heat worked in the winter.

Click on image to see it larger.

And oh my the signs. The lovely neon signs. Surprisingly I have not found any books, old or new, about the old signs. It's a shame because now so many of them are gone or in disrepair that it would be difficult to to even put together a book.

Click on image to see it larger.

Can neon possibly look better than on a rainy night when the flashing reflects off a wet highway, beckoning you to stop. My favorite signs were of the Mexican fellow sleeping next to a cactus with the neon "Z...Z...Z..." floating above him. And every town seemed to have a Flamingo Motel. Now it's all corporate and boring. I know, I'm old, but I miss the creativity that existed. It's all just too tiresome now.

Click on image to see it larger.

_______

One more ephemera book I highly recommend is See the USA: The Art of the American Travel Brochure by John Margolies and Eric Baker.

A trip back in time to the romance of travel. Another book that I can sit and look at over and over again and always find something new each time. Good and bad design, beautiful and mediocre illustrations. You'll find all of them interesting if you love ephemera. And who knows, you might just decide to start a collection of your own.

The following pages from the book See the USA are all copyrighted ©2000 John Margolies.

SLEEPY BEAR at Travel Lodge

Most of the motels I recall staying in as a child were not part of chains. They were individually owned and my mother would look them up in the AAA travel books to see what sort of a diamond rating they had. Holiday Inns were way out of our price range. Next step was Travel Lodge. Those were more economical if not as "fancy" as Holiday Inn.

I've said before that the first thing I always did as a child when walking into a new motel room was to check the desk drawer for post cards and stationary. Okay, I'll admit it, I still do. A few years ago I won a trip to a 5 star resort and as soon as the bellhop left the room I was into the desk drawer checking for post cards and stationary. Old habits die hard.

I do not know how old this Sleepy Bear post card is, but I'm imagining around 1962 to 1967. As a kid I liked Sleepy Bear. He was always a welcoming sight to see on their signs when it was late at night in a rain storm. We'd pull in next to the office and my father would go inside to see if they had a room. My mother would sit patiently waiting in the front seat with the wipers slapping back and forth across the large Olsdmobile windshield. Maybe the glow of the radio across the dashboard. Me in the back seat with the dog, anxiously looking towards the office hoping they had a room. Then my dad back into the car with a key and mother asking, "Did you ask if they take dogs?" My father, putting the car in gear, "No."

Is Sleepy Bear still out there along the highways welcoming sleepy kids? I hope so. Yes, I know, he's just a corporate image trying to manipulate shoppers, but at the time these little images didn't seem as heavy handed. He was just a sleepy little bear who made a little girl smile.

_______

Here's another book I'd like to recommend to those who love ephemera.

Hitting the Road: The Art of the American Road Map by Douglas A. Yorke, Jr, John Margolies, and Eric Baker.

It's all about the covers on vintage road maps of the US. The oldest map featured is from 1893.

Oh how I wish I had all of those old maps we used when we travelled. The

colorful maps you used to get for free from gas stations that were thrown away when the trip was over. Those days are sure gone, but this book lets you relive a little bit of what travel was once like. So if you like vintage travel or simply love looking at vintage ephemera illustrations this book won't be a disappointment.