Nutwood Junction

Subject: Googie
Time: 1:17:20 AM EDT
Author:  luvrte66

 

I couldn't stand to wait until Tuesday to post a little more, although after spending a little time on research, it's already Tuesday!

This is the Sunrise Motel sign on Route 66 off of I-44 near Sullivan, Missouri. Route 66 is the frontage road here, right by the "big" highway, and I spotted the sign on the way down. (It's near mile marker 223, by the way.) I told Ken that I'd like to stop on the way back and get a picture of it, because it looks to be in pretty bad shape, and the motel itself has not survived. We aren't planning to take our big Route 66 trip until 2010, and some of these things might not survive until then.

I couldn't read this sign until we got much closer, and finally was able to make out the word "sunrise," and then I noticed the Triple A oval in the middle. There's also a No Vacancy bit, right under the T.

I tried to find out a little bit about the Sunrise Motel, but I could find next to nothing. I was able to find this postcard image.

What a cool and funky motel! It looks like the office had a bit of a Southwest, adobe-like look to it, although it's hard to tell from old postcards like this. They included the Triple A logo on the card in the form of the logo itself, and then in a sign rising behind the motel office. The sign above isn't portrayed in this postcard--it looks more like an arch sign in the drawing.

It's things like this that make me sad to see these buildings not being preserved. I know it's nothing but an eyesore to some people, but I find that these ranch motels from the middle part of the 20th century have a charm to them that you don't see in most hotels today. Maybe it's because I remember staying in a few in Florida when I was little. You opened the cantilevered windows to get a breeze, and the really nice motels had an outdoor pool where you could go cool off. Anyhoo, back to the Sunrise...I don't know if there are any actual pictures of this motel left. I don't recall reading about it in any of my books, and haven't been able to find one online. Are there no photos of the Sunrise out there? What a shame. (I'll keep looking, and if anyone knows anything about this vanished motel, please let me know.)

I wanted to explain a bit about Googie. Wiki defines "Googie" this way:

Googie is a subdivision of futurist architecture, influenced by car culture and the Space Age and Atomic Age, originating from Southern California in the late 1940s and continuing approximately into the mid-1960s. The types of buildings that were most frequently designed in a Googie style were motels, coffee houses and bowling alleys. Features of Googie include upswept roofs, curvaceous, geometric shapes, and bold use of glass, steel, and neon. Googie was also characterized by space-age designs that depict motion, such as boomerangs, flying saucers, atoms, and parabolas, and free-form designs such as "soft" parallelograms and the ubiquitous artist's-palette motif. These stylistic conventions reflected American society's emphasis on futuristic designs and fascination with Space Age themes. As with the art deco style of the 1930s, Googie became undervalued as time passed, and many buildings built in this style have been destroyed. [Read the full article on Googie here.]

While the Sunrise Motel sign isn't a stellar example of Googie, it does include rectangles and ovals, and another characteristic of Googie is geometric shapes. It's fun to try to find signs that include rectangles, triangles, AND circles, ovals, or balls. (YES, I said fun. Each to their own, and I think Googie is fun!) Neon isn't required, but is a definite plus. Note that the article quoted in Wiki compares the destruction of Googie buildings and signage to the destruction of Art Deco buildings. Art Deco is highly prized now, and I firmly believe that the same case can be made for Googie. These are unique architectural designs, both in design, time, and place.

 

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Subject: Road trippin'
Time: 10:11:23 PM EDT
Author:  luvrte66

 

Hey, we're back! And good heavens, y'all have been busy while we were gone! Ken and I spent a couple of hours going through all your nice comments and your new entries. It will take me a while to get caught up, so bear with me if I don't make any comments right away.

I hope everyone enjoyed my Guest Editor picks. I really had fun doing it, and there are plenty of great journals out there that I enjoy, so it really was hard to pick a few.

We had a great time seeing Ken's mom and stepdad over the weekend. I'm really glad we went down. We also had a nice evening Saturday with Ken's stepsister and her husband, and a couple of their kids (and a grandkid, too!). They were wonderful hosts, and we hope to return the favor when they come up to the Chicago area for a wedding in July. They made a deep-fried turkey, and that was one of the tastiest things I've ever had. YUM!

We had a great drive, both going and returning. On the way down, I slept for about 45 minutes, but once we hit the area where Route 66 starts, I was awake and stayed awake for the rest of the trip. (I didn't take the picture included in this entry, but I got plenty, and even a few videos...more to come tomorrow. Or tonight...I'm not sure I can stand to not get them edited and up here!) One of the kind of cool things about Route 66 is that it's not always easy to follow, and not always well-marked, although Illinois and Missouri have done a pretty good job. It's almost a game, or a challenge, to try and figure out where it is. Maps help, and while there are plenty of Route 66 guidebooks, I didn't take any with me--I was kicking myself! A while back, I bought a 1953 road atlas on eBay, and that should help with finding the alignments in place at that time (the alignments changed over the years).

Cousin Shane gave me some great clues when we took our trip back in 2001. First of all, Route 66 was often "repurposed" as a frontage road, and you sometimes see it paralleling I-55 and I-44. It will run right there by you, and other times it pulls away, only to rejoin you on the other side of the town. I enjoyed watching for it and seeing it come back to the highway, but I also felt a little bit of yearning, as in "I wish I was on you, Route 66!" (I know Ken would have driven on part of it for a while if I'd asked--and he even volunteered to do so a couple of times--but that's not what this trip was for.) As a frontage road, it's usually straight as a stick, but when it veers off into the countryside in twists and turns, it makes me wish I were veering off with it. Another clue Shane told me about is that Route 66 often follows the railroad tracks, and sure enough, that happened fairly often, sometimes even with the other two lanes faintly visible under the overgrowth. The main power lines often run along the railroad, so sometimes if you look for the lines, you'll see the road also.

When it comes to figuring out if you're on actual Route 66 pavement, especially the alignments from 1926-1930, you can look to see if there has been pavement added to the edges of the road. In the earliest alignments, I believe the lanes were a mere 7-feet wide (correct me if I'm wrong, Shane), so they started adding a foot or so as they worked on the highway. Following the road in the cities can be a lot harder, as it is often completely paved over. But in the small towns, Route 66 is usually the main street (and often called exactly that), and they welcome the visitors from all over the world that Route 66 brings to them.

Road trips are a blast. While they're fun no matter what the roadway, Route 66 holds a special fascination for me. The places along the highway are each fascinating in their own right, but the entire length of the Road is an abandoned place, haunted by those who have traveled it before. But not entirely abandoned...as long as it grips the imagination of people like me and Shane, and so many others around the world, Route 66 will never die.

Coming soon: pictures of John's Modern Cabins and a googie sign or two. Oh, and an explanation of googie.

 

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Subject: Back soon!
Time: 7:39:10 AM EDT
Author:  luvrte66

We will soon return you to your regularly scheduled programming. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

Back Monday--hope to have pictures for you! In the meantime, I hope you'll stop by Magic Smoke, because I'm very honored to be their Guest Editor this week!

I'd also like to wish a very Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, my mother-in-law (Charlie), my sisters and other family members, all my friends I've met along the way, and those I've encountered in J-Land. Love you all!

 

 

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Subject: Goodbye to a friend
Time: 1:32:08 AM EDT
Author:  luvrte66

 

Tonight was the series finale of one of my favorite shows, "Scrubs."

For many years, I've been entertained by the folks at Sacred Heart. The sheer goofiness was always a lot of fun, but make no mistake, this was not always about the comedy. As many times as I laughed out loud, I got all teary-eyed just as often.

This show was so well-written that it could take a serious situation and make it funny, and it could stop on a dime and turn a funny situation into something tragic. (The musical episode was excellent!) I spent many years working in the healthcare field, and believe me, that's a dead-on (so to speak) take of the whole thing. As often as you feel that you did something good and made a difference, there are way too many times when you can't do a thing to help. You just have to make up your mind that the good things make up for the sad things, and resolve to do your best every day, because even the little things can make a big difference for each patient.

That's why "Scrubs" always had a special place in my heart--despite all the jokes, they always did their best to do right by the patient.

The series finale was the usual silliness, with Dr. Cox telling his son a bedtime story about a fairy tale world populated by the folks at Sacred Heart. There was a happy ending to the fairy tale, with a patient getting the correct diagnosis...and all lived happily ever after.

I'll miss this show. It was a rare combination of humor and compassion, and in many ways, a fairly accurate portrayal of the sometimes gallows humor of working in the healthcare field.

Tags: Scrubs

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Subject: The Road and ruins
Time: 6:17:33 PM EDT
Author:  luvrte66

 

After reading some of the comments about my entries on John's Modern Cabins, it seems that many of you share my fascination with abandoned places, or those that have some history behind them. This kind of runs in my family, and there have been times that I traipsed through dilapidated places with my parents and various aunts and uncles. For Cousin Shane and I, the main focus of our fascination has been the places along Route 66, and the road itself.

I'll eventually write more about various places on the road, but for now, I'll write about why I'm so drawn to places like this. This is a picture of the Coral Court Motel, by the way, one of the most famous--and infamous--places on Route 66. It has been demolished, and a subdivision took its place. AUGH! At least they preserved one of the units, and Shane and I were able to see it at the Missouri Museum of Transportation. The beautiful, coral pink tiles, the funky glass block windows, the Streamline Moderne design...oh, the humanity of losing a place like this! But I digress. I promise to eventually make an entry about the Coral Court, the "no-tell motel" that lives on in legend.

Shane and I have talked about why we (and our moms) love this kind of stuff. It can be a building, a place, or a picture, but it evokes thoughts of what went on there...what people experienced there...the lives lived by its occupants. Old photographs make us wonder what happened to those pictured...did they live a long life or did they die young...what was going through their mind when the picture was snapped?

While I've never seen a ghost, some of these places DO feel haunted to me, but probably by nothing more than my imagination. Those who lived and loved there many years before are present in my mind, although what I conjure up may be nothing remotely close to what really happened. I believe that a place and a building can contain memories, too, and I find it fascinating to think of all the people that traveled the highways in the early and mid-1900's. As for Route 66, it was the most popular highway to take when going on a vacation out west. How many millions of people did it carry over the years? The Dust Bowl refugees in the '20's and '30's, seeking their promised land in sunny California; the people flocking to the west in the '40's to work in the munitions factories--or hopefuls wishing for stardom in Hollywood; the post-war "boom" families in the '50's and '60's, taking the kids on a cross-country trip, stopping at all the tourist traps attractions on the way and bringing money to mom-and-pop operations all along the highway.

All these motels, diners, and drive-ins saw decades of personal dramas and family stories, as well as the occasional decidedly shady characters and dealings. (Shane and I drove by the Riviera Road House in Braceville, Illinois, a place frequented by Al Capone and his cronies.) Every restored gas station and decaying motel; every operating restaurant and ruined drive-in screen; every section of maintained roadway and closed-off, broken pavement...each of these contains a story. Somewhere, at some time, someone walked and talked and drove there before you. The next time you see the ruins of an old building, think about the fascination we have with ruins like pyramids, temples, and burial grounds. These old buildings--from the 19th century--are the archaeological sites of the coming centuries. The road itself is sometimes a ruin, like the section Shane and I walked down that ends in Lake Springfield, a man-made lake in Illinois that covers parts of the road.

When I see places like this, instead of thinking, "What an eyesore...that should be torn down," I wonder what it looked like 50 years ago, and I wonder what life was like inside its walls. (When it comes to the Coral Court, I appreciate its architectural beauty and uniqueness, and I mourn that no one was able to save it.) The crumbling walls you see were probably part of an important place to at least one person. Think of that person and let your imagination loose. 

 

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Subject: A new bird!
Time: 11:06:43 AM EDT
Author:  luvrte66

 

We have a new sighting!

I saw a couple of birds out front, feeding on the ground, this morning. I took a look with the binoculars and said, "Hey, you guys are new around here!"

Based on the spots on his chest, I was pretty sure he was some kind of thrush, but I wasn't sure if he was a Hermit, Wood, or Swainson's. He came back later and gave me a good look--he sat right outside the window!--and I was able to see his buff eye ring and buff face, which my book tells me means that he is a Swainson's Thrush.

This isn't their area. In the summer months, they breed in northern Canada and in California along the coast. They winter in Central and South America. Most of the U.S. is merely a migratory route for them, so I feel lucky to have seen two of them!

I went to Kohl's this morning and bought a new purse. Since I don't have to carry around a checkbook any more, I thought I'd get something a little smaller. I'm not sure it's that much smaller, but I just can't bring myself to carry around a teeny purse for every day! (When we go to a dressy event, that's a different story.) And it took me forever to find one that I liked. I hate purses. I must be really weird about them, because shopping for a purse this morning brought me no joy whatsoever. I kept thinking, "It should NOT be this hard!"

 

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Subject: The More You Know....
Time: 8:29:38 AM EDT
Author:  luvrte66

Some background on a previous entry:

The History of John's Modern Cabins
By Emily Priddy and Ron Warnick

Obscured by a canopy of trees, six tiny, crumbling cabins sit next to a quiet, dead-end stretch of Route 66 that runs parallel to Interstate 44 about 10 miles outside of Rolla, Mo.

Two outhouses stand behind the aging buildings; nearby, a faded, broken neon sign identifies the little structures as "John's Modern Cabins." Driving along Route 66 in front of the cabins, a passerby can read the story of the road. To the right, termites and time quietly eat away at John's long-abandoned cabins. To the left, truck drivers roar past at 65 mph, oblivious to the old tourist court and the road leading to it, both casualties of the mighty superslab beneath their tires.

John's Modern Cabins began as part of a somewhat seedy juke joint known as Bill and Bess's Place. Six tiny log cabins flanked a shotgun-shack dance hall that in the 1930s was home to music, merriment … and murder. On Halloween night in 1935, 22-year-old Eugene Duncan fatally shot his estranged wife, Billie, 18, and slightly wounded two others in the dance hall's fireplace room. Duncan apparently was angry with his wife because she had left him about 10 days earlier to live with her mother.

Duncan initially denied killing his wife, but a week before his trial was set to start, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and ended up serving 13 years of a 50-year sentence. He eventually remarried and died of a heart attack at age 60.

Ten years later, Bill Bayliss -- who had owned the juke joint with his wife, Beatrice -- sold the property. It changed hands three times before John and Lillian Dausch, a middle-aged, childless couple from Chicago, bought it in 1951 for $5,000.

Improvements to Route 66 forced the Dausches to move the business a few feet north of their original location. John Dausch moved several of the cabins but abandoned the shotgun shack and built three more cabins out of a concrete-asbestos mix.

Dausch also built a larger log cabin to live in and another building to use as a laundry room and snack bar, from which he alsosold beer. Ed Goodridge, owner of the nearby Vernelle's Motel, said Dausch's habit of selling beer on Sundays -- in violation of local laws -- earned him the nickname "Sunday John."

In 1965, the Missouri State Highway Commission bought some of Dausch's property so they could make improvements to the road that eventually would become Interstate 44.

With the arrival of the interstate, Dausch -- like so many other mom-and-pop business owners along Route 66 -- saw his business begin to dry up.

It was a bad year for Dausch; a few months later, his wife died of a coronary thrombosis, and her death -- coupled with his own failing health and declining business -- eventually prompted him to close his little establishment.

Dausch continued to live on the property until he died of a stroke in 1971.

Another man, Arnold Noel, lived on the property for about a year after Dausch's death. Then Noel died, and with no one around to maintain them, John's Modern Cabins fell into disrepair.

In 1976, Loretta Ross of St. Charles, Mo., bought the property with the intent of turning it into a hunting getaway for her family, but after her husband died, those plans were scrapped, and the cabins spent the next 25 years quietly decaying.

Now Ross and her son, Kenneth, want to tear down the cabins, which are in such bad condition that they pose a hazard to anyone who might venture into them … and a liability to the Rosses.

Ross has said the cabins are beyond repair and simply aren't worth saving. Route 66 enthusiasts disagree. The cabins may never be habitable again, but they are a piece of history that tells the story of the Mother Road better than perhaps any other single image on the highway, and as such, they deserve to be preserved -- preferably on their current site. If on-site preservation is impossible, we'd like to move the sign and one or more of the cabins to another location so future generations will have a chance to see them and imagine what Route 66 might have been like in its heyday.

Copyright ©2002 Emily Priddy and Ron Warnick

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Subject: Rice Rationing? Wha--?
Time: 8:36:11 PM EDT
Author:  luvrte66

Pretty soon, I'm going to start cooking dinner. (We're late eaters, have I mentioned that? Usually 8 or 9 PM.) Last night, I made Chicken Creole--nothing complicated, just a Zatarain's with chicken--and it was quite tasty. I had quite a bit of chicken left, so I decided to make stir fry tonight, and I got some pea pods and mushrooms at the store today.

I'm going to try the sticky rice recipe and see how it works. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, because it tastes so much better to have that sticky rice with stir fry!

I had been buying some rice and stocking up on it before this whole alleged "rice shortage" hit. The press was talking about how stores were restricting rice purchases, and some even used the word "rationing." I believe this was sensationalistic journalism, and it turns out that they were restricting restaurants from buying too many of the huge 20-pound bags.

I was stocking up merely because rice is a nice staple, and I use it a lot in various dishes, from Asian to Mexican to American recipes. It's reasonably priced, and goes a long way. After I started buying white and brown rice on sale, I heard about a "shortage" and about rationing! The price has definitely gone up. 

I think it's all overstated, at least here in the U.S. What concerns me is the number of poor nations that rely on rice as a food staple. I hope this rice hysteria won't adversely affect them.

 

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Subject: John's Modern Cabins
Time: 4:22:11 PM EDT
Author:  luvrte66

 

This weekend, Ken and I will be hittin' the road! Road trip, baby!

We're going to Springfield, Missouri to visit Ken's Mom and stepdad. We haven't seen them since Christmas, so we thought this would be a good time to get down there. (We'll see my Mom and Dad the following weekend.)

We'll be leaving Friday morning and getting back Monday night. Since our time is limited, we won't be doing any sightseeing, except I've made one request: John's Modern Cabins outside of Rolla, Missouri.

For much of the way, we'll be taking I-44, which parallels a lot of Route 66. If we had more time, we'd take more of Route 66 (much of it is still drivable, did you know that?), but again, time is limited. In a year or two, we plan on doing the whole thing, Chicago to L.A., but my reason for wanting to see John's Modern Cabins is because I'm not sure they'll survive that long.

Why the interest in these decrepit cabins, you ask? They're a Route 66 icon, one of the cabin-style motels that was quite popular for a while. You can still see them here and there around the country, sometimes used as apartments. These are special because they are actually built as tiny log cabins, and the irony of the "Modern Cabins" name is priceless.

Last I knew, John's Modern Cabins was in peril and a campaign was underway to preserve this piece of American roadside history. Many places along Route 66 have been preserved, but so many more have been lost to us, including the even more famous and iconic Coral Court Motel in St. Louis. (A travesty of historical preservation and a tragic loss, in my book.)

John's Modern Cabins might not look like much, but they are a part of our roadside history and the car culture that gripped our country in the early to mid-part of the 20th century. I'm looking forward to seeing them, and I'll get lots of pictures, believe me! Video, too. They might not be around much longer, so this is my chance. 

 

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Subject: Damp but not down
Time: 2:35:50 PM EDT
Author:  luvrte66

Criminy! I guess I'd better get busy on that ark!

It was overcast when I left to run some errands, and by the time I came out of the grocery store (my last errand), it was pouring! After loading my stuff in the car, I had to unload it when I got home...not a long way from the garage to the house by any means, but it was coming down hard enough that I got soaked! No big deal,I guess, because I need to hop in the shower, anyway. I'll consider it a pre-shower, like the pre-rinse at the car wash!

I closed out my account at the credit union today. What a weird feeling! Now that I'm not working, there's really no reason to keep up 2 accounts, and we might as well get the higher interest on savings that Ken's bank gives him. What a strange feeling to not have my own account, though....

I also ran by Target to get Mother's Day cards. I get so emotional picking out those kinds of cards that I always get all choked up! It's kind of embarrassing to be standing there in the card aisle and wiping my eyes. I try not to let anyone see me.

Clinton did indeed win Indiana, as I'm sure you've heard. It was getting pretty close there for a while. She didn't win by much, but apparently she's staying in it.

Brr, after getting all wet, I'm chilled. I need a hot shower!

 

 

 

 

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