Vintage roadside

[LizzieMaine]

Hitler was very much a "car guy."

The idea of an American superhighway system was widely discussed by futurists in the 1930s, with Norman Bel Geddes at the forefront of the discussion. He was responsible for the General Motors Futurama exhibit at the New York World's Fair, which postulated that by 1960, the US would be an entirely automobile-dependent nation, with all communities linked by a vast network of over-and-under superhighways, and evidently no need for pedestrians, public transportation, or railroads at all. Cars would be "guided by radio" while their drivers -- all smiling upper-middle-class white people -- sat back and relaxed.

Such a vision of course had nothing to do with the fact that Albert Sloan paid for the exhibit, but nonetheless, a lot of what was prophesied came true. Unfortunately, much of it turned out to be a good bit less pleasant than the Futurama anticipated -- in The World Of Tomorrow there were no traffic jams, fuel shortages, fatal accidents, neighborhoods destroyed for parking lots, or young people turned into violent, angry thugs by tetraethyl lead emissions in the atmosphere.

Anyway, the Chrysler exhibit was better -- they had a 3D movie showing the assembly of a Plymouth, narrated by Major Bowes, no less.

 

[BlueTrain]

Violent, angry thugs? That's undoubtedly because they weren't the types who built plastic models. Model airplane cement had a superior, uh, fragrance, though you had to be careful not to glue your nose to something in a moment of inattention.

Germany and England were both very car oriented and there were many enthusiasts in both countries, even if the car-owning population was low. As soon as the die Autobahn opened and Hitler has made his triumphal drive-through, race car drivers used it to do the same thing you and I would probably do: see how fast they could go. One promptly killed himself. His name was Bernd Rosemeyr and if nothing else, he earned a page on Wikipedia.

 

[Fading Fast]

Purely from an old memory, but when I read a book ("Nothing Like it in the World" by Stephen Ambrose) years back on a the building of the transcontinental railroad, there was a section on how hard it was to survey the land for the smartest route to build (flat land, avoiding expensive builds over water or around / through mountains, etc., but not adding too many miles to the ultimate route) as, basically, the surveyors had to hike into the wilderness and use relatively primitive (to a modern world) surveying tools.

Then, just under a hundred years later when they surveyed for the national highway system and could fly over it and use other modern technology to identify the best route across the country - sometime like 95% of the time - they found that the transcontinental survey had picked the best route despite all its handicaps. Pretty cool commentary on the skill of those mid-19th Century surveyors.

As always, there are two (or more) sides to every argument. Some say America is so big that highways and individual cars make more sense than trains do in, say, a more densely populated Europe. Maybe, but I'd bet had we built it, we'd be actively using a high-speed train network today as it fits in well with the Millennials' ethos.

I'm for the trains, but that's just a personal preference as I get that the arguments on both sides are way more robust than my two-sentence summary above. What really amazes me is the cost to build rail miles today. The few high speed train routes being built cost such an insane amount per mile that you know we'll never build a comprehensive high-speed rail network in this country.

 

[Fading Fast]

Hitler was very much a "car guy."...

He was indeed. The Volkswagen (people's car) company was started by Hitler in the late '30s as a state-owned company to mass produce an affordable car for the "average" German.

For himself, he seemed to like Mercedes (it's interesting how almost all of these for-the-people / spread-the-wealth politicians seem to like very high-end cars - and other luxury items - for themselves) and had many custom-made (like those six wheelers we see in all those film clips of Hitler rallies from the '30s).

He also had a quite-luxurious private train custom made for himself. Which, until he declared war on America was called "Amerika" and then changed to a name I forget, but it was one of those long, heavy German names (I think - this is all from memory).

 

[dh66]

A pair of repurposed A frame burger joints from the 60s. The first is in Glencoe, AL and is still a great burger joint. The second location, in Fort payne, AL, is now a Mexican restaurant. It is also highly reccomended if you're ever in the area.

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[Benzadmiral]

Below is just a random list of some fun off-or-less-on-the-radar things to do in NYC.

. . .

• Tudor City is an often over-looked group of beautiful pre-war buildings right in mid-town https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_City They were built as middle-class housing before the war, but you'd never think "middle class" from the exterior architecture

--

That's where Napoleon Solo would have lived in the mid-Sixties -- very close to U.N.C.L.E. Headquarters!

 

[triple-d]

Country store on dirt road, Gordonton, North Carolina, 1939. Photo by Dorothea Lange

 

[BobHufford]

There used to be the Burger Family in someone’s yard in Mt. Grove, MO for years. I miss them.

 

[Kahuna]

Country store on dirt road, Gordonton, North Carolina, 1939. Photo by Dorothea Lange
View attachment 109356

What is amazing is that this place still stands and can be seen on Google Street View at 75 Wheelers Church Rd., Cedars Grove, North Carolina.

 

[Zombie_61]

What is amazing is that this place still stands and can be seen on Google Street View at 75 Wheelers Church Rd., Cedars Grove, North Carolina.

That's wonderful! Doesn't seem to be much of a going concern though...

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

In my area the Hi-way 39 Drive In was a local landmark for many years. Sadly, it was torn down and a Wal-Mart is now there. Up until the early 1990s Beach Boulevard (California 39) still had a sort of Route 66 flavour to it as it was the main route from L.A. to Orange County before the advent of freeways. In addition to old motels, the stretch of Beach Boulevard that ran from Buena Park to Westminster was dotted with little mom and pop antique/curio shops, a couple of old school diners, a toy museum, an alligator farm and a fortune teller. The only vestige of the old Beach Boulevard is Hobby City/Adventure City -- the latter being a small kiddie theme park.


NW corner of Beach Boulevard and Trask Avenue looking West

Also another Beach Blvd landmark, The Mad Greek restaurant, which had been around since the early '70s recently closed for good.

 

[Zombie_61]

^ Northwest of you in the city of Whittier, our local drive-in was the Sundown Theater.

Opened in August of 1954, it became another victim of the decline of drive-in theaters and was closed in 1990. It was used as a swap meet for several years (as happens with most drive-in theaters here in southern California) but was demolished in 1999 and replaced by a Home Depot.

You're absolutely right about the changes on Beach Boulevard over the years. I don't often need to drive down that stretch between Buena Park and Huntington Beach these days, but every time I do it's a new experience and mostly unfamiliar to me. At least they got rid of that "hooker row" stretch through Stanton; for a while there in the mid- to late-80s you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a "working girl". I don't mean that to sound judgemental, but a little discretion goes a long way and those women were anything but discreet.

 

[KY Gentleman]

This is a sign “on the main drag” in Myrtle Beach
(Ocean Blvd) during the off season.
I don’t think this is the message the owner wants to send...

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

^ Northwest of you in the city of Whittier, our local drive-in was the Sundown Theater.

Opened in August of 1954, it became another victim of the decline of drive-in theaters and was closed in 1990. It was used as a swap meet for several years (as happens with most drive-in theaters here in southern California) but was demolished in 1999 and replaced by a Home Depot.

You're absolutely right about the changes on Beach Boulevard over the years. I don't often need to drive down that stretch between Buena Park and Huntington Beach these days, but every time I do it's a new experience and mostly unfamiliar to me. At least they got rid of that "hooker row" stretch through Stanton; for a while there in the mid- to late-80s you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a "working girl". I don't mean that to sound judgemental, but a little discretion goes a long way and those women were anything but discreet.

I could do a whole thread on "You Know You're on Beach Blvd..." but only the people from Southern California would get it.

Funny story: One day I found a pack of cigarettes and for some odd reason I pocketed it even though I don't smoke. Later on that day on Beach Blvd, a woman stopped me asking for a cigarette, I told her that I didn't have any and went on my way. I then remembered the pack of cigarettes in my pocket so I turned around and gave them to her. She then hugged me.

 

[KY Gentleman]

The fireworks store is a pretty regular sight in The South because a lot of tourists come from states where they aren’t allowed.
Since I was a kid I remember driving by these places and they look the same now as they did back then.

 

[1mach1]

Glen Echo, MD

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[1mach1]

Cool boomerang pull handles on a gold anodized aluminum storefront in Antwerp Belgium.

Pic by @EstherWeis

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[3fingers]

 

[1mach1]

View attachment 110956

That place is cool. Not to far from my house. Worth checking out if you are in the area!

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[Atticus Finch]

Saw the Dorothea Lange North Carolina roadside photo earlier in this thread. A year or so ago, my neighbors and I recreated her 1930s photo on my North Carolina Man Deck.

AF