10 things I miss about yesterday’s highways

Last year, I went on a “bucket list” tour of the Lincoln Highway, Route 66 and other highways across the country while compiling information for my latest book, Yesterday’s Highways. It reminded me of a lot of things I missed — highway sights and experiences from my youth that are just no longer there. So, I decided to compile a list. Here are my top 10:

The Sunset Drive-In in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

1. Drive-in theaters

Drive-ins are largely at thing of the past. At their peak, more than 4,000 such theaters dotted the landscape; today, there are barely 300 (The Sunset in San Luis Obispo, pictured at top, is one of them). Many of them made their home along the highway, close enough to town for easy access, but far enough away to keep the bright lights and revving engines away from quiet neighborhoods. Some drew attention to themselves with huge neon-lit murals on the back of their screens, where giant horses reared up in San Pedro and Van Nuys, and sailboats plied the ocean waves in Lakewood (all in California and all, sadly, gone today).

A juice stand, no longer serving juice, in Chowchilla, Calif.

2. Orange juice stands

I grew up on Highway 99 in California, and whenever I’d head north, I’d pass something called the Mammoth Orange in Fairmead, near Chowchilla. It was a juice stand under a giant canopy that also served “Alaska-sized” burgers. There was one at the southbound exit that, at some point, got painted blue and white with little stars and a red stripe. It was called Fast Eddie’s and got torn down in the 1990s. The stand off northbound 99 lasted a little longer, until a new interchange forced its removal in the middle of the next decade. Fresno radio personality Dean Opperman even recorded a song about it, as his alter-ego, Bobby Volare.

A Howard Johnson’s postcard touts its 28 flavors of ice cream.

3. Howard Johnson’s

At one point, HoJo seemed like it was everywhere. The roadside restaurant-diner-coffee shop started out as a Massachusetts ice cream stand serving 28 flavors back in the 1920s, and within a half-century, it was the nation’s largest restaurant chain. It had motels, next door, too. The chain exploded in the 1940s when it won contracts to build locations every 50 miles or so along eastern turnpikes. Everyone recognized its orange roofs, weathervanes and “Simple Simon and the Pieman” logo. But by the 2010s, the chain had been reduced to a single location, in Lake George, N.Y.

An old-style International House of Pancakes building in Burbank, Calif.

4. International House of Pancakes

Yes, this chain is still around, but somehow, it’s just not the same. Who can forget the days when it wasn’t called IHOP, and when it wasn’t just another boxy restaurant? The earliest International House of Pancakes locations were housed in steeply gabled A-frame buildings with Tudor-style siding and a replica gas lamp on the sign out front. The chain really did go for an international flavor back then, offering menu items like Maine Blueberry Pancakes, Viennese Potato Pancakes, Brazilian Banana Pancakes and Tropical Tahitian Pancakes. Ah, those were the days!

Sprague’s Super Service on Route 66 has been restored but no longer sells gas.

5. Full-service gas stations

There was a time when service stations really did offer service! When you pulled in, you’d hear a double bell go “ding-ding,” and an attendant in a spiffy (sometimes in a cap and bowtie) would come out and pump your gas for you. Not only that, he’d check your tires and your oil, wipe your windshield for you, and give you a free map of the area if you needed directions. Phillips 66 even enlisted former nurses to make the rounds to be sure its restrooms were clean. The era of full service went out the window for the most part in the 1970s with the Arab oil embargo, but a few places, like Oregon, continued to put the “full” in “full service.”  

Mom’s Cafe in Utah.

6. Coffee for a quarter (or cheaper)

Long before Starbucks was charging $4 or $5 for a designer cup of coffee, roadside cafés were keeping motorists and truckers awake with coffee for a quarter. Or a nickel. Back in 1977, Perry’s Chuck Wagon on Highway 99 ran a special charging a nickel for a cup of java (the regular price was just 20 cents). It was my parents’ regular stop between our home in Fresno and my grandparents’ place in Southern California, and we’d always pick up a sandwich and a slice of pie there. Unfortunately, the small chain went out of business, along with many other mom-and-pop roadside coffeehouses.

A bovine statue stands guard over a road in Winston-Salem, N.C.

7. Roadside wonders

Once upon a time, roadside architects put an emphasis on the creative. An ice cream stand might be shaped like and cone, or a root beer place like a mug of root beer. There was a chain of seven motor inns called Wigwam Villages, stretching from Kentucky to the West Coast, where you could spend the night in a replica wigwam. Giant “muffler men” like the Gemini Giant in Illinois and Big Chip in Pennsylvania guarded the side of the road, along with their female counterparts, the Uniroyal Gals. Attractions like the Blue Whale of Catoosa on Route 66 gave kids a break from the long, monotonous drive. Most of them are gone now, but a few are still there, remnants of an age when crazy was cool and creativity stole the show.

Valentine Diner at the Route 66 museum.

8. Diners

Yes, they still have diners, but most of them aren’t what they once were: long, rectangular prefab buildings that looked like rail cars because they were built at a factory and transported to their ultimate destination... yes, on rail cars! One manufacturer, Valentine Diners, sold small, boxy buildings for $5,000 a pop (or monthly payments of just $40). With just 8-10 stools, they were easy — and cheap — to operate with just a waiter and a cook. It’s no wonder so many of them popped up along the nation’s highways in the middle of the 20th century.

The Blue Whale of Catoosa on Route 66 in Oklahoma.

9. Amusement parks

Before Disneyesque super-sized theme parks, smaller roadside attractions dotted the highway, such as the aforementioned Blue Whale of Catoosa and an animal park behind Pea Soup Andersen’s restaurant on Highway 101 in Buellton, Calif., which operated around 1970. There was Santa Claus Lane in Santa Barbara, where giant statues of Santa (poking his head out of a chimney) and Frosty the Snowman held forth, overseeing a line of Christmas-themed shops and restaurants along the California Coast. They’re all gone now, but the street is still called Santa Claus Lane. One of my favorites was Lion Country Safari in Irvine, Calif., where you could drive a jeep through the park and gaze at African-wildlife like zebras and, of course, lions. Unfortunately, it closed in 1984.

Old Motel Drive in Fresno, Calif., is now just a memory.

10. Neon corridors

You knew you were coming up on a new town when you saw the glow of neon lights up ahead. Once upon a time, motels owners built neon gateways to many towns, offering travelers a place to bed down for the night. They were like miniature versions of Vegas, and they provided a template on which the Nevada gaming capital built its empire. But as new interstates bypassed old highways, those neon gateways lost their luster. The motels that once seemed so glamorous were torn down or forgotten, converted into apartments or seedy, low-rent shadows of their former selves. The neon went dark, turning out the lights on the golden era of America’s highways.