Comments on: Totem Pole Motel, Southwest USA 1960

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:04:48 +0000

Three cheers for peanut butter and chocolate! It’s the only reason I ever go to Baskin-Robbins these days, too. There’s a certain amount of atmosphere lacking at my local BR – it’s right next door to a tattoo parlor.

By: Tim Severs

Tim Severs — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 15:25:28 +0000

Neat picture, Charles. Gets me thinking of family vacations during the summer. Did you see the old Coke machine in the back? I made a papier mache mask once. Why not visit Baskin Robbins the rest of the year as well?
Just curious.

By: Tom from Long Island

Tom from Long Island — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 16:59:28 +0000

Oh yes….paper mache. Very light weight and goo-ey. I used it to build the L’arch D’ triumphe as extra credit in French class. It was the only way to get better than a “D” score on my report card. Où sont les toilettes, s’il vous plait?

Tom

By: Trish

Trish — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 09:29:13 +0000

While driving from Santa Monica to Maine on more then one occasion we stopped at just about every single place that looked just like that. I bought lots of stuff, from neon colored decals of each state visited to little cactus filled covered wagons. Trading posts ROCK.

RIP Jerry.

By: Nudie Girl #2

Nudie Girl #2 — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 01:57:22 +0000

I have a vague memory of making a paper mache cow or bull laying down with his (or her) leg bending outward in front, and hiding it in the bushes outside our church, to retrieve later and present to one of the nuns. It’s the weirdest thing . . . maybe it was a dream. Oh, also peanut butter and chocolate ice cream from Baskin Robbins is great to use in a beer float . . . of course how I figured that out, well, that’s another story, involving skinny dipping. Sounds like another dream. Life is funny. Thanks again Charles for opening the floodgates of nostalgia and creativity. I vote for a paper mache project.

By: Brad

Brad — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 01:43:19 +0000

Boy, does this bring back some memories! Of particular note to me is the oval “ATA” sign. My father was a BIG fan of AAA (as I am today) and we never went on a long road trip without a Triptych. But I remember being very disturbed when we would pass motels with this cheezy “ATA” sign. It was like the motel wasn’t good enough to pass AAA’s muster, so they had to settle for second best, and hope no one would notice that the middle letter didn’t match So sad. Only AAA approved motels for us, thank you very much!

So here’s to AAA and you, Mr. Phoenix!

By: Anna Lee

Anna Lee — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:28:12 +0000

Please, Charles, bring back paper mache totem poles! Next online project maybe?

By: Christine

Christine — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 17:53:38 +0000

What a great picture! I’d say these are giant Kachina dolls, not totem poles, actually. I grew up in Arizona and there were a lot of these road-stops up north near Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon area especially….tourist-y places where you could go home with fist-fulls of fake turquoise and spearheads. You could also wander in the woods up north or in the deserts down south when I was younger, and find authentic pieces of pottery and jewelry laying around on the surface or just under. We’d make weekend trips just to collect the stuff and we never went home empty-handed. Of course, we didn’t know you weren’t supposed to take the treasure home! I remember we’d find at least a couple of corn-grinders each time we’d go. Such fun. Great slide…thanks, as usual!