“And just like that, we’re on our way to everywhere”
The morning is a delight. The air is dry and cool. The breeze, from the north, is constant. The weather report predicts thunder storms and a high of 77˚. There is a tropical storm warning in effect.
I have to go out again for the third day in a row. I am not a fan of leaving the house. The roads are clogged, and I have to sit through a few light cycles to move left or right off the main road. I curse the drivers who have no idea where to go and go slowly while they look. The nuns would call driving on Cape Cod in the summer an occasion of sin, but I think of the cursing as a tension breaker, a reliever from the stress of driving behind cars from everywhere but here.
When I was a kid, my favorite road for a family ride or trip north was Route 1. I remember looking out the window almost the whole trip. I didn’t want to miss a thing. The dinosaur at the miniature golf course was one of my favorites. I always wondered if the course meant sending my golf ball through the teeth of a dinosaur. While on the road, we never stopped to eat. My mother packed picnic lunches, but I would have loved to have stopped at the Ship restaurant. It was huge and looked out of place. It was landlocked. The Prince Pizzeria had a leaning Tower of Pisa and a full parking lot. We drove right by it despite our pleas to eat there. The Kowloon Restaurant had a tiki on the front. It was everything a 50’s Chinese restaurant had. Drinks came in tiki glasses. Inside there was a waterfall, and the decor was big on plastic tikis. Russo’s Candy House was the one stop I most regretted watching disappear through the rear car window. I remember Adventure Car Hop and Woo Woo Ginsberg on the radio as it was one of his sponsors. It looked like the drive-in restaurants in American Graffiti but without the roller skates. You just sat in your car for the waitress to bring your food. I don’t remember exactly when The Adventure Car Hop disappeared and was replaced by some sort of business. I remember driving by and thinking it still looked like The Adventure Car Hop without the food.
Even now, should I choose to venture north, I would use Route 1 and Route 1A. If something caught my attention, I’d stop. I wouldn’t pack a lunch. I’d eat at some small drive-up. I’d probably have a cheeseburger and fries with a chocolate milk shake. Such are the joys of the road.
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July 8, 2021 at 11:44 am
Hi Kat,
Last night we again had a stray thunderstorm give us some more rain. Where’s the heat? This is North Texas in July. We haven’t had even one triple digit temperature day yet. Of course, I would be complaining if we were back in a drought with several 100°+ days behind us. 🙂
Some things along the way never change. When I was in college here in Dallas there was “Keller’s” drive-in restaurant. It’s still there in the same location serving the same menu items which you consume while sitting in your car. The car hop waitresses used to get around on roller skates, I think, but no longer. In Plano there’s the same Bowling alley, “Plano Bowl” that’s been there since I was in college. Except for a new coat of paint and modern technology scoreboards, it’s just like it was in the 1960s except you have to go outside to smoke. Everything else has changed as both tastes and customs evolve.
Keller’s has an impromptu antique car show one Saturday a month. The folks who probably used to hang out there as kids now bring their restored 1950s cars and hot rods to display them monthly. The cars are all carefully restored, polished and their proud owners hang out to answer questions. The owners are now all senior citizens with pot bellies, wrinkles and silver hair. The only thing that’s changed at Keller’s is the prices on the menu. They’ve gone up. 🙂
July 8, 2021 at 6:52 pm
Hi Bob,
We have missed the rain the rest of the state has gotten including downpours. The cape is quiet dry, and it appears as if the rain from Elsa will also miss the cape while the rest of the state could get as many as 4 inches. We have had 80˚ days which is hot for us this time of year. Boston has had at least 2 heat waves.
My old town Stoneham has changed, but there are still bulwark’s which remain. Hago Harrington’s Miniature Golf is one of them. It is an old time course which is still fun. The China Moon just closed. It had been open since the 50’s. No original businesses are left in the square though the buildings remain.
Antique car shows must be the rage. In bananas there is a huge one on Father’s Day up and down the Main Street. In my town, every week, antique cars are on display at the Stop and Shop parking lot. I’ve gone a few times.
I am always amazed by only one or two grocery bags containing items which cost close to $90.00.
July 8, 2021 at 7:38 pm
Many of the Chinese Restaurants have closed because the children of the immigrant parents who started them don’t want to run them after getting college degrees.
Prices are especially high these days because of supply chain disruptions during the pandemic. The lack of new housing starts and building supplies has made the residential housing market red hot.
Everyone enjoys nostalgia and seeing a completely restored 1965 Mustang or 57 Chevy Bellaire gives you a warm fuzzy feeling of the good/bad old days. 🙂
July 8, 2021 at 9:57 pm
The prices for home improvement are way over the top. Places like Home Depot are waiting to replenish their supplies of stuff like wood. The heightened gas prices were partly due to the pandemic but also to a lack of truck drivers.
The cape has always had higher prices for food. Companies defend this by saying the trucks have to travel far to get down here. What a load of bull.
July 8, 2021 at 11:55 am
We never stopped anywhere either, except those times when my half siblings were going to stay with their father during the summer vacation. It was called Taverna and I really can’t remember what we were eating but my guess is that it was french fries and hotdogs 🙂 🙂
We’ve gotten some more rain but the weather guessing keeps changing every hour so I can’t even guess which one of their guesses will come closest to the truth 🙂 I don’t mind, vacation starts tomorrow afternoon 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
July 8, 2021 at 6:54 pm
Hi Christer,
I wish you the most wonderful vacation.
The possibility of rain is part of the forecast for the next five days, but here we seem to be out of the storm path. It sputtered rain for maybe five minutes today. I dnd’t even need my windshield wipers. What a waste of water!
Have a great day.
July 8, 2021 at 10:03 pm
Hi Kat,
Thanks for the trip down Memory Route 1. I was a little too young for Adventure Car Hop but I remember it and Arnie Woo Woo Ginsburg. The Ship used to be The Place to go for fancy dining. I have eaten there but it was long after it stopped being The Place.
We never stopped anywhere either unless we were heading up to Lower Suncook Lake for a week long vacation at a rented cottage. Then we stopped at Butcher Boy in Salem, NH to buy Delmonico steaks to grill. That was a tradition. We also stopped at the general store in Center Barnstead but I have no idea what was purchased there. Cigarettes, probably. There wasn’t much else in Center Barnstead at the time. The Post Office, a church, a small bandstand on a hanky sized common, the general store, a few small store front offices. I sneezed the first time we drove through it and I literally missed the whole town. Pretty sure it’s not like that anymore.
Cool and rainy up here.
Enjoy the evening.
July 9, 2021 at 11:33 am
Hi Caryn,
I was young when Adventure Car hop was there, but I do remember wishing we could stop to eat, but it was just on the route from Stoneham to East Boston, but It just seemed like so much fun to have the waitresses come to the car.
I never heard of Center Barnstead, and I do like those small towns. We did pass a few on our infrequent vacations in Maine. I don’t remember ever stopping. My father drove the whole Mohawk Trail without stopping. He wanted to get home and nothing stopped him. On my trip to New Hampshire I stopped for fresh corn and tomatoes. I like to stop!
A rainy Friday means staying home as the roads will be filled.!!