James Lileks – The Gobbler, Motel Postcards, Coffee and Chrome, 1968 TV and Regrettable Food

A friend sent me a link to an internet gallery of motel postcards:

http://www.motelpostcards.com

It’s a lovely site, but any discussion of American motels of the 60s has to include Lileks’ homage to The Gobbler, the grooviest motel in Wisconsin. While a number of years old now, this gallery with commentary is the best thing Lileks has ever done and if you haven’t seen this, please visit these pages as soon as you have time to linger and laugh. Remember, Lileks prepared this long before Mad Men sparked interest in the 60s:

http://www.lileks.com/institute/motel/intro.html

And Lileks has his own state by state gallery of American motels:

http://www.lileks.com/motels/index.html

Coffee and Chrome is a gallery of American restaurants from the 1950s and 60s:

http://www.lileks.com/rest/index.html

His new gallery is not funny, but it would still be interesting to anyone who can remember the late 60s. This shows just how far we’ve come. It is called “1968 – 1 Week in Fargo TV.”

http://www.lileks.com/misc/tvguide/index.html

And of course, there’s the Gallery of Regrettable Food:

http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/index.html