It is odd what triggers memories of youth. Now that my contract is in the winding down phase, or at least in a breather phase where I don’t need to work 7 days per week I started thinking about things to do when I was heading home. For some odd reason today I remembered \u201cThe Great Space Coaster\u201d and \u201cNo Gnews is good Gnews with Gary Gnu.\u201d Perhaps I simply remembered seeing a sign for Walla Walla, Washington on my drive here, I don’t know.<\/p>\n
So, tonight when I got home I started searching around on-line for some hokey tourist trap one could visit and get a few pictures taken, etc. Imagine my surprise when I didn’t find even one site to visit! I mean, coming from IL there are quite a few small towns with a nostalgic \u201cRoute 66\u201d gas station tourist trap where one can sign a guest book, etc. They feed on it because to or through a small town. I assumed there would be some place outside with an old shed Great Space Coaster stuff.<\/p>\n
When I was a teenager we didn’t have the Internet. We could not believe Walla Walla, Washington was an actual place. Imagine our shock when someone finally opened up a road atlas (or encyclopedia) and found it existed! Almost as shocked as we were to find out there really is a Toad Suck, AR. \u201cWelcome to Toad Suck where it is just another day,\u201d was a phrase we had fun with for a while.<\/p>\n
I mean seriously, if you happened to be close to one of these places for a trip of some kind, wouldn’t you want to swing by and get your picture taken with \u201clife size\u201d Gary Gnu under a sign saying \u201cWelcome to Walla Walla?\u201d Or how about standing next to an actual billboard saying \u201cWelcom to Toad Suck?\u201d<\/p>\n
During my college years I had a friend move to Denver. I went to visit her and her soon to be hubby and found out there was an actual street sign saying \u201cHooker St.\u201d where many of the people they knew (mostly guys so maybe it is a guy thing?) had taken pictures of themselves holding up a makeshift cardboard sign reading \u201c50 Cents.\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s those stupid things which make the fondest memories. Great to do when you are young when you have a lot of time left to live them down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"