A piece of Phoenix history restored: Arby’s neon sign will glow again on East Thomas Road
Sign expert Steve Skye spent a month refurbishing this neon 10-gallon hat Arby’s sign in Phoenix. Photo: Steve Skye
From AZCentral: Steve Skye has been going to the Arby’s on 38th Street and Thomas Road “for forever.”
So when he learned that the restaurant — and its famous neon 10-gallon hat sign outside — would undergo renovations, he hoped the sign would stay.
“You just don’t see the old stuff around anymore. There are very few things that are still there like they were when I was growing up,” said Skye, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 50 years.
Haar’s Drive-In movie theater may soon cease operations, property for sale
Vickie Hardy said in May 2013, that they run a pretty lean business at the 60-year -old Haar’s Drive-In near Dillsburg. That year would be the last season film would be available making the theater’s 40-year-old film projector obsolete. Photo: Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record/Sunday News
From York Daily Record: Arguably one of the best drive-in theaters in Pennsylvania, Haar’s has been a draw for movie-goers in the state for more than half a century. But now, the operation may soon close down for good.
Last Sunday, a sign went up on the Dillsburg-area property, advertising that the space was being sold — a move that not only shocked the community but also the family-oriented business.
Vickie Hardy, granddaughter of the original owner Vance Haar, said the family had a “never-ending” lease agreement with the property owners, GIANT Food Stores, who now has decided to advertise the space for sale.
18 Must-See Roadside Attractions for the Perfect American Road Trip
PHOTO:Christopher Rowland/Flickr
From Fodor’s Travel: No matter where you’re driving, this is what you should be looking for.
Road trips are an unpredictable and intimate method of exploring a place. Foregoing the long-distance leaps of the plane, traveling via car presents an opportunity to view the world on a micro level by wedging yourself into the cracks and crevices to discover what is hidden inside.
Roadside attractions exist between the major cities as detours on the way to someplace more significant, and they can be highly entertaining, a waste of time, or just plain weird. Besides creating a more memorable road trip experience, roadside attractions provide a peek into the local flavor and mindset, bring exposure to differing perspectives, and present the chance to interact with people you would never come across otherwise. Here is a list of the types of roadside attractions that should make the cut on any comprehensive road trip itinerary.
Readers asked what the deal is with ‘flying nun’ architecture and we fell into a rabbit hole
Snarf’s Sandwiches on 38th Avenue in Berkeley, Oct. 30, 2019. Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
From Denverite: It’s just so great when Denverite readers go from wondering to asking.
Carrie D. and Jim C. could have looked at the wavy, jutting roof atop Snarfs at 5001 W. 38th Ave. in Berkeley and shrugged. Instead they asked Denverite to dig into what they called the “flying nun” buildings around town.
Short answer: The Berkeley sandwich shop (and its gas station cousin in Arvada that Carrie and Jim also referenced) are remnants from 1960s Denver. The architectural style is technically called Googie — the same playful, car-oriented style brought to the city’s attention by the Tom’s Diner historic preservation controversy earlier this year.
A Farewell to Dairy Queens
Illustration by David Palumbo.
From Pocket: On one Thursday afternoon, the front lawns of Lockney, a South Plains farming town of fewer than two thousand, were still dusted with the windblown residue of the cotton harvest. Main Street was largely deserted, and most of the storefronts were empty. Though locals long ago became hardened to news of economic woes, the latest casualty was one that few could fathom: the local Dairy Queen, the iconic fast-food mainstay of small-town Texas, closed in late October. “They came in during the night and took everything,” said Buster Poling, Lockney’s city manager.
Now the store is a hollow shell sitting in the shadow of the town’s rusted water tower. Its red roof is marked with a teardrop-shaped scar where the DQ logo once perched. Inside, the menu boards have been stripped clean. On a side window, “Go Horns” is still written in white shoe polish, a tribute to the local high school football team, whose fans would gather at Dairy Queen after games.