If the beds are comfortable and the sheets clean . . .
Retro motels that arose in the 1950s and 1960s are seeing a resurgence in American tourists longing for a simpler vacation.
Doo Wop motels born in the era have come back into style in the past few years.
Through a rare combination of economics, geography and chance, the island of Wildwood in New Jersey contains a national treasure: the highest combination of mid-century modern hospitality architecture.
These hotels embrace a retro style of looping neon signs, plastic palm trees, cheap mini-golf courses and simple living spaces.
Industrial design professor, Mark Havens, spent 10 years capturing the tourist destination before most of them disappeared for his book Out of Season: The Vanishing Architecture of the Wildwoods, which was published by Booth-Clibborn Editions.
And though many of the hotels have since been demolished, the kitschy architecture and unadorned accommodations remind vacationers of a more simple by-gone era.
That's why I used to like the Best Western motels back in the day. Best Western was more of a booking network than a motel chain, with member properties needing only to conform to standards for cleanliness, hospitality, and value rather a slavish fixation on a uniform look or style. This would allow for a certain degree of individuality, even 'quirkiness', among properties — a system which would have welcomed both the Bel-Air and the Jolly Roger as well as more modern and 'luxurious' lodgings, so long as they were all able to meet the standards. -"BB"-
Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?
