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captainsblogStrange things are happening out on the 90, as we know the mainline New York State Thruway in these parts. On the way to and from Rochester on Monday, signs were posted in both directions that many of the on-highway service plazas would be "gas only" as of July 29. I vaguely remember hearing about this some months back. The Thruway Authority had entered a deal with a new service provider for the 27 spaced-out "services" (as the Brits shorthand them) on its almost 500 miles of mainline from the Bronx to the Pennsylvania border. Some states name them for famous personages, like the Jersey Turnpike's famed namings for Joyce Kilmer (born there, and he was a he), Alexander Hamilton (shot to death there) and Vince Lombardi (neither born nor died there, but got his first coaching gig at an Englewood high school). The Thruway generally goes with the name of the town in which the land sits, although at least two in these parts break that pattern. Seneca is nowhere near Seneca Lake or the county or town of the same name; likewise, Ontario sits nowhere near lake, county or town. Some are named after their host-town venues that make them sound vaguely magical- or downright strange.
None of them could be built or rebuilt today anywhere other than where highway planners put them beginning about 70 years ago. As part of the general trend toward highway uniformity and beautification in the 1960s, Congress banhammered the operation of commercial facilities along freeways designated as Interstates, with limited exceptions for vending machines, and with the grandfathering of all locations that existed before January 1960. The idea was to encourage motorists to get off the freeways and find service stations and restaurants in the little towns that had largely been killed off by their construction. It has not gone well.
This restriction has also led to strange decisions in this state, at least, trying to expand its tourism reach. Right before COVID hit and closed the border, Canadians were among our biggest supply of tourists, and their prime points of entry were from the several bridges connecting to the 190 north of here. The Thruway peeps decided to build a humongous Welcome Center on Grand Island, but because of that silly law, they were forced to build it off the highway proper, with limits on signage advertising it and requiring a turn from a regular exit for motorists coming from Canada and practically a U-turn for them on the way home. Even before the end of the Before Times, it sat largely ignored.
But those 27 grandfathered locations would be commercial gold, you'd think. Captive audiences going by, knowing you'd be their last chance for a snack or a pee for 20 to 50 miles, would be pounding down your doors, you'd think.
You'd think wrong.
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As I mentioned in some previous babbling, we weren't Thruway people when I was a kid. Most of our travels were in the southernmore reaches of Upstate, and I inherited my cheap gene from my father, who was a toll evader that would have made Stan Shunpike proud.
So my first experience with these culinary delights was when I started making trips as far west as Buffalo. I was then driving a 1971 Ford Maverick, a ten year old wreck on wheels, and didn't feel comfortable straying from where I knew there would be 24-hour service stations and a reliable police presence if the thing broke down. From Ithaca or any points south, the point of entry to the westbound 90 would be at Seneca Falls/Waterloo, and just past it was the first of those grandfathered places of purveyance:
Junius Ponds. That's the strange one I linked to earlier. Back in the early 80s, they looked much like they did when they were first put up, only with way fewer cool cars:
Ah, Hot Shoppes. The roadside distraction that was Marriott's first foray into the service business. They eventually acquired rights to the rest stops on the Thruway, although all I remember from that era was some really disgusting egg salad sandwiches out of vending machines at Junius Ponds. Then came Cuomo The First, Prince Mario of Pious, and with him, a plan to upgrade all of these ancient outposts into virtual palaces of tourism:
That Swiss Chalet motif replaced the original bunkers in almost all places, but sadly, Canada's Swiss Chalet chain did not take advantage. The operating rights mostly remained with Marriott, and they kept it plain vanilla throughout the system. Mickey D's, BK, later Arby's and Timmy's took most of the dining slots, as did one other once beloved eatery of my even earlier youth:
Roy Rogers.
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I missed the Western craze in film and television that was mostly over by my childhood years. Mister Ed was about as close as I got to a horse. Still, Roy Rogers was embedded enough in the popular culture that I knew the name, I knew he was married to Dale Evans, and I knew the "Happy Trails" song that was his signature sign-off. What he had to do with roast beef and fried chicken, I didn't know, but I quickly found out when he came to East Meadow in the mid-70s.
Fast food was still in its tween phase then. Trips to McDonalds were originally virtual roadies, to Levittown or Westbury strips along parts of highways we didn't usually travel. East Meadow eventually got one, and a King, and a couple of Friendly's weirdly spaced about a half mile apart; but by the time I got to tenth grade, the new kid in town was Hardee's. It was the closest to the high school and really the only one you could walk to, slog a roast beef sammich and fries, and walk back in the 40 allotted minutes. Plus I had a major crush on one of the cashiers, who I later learned was dating a friend of mine and possibly a future serial killer (not the same guy). So I spent plenty of time there until, suddenly, it was no longer Hardee's we'd hurry on down to.
Roy had ridden into town. The roast beef was better. Fries now came in "holsters." The center of the service area was now a "Fixins Bar" where you could load on sauces and sloppins of lettuce, tomato and onion to your heart's delight. And the cashier still worked there! In addition to lunch houring over there, Roy's became the occasional weekend dining "night out" of choice for me and the 'rents.
Then it was off for Cornell. Ithaca didn't have one, but then, Ithaca didn't have a lot of things. Around the time I started my Western New York life, Marriott began getting out of the roadside market to focus more on hotel properties. Most of the Roy’s locations got sold off to Hardee’s, of all people, with Mickey and the King taking over others. Yet for whatever reason, their service plaza locations on the 90 stayed in place, or at least several of them did. In those roughly 15 years in the 90s and oughts when I was doing a lot of driving along that corridor, I would sometimes go out of my way, or rather not go out of my way, to stop at one for old time’s sake. The Double R bar burger and holster were nothing special foodwise and overpriced at that, but I have quite a sense of nostalgia, and this was one way it came out.
When Emily and I took our February 2015 trip by train to see Billy Joel, that turned into a hideous bus trip home from seeing Billy Joel, the Megabus stopped at one of the Thruway service areas that still had a Roy’s. It was open but the lines too long to even raid the Fixins Bar, putting yet another horrible coda on a horrible trip.
——
So now, almost 40 years after those Swiss chalets first popped up, the word came down from Cuomo the Second, Prince Andrew of Gropes, that it was time to do it all over again. I noticed that many of the signs on the highway and stalls in the buildings were empty, and it turns out they’ve been having trouble getting anyone to fill them. So they brought in a new international operator to take them all over and begin rebuilding the buildings, and architects are promising rotating knives to slaughter the tenants shiny new facilities with much nicer choices:
Including Chick-fil-A. Well, that’s one I won’t be going to.
Roughly half of the buildings are scheduled to remain open while the other half are being renovated from the ground up, at most, I can only find one Roy's that remains. But a new family has bought the rights to the cane, and promises great things and new locations, coming soon to a strip mall near you.
I’m not going to hold my holster in anticipation.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-31 02:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-07-31 09:10 pm (UTC)1. So what does Roy Rogers have to do with roast beef? You promised an answer, and didn't give one.
2. BTW, Roy Rogers was sorta a real name. The actor had some horribly un-Hollywood-like name, and when he was hired, the studio was into alliterative names, and told him to pick one, but be quick about it. Dr. Roy Rogers was the town dentist where he grew up, and so that was what came to mind. I know this story, because the grandson of Dr. Roy DDS, is a Dermatologist, Dr. Roy Rogers III. (No, I don't know what RR Jr did.)
3. Somehow, I associate old highway rest stops with Howard Johnsons. I'm old enough that I remember when they had only 1 flavor. ("Blazing Saddles" joke, but I'm sure you know that). Heinz ditto.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-31 10:00 pm (UTC)2) His birth name was apparently Leonard Slye, which I personally think was way cooler. And I've never gotten the appeal of putting celebrities on food chains that had nothing to do with the product, like Roy Rogers and Kenny Rogers. Maybe it was just a Rogers thing; I wonder if Fred ever opened a chain of them but nobody could find them because they were in the Land of Make Believe.
3) I don't remember this, but apparently the original operator of the Thruway stops was HoJos until Marriott bought them out. They got all kinds of product placement in cinema before they went under, not only the gag in Blazing Saddles but one they actually paid Kubrick for in 2001. Fun fact: the last remaining HoJos restaurant is not far from you other than that pesky borker, in Lake Placid.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-31 10:17 pm (UTC)Yes, Leonard Slye. I half-remembered “Something Slye” Mr. Rogers could never have eaten fast food. Twenty lashes with an organic cardigan for suggesting it. Yes about HoJo’s being the original operator before Marriott (I think I did stop at the one at Lake Placid). The latter is somewhat better at hotels than they were at restos.
Totally changing the subject,....
Date: 2021-07-31 11:00 pm (UTC)Re: Totally changing the subject,....
Date: 2021-08-01 01:41 am (UTC)One of my favs too, but as you say, he hasn’t been posting much. Fascinating person to talk to. Was in touch with him hors-DW for a while, but mostly when I went to NYC regularly. Haven’t been doing that since well before the pandemic.