Gas, Food, and Lodging: A Postcard Odyssey, Through the Great American Roadside

by John Baeder

Postcards and photographs depicting gas stations, motels, and diners are accompanied by a discussion of the changing roadside landscape of the United States

Genres: Travel, Art, History

Paperback

First published March 1, 1981

Reviews

[Jennifer Canaveral · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun collection of old pictures and postcards (some with commentary from the author) from motels and diners across the United States. The author talks about his experiences visting many of them and I enjoyed seeing the different types of architecture sprawling all over America's road system, especially the ones less travelled.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author, a renowned super-realist painter whose huge canvasses are often taken from postcard images of American roadside attractions, takes us on a journey back through his fascination with postcards and then onto the American road to visit the places that spawned these tiny pieces of vernacular art. I still go back and dip into this book, which spurred my own postcard collecting mania. Heavily and beautifully illustrated on nearly every page with postcard images, the author's paintings, and contemporary photographs of some of the postcard sites.