Passing Gas: And Other Towns Along the American Highway

by Gary Gladstone

“Explaining how to find her café in Gas, Kansas, Bonnie Steward said, ‘Come down Route 12, but if you blink, you'll pass Gas.'” Gas isn't all you'll be passing if you come along for the ride with author Gary Gladstone on a cross-country road trip across the U.S.A. With camera in hand and the penchant for the unexpected, Gladstone captures a photographic portrait of small towns with unusual names and the folks who keep them on the map with their (admittedly offbeat) civic pride. You'll meet bar buddies Don, Ron, and Flakey Jake from Goofy Ridge, Illinois; stop in at the mechanics shop in Nothing, Arizona, to confirm that Nothing really does sit in the middle of nowhere; and be regaled with colorful stories from the locals of Boogertown, North Carolina, about how the town got its name. So jump in the backseat of the car and get ready for an honest slice of apple-pie America, chock full of myths, legends, and laughs.• Gary Gladstone received the 1999 Award for Visual Excellence from the Image Bank, one of the nation's leading photo agencies.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Humor, Photography

144 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2003

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the perfect book for people watchers! Gladstone has traveled around the country to visit small towns with quirky names to discover how that name came to be and to photograph a resident there. These are a step above a regular photo. The time, the light, the background all work to bring out the essence of a normal person going about the day in rural America. But now each has become someone unique and of great worth...as each of us are.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a *very* humorous book and I'd commend it to anyone with a scatalogical sense of humor :-)

[Frederick Bingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is about towns with funny names: Gas, Kansas; Dull, Ohio; Yum Yum, Tennessee; Left Hand, West Virginia; etc.The author over the course of a couple of years visited these towns. In each he photographed someone in the town in front of some place that symbolized it. The book is mostly about portrait photography. The author also explains, if he knows, how the town got its funny name.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a hoot! Towns with unusually funny names and the history of the names. Great photos of locals.

[Kellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seriously how could I pass up this book when it was facing out on the library shelf? Hahaha Fun and quick read about uniquely named towns and how that name originated. Big smiles reading this one.