A sentimental drive down the Nostalgia Highway

Mark Glover’s AutoGlo car reviews also can be seen in the Northern & Central California Cruisin’ News magazine published monthly out of Folsom, California.

Sacramento, California -- Perhaps it's a result of being mostly cooped up in my home for more than a year -- like millions of others amid the COVID crisis -- but I'm feeling nostalgic these days.

I've been particularly focused on things I miss from my early days of car travel.  Here are six memories.  They might be yours as well:

-- I miss road signs and billboards.  Sure, you still see them today, but their numbers are way down from the 1960s.  Critics justly claimed that many billboards were unsightly, and decaying signs and billboards added to the visual disruption on the open road.  Alas, I remember and miss the red and white Burma Shave road signs that were often clever, and almost always prompted a chuckle.  I remember seeing the over-the-top billboards touting the charms of the Wall Drug Store along Interstate 90 in South Dakota. The famous roadside stop prompted people to make their own signs when traveling abroad, including a homemade mileage posting at the Taj Mahal in India. Ugly or not, road signs and billboards offered the promise of hot food, needed rest and welcome relief in the miles ahead.

-- Along a similar line, I miss the instantly recognizable orange roofs of Howard Johnson's motels and restaurants (28 flavors of ice cream!) and the iconic Holiday Inn motel signs -- green and yellow, with arrow and star decorations.  Howard Johnson's reputation for slow restaurant service once made fodder for a brutal "Mad" magazine parody, but the restaurant food was always good, the ice cream refreshing.  And for me, the Holiday Inn sign offered the bliss of a quick trip to the lobby and then falling face-first onto a comfy double bed at the end of a 500-mile drive.

-- I even miss the old television commercials for motor vehicles, the ads that stayed in our brains because of the catchy music and jingles associated with them.  Yes, I'm old enough to remember Dinah Shore singing, "See the USA in Your Chevrolet."  Who could forget Pontiac's "wide tracking" campaign?  Firestone was equally adept on the music front.  I can still hear "Where the Rubber Meets the Road."  For people of a certain age -- mine, for example -- these jingles are as memorable as anything produced now by Coca-Cola, McDonald's or State Farm insurance.

-- Remember when gas stations provided real service? Remember gas pump jockeys. They would not only fill up your gas tank but wipe down your windshield and check your oil.  The really top-notch jockeys would clean all the windows and bring the oil dipstick over to the driver so he/she could verify the oil level.  Back in the day, if things were slow, multiple gas pump jockeys would work on your stopped vehicle, the team moving in a blur to get the job done in minutes. Then, they would run your credit card over that hand-held manual device, tear off your receipt and send you on your way. Sure, self-serve is convenient. But I miss that old-timey customer service.

-- I also miss car hops.  Yes, I experienced them near the tail end of their popularity, but what a treat it was back in the day to place that food/drink order and have the goods hooked onto the driver's side window by a smiling, hustling hop.  Some car hop joints still exist, and when I see them, I'm ready to drive in ... and enjoy some memories.  My best car hop memory is from 1966, traveling through southern Montana on a bone-dry summer day in a 1964 Ford Fairline with no air conditioning.  I remember my throat being so dry that I could barely swallow.  Parched lips felt like sandpaper.  And then there was a sign for an A&W Root Beer, which loomed like an oasis in the Sahara.  Ice-cold root beer in frosted mugs -- served by a car hop -- went down so well that, to this day, when I drink an A&W root beer I am transported to that long-ago summer afternoon and the glorious relief I felt in that sweltering Ford.

-- With so many crossover sport-utility vehicles on the market now, it's easy to forget the art of packing the trunk of a wide, flat passenger car rolling out for a lengthy road trip. You had to figure the angles for the suitcases, and which ones would stack ... and those that wouldn't.  Small bags could be wedged in the sides, perhaps joined by a portable ice water jug.  Garment bags would be put in last, tenderly laid on top of the suitcase pile in hopes that wrinkles would be defeated.