The Lost Continent (44 page)

Radio stations

broadcast of baseball games, 204–5

and disc jockeys, 203–4

and hospital commercials, 224

mindlessness and stupidity of, 52–53

music

Eagles, 203–4

Mexican, 262

and news broadcasts, 206–7

public-radio network, 207

in South, 81–82

Spanish-speaking disc jockeys, 262

and talk-shows, 152

and weathermen, 260, 269

Rainey, Lawrence, 67

Ralph Lauren stores, 193, 316

Ramada Inn, Savannah, 95

Rapid City, South Dakota, 337

Reagan Administration and drug policy, 232

Reagan, Nancy, 136

Reagan, Ronald, 138, 189

as sportscaster, 8, 205

Recluse, Wyoming, 327

Red Cloud, Nebraska, 244

Redding, Otis, 91

Redwood National Park, 298

Redwood trees, 294, 296

Reed, Donna, 45

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, 57

Register and Tribune Building, Des Moines, 88, 308

Reno, Nevada, 304–5

Republicans, 4, 154–55

Restaurants

bowling alley, Elmira, N.Y., 198–99

breakfast in Columbus, Mississippi, 79

Caesar’s Palace buffet, Las Vegas, 286–87

Chuck’s in “Dullard,” 34

Dick’s Cafe, St. George, Utah, 279

4-Way Cafe, Wells, Nevada, 307

Golden Burro Cafe, Leadville, Colorado, 259

Happy’s Chinese, Idaho Falls, 314

Pennsylvania Dutch in Amish country, 159–61

Pizza Hut, Carbondale, Illinois, 55

“potato logs and cheese sticks”, Kanab, Utah cafe, 276–77

roadside cafe, Groton, Vermont, 191–92

Topic of the Town, Littleton, New Hampshire, 186–88

Revolutionary War, 131–32

Rhode Island, 173–76

Rice Krispies, 23

Ripley, Robert, 113

Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, 112–14

Roads

lack of signs, 31–32, 47–48

mountain, through Phantom Canyon, 255–56

Roanoke Island, 116–17

Roanoke, Virginia, 124–25

Roaring Mountain, Wyoming, 321

Rock Harbor, Massachusetts, 176, 178

Rock Island Railroad, 14, 322

Rock slides, 255, 275, 278

Rockefeller, John D., 130, 131–32

Rockwell, Norman, 45

Rocky
(film), 152

Rocky Mountains, 14, 58, 254–59, 275, 294, 311

snow storms, 260

and tourism, 259

Rome, Italy, 8

Ronald McDonald Institute of Mental Readjustment, 232

Rooney, Mickey, 14, 46

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 90, 91

Roosevelt, Franklin, 84

museum and Little White House at Warm Springs, 88–90

Roosevelt, Teddy, 336

Route 1, 181–84

Route 6, 234

Route 40, 302

Route 66, 267, 302

Rowan Oak (Faulkner’s home), 69–70, 73

Roy Rogers show, 290

Rules

of consumerism, 278

of dining out, 198–99

of travel, 125

Rushmore, Mount, 335–37

Ruskin, Nebraska, 243

Russell, Kansas, 245

RVs (recreational vehicles), 111

Sagamore, Massachusetts, 176

Saguache, Colorado, 261

St. Francis’s Cathedral, Santa Fe, 266

St. George, Utah, 279–80

St. John’s College, Santa Fe, 264, 266

St. Louis Cardinals, 198

St. Louis, Missouri, 146, 345

St. Onge, Wyoming, 335

Salad bars, and sanitation, 341

Salisbury, New Hampshire, 181

Salt Lake City, 281

San Antonio, Texas, 136

San Francisco, 299, 302, 305–6, 322

San Joaquin Valley, California, 292, 295

Sands (casino), 283

Sandusky, Ohio, 202

Sandwich, Massachusetts, 176

Sangre de Cristo mountains, 263, 316

Santa Fe, New Mexico, 260, 263–67

Santa Fe Railroad, 322

Santa Maria,
114

Sara Lee cakes, 106

Saturday Evening Post,
45

Sault Ste. Marie, 221

Savannah, Georgia, 92–95, 97–98

Savannah River, 95, 96

Sawtooth Mountains, 311

Schuylkill River, 150

Schwerner, Michael, 67

Scotch Grove, Iowa, 228

Seattle, 201

Segregation, 134–35

Selma, Alabama, 82

Senatobia, Mississippi, 68

Sequoia National Park, 294–97

Serenity, of Iowans, 1, 10, 347

Serial murders, 8, 306

Serling, Rod, 246

“Sesame Street,” 216

Sex

and college students, 84

on Philadelphia radio talk show, 152

and state laws, 107

Shacks, 121–22

Shannon, Steve, 204–5

Sheepeater Cliff, Wyoming, 321

Sheitelbaum, Mr. (author’s neighbor), 279

Shepler’s Ferry, Mackinaw City, 215

Shocknessy Ohio Turnpike, 203

Shopping malls, 156, 295

along Route 1zz, 182

and Wall Drug, 338–39

Shriners, 4, 329–31

Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, 275, 289, 296

Signs, Directional

on American country roads, 31–32, 48

at Yosemite, 299

Signs, roadside advertising.
See
Billboards

Silver Springs, Nevada, 304

Simons, Menno, 157

Singin’ in the Rain
(film), 297

Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 338, 343

Sioux Indians, 325

Sister (author’s), 294

Ski resorts, 193

Skippy Peanut Butter, 106

Skull Cave, Mackinac Island, 220

“Sky King,” 332

Smiley, Governor Luther T., 294

Smith Center, Kansas, 244

Smithsonian Institution, 137, 210

Smokies.
See
Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Snake Hollow, Appalachia, 118

Snake River, 318

Sneedville, Tennessee, 117–20

Snowflake, Virginia, 123

Snoyd, Mr. (deputy principal), 308

Soda fountains, 213, 279

Soda Mountains, 288

Soda Springs, Wyoming, 315

Sonora, California, 300–301

Sony Corporation, 167

South American Indians, 204

South Carolina, 78, 95, 96–99, 182

South Dakota, 337–43

population and size, 341

Southern Pacific Railroad, 302

Southern states, 9, 65–67

music and speech on radio, 81–99

shacks along roads, 77–78

temperatures, 92–93, 100

See also names of states

Southerners

and blacks, 74–75

and foreign place names, 61–62

as rednecks, 66–67

speech patterns, 62, 80–82

See also
Southern states

Southwestern states, 316

Space Shuttle, 290

Spahn, Warren, 196

Spanish settlers, 316

Spartanburg, South Carolina, 100

Spearfish, Wyoming, 330

Spielberg, Steven, 332

Spirit of St. Louis,
139

Spook Caverns, Oklahoma, 59–61

Spotted Horse, Wyoming, 327

Springfield, Illinois, 44, 47, 49

Stalin, Joseph, 84

Stallone, Sylvester, 143, 152, 170

Stan (author’s boyhood friend), 165

State borders, and taxes, 63

Stax Records, 124

Steamboat Geyser, 320

Steamboat Mountain, Wyoming, 315

Steinmetz, Charles, 212

Stern, Howard, 152

Stewart, Jimmy, 45, 46

Storm Lake, Iowa, 343–44

Stowe, Vermont, 192

Straits of Mackinac, 214

Strategic Air Command, Omaha, 240

Streisand, Barbra, 311

Striptease clubs, 169

Students

in Alabama universities, 83–85

Norwegian, on bus to New York, 139–65

at University of Iowa, 229–31

See also
High school

Sturgis, Wyoming, 335

Suez Canal, 221

Summer Island, Michigan, 222

Summerfield, Sally Ann, 295

Sun
(London), 169

Sun Valley, Idaho, 311–12

Sundance Kid, 328

Sundance, Wyoming, 328–31

Sunday Times Magazine
(London), 117

Sundays

breakfast ritual, 333–34, 335–36

in Pella, Iowa, 20

television programs on, 331–32

Superior, Lake, 221

Superman, 246, 291

Supermarkets, 106–7

Sutter Creek, 302

Swaggart, Reverend Jimmy, 328, 331–32

Swan Valley, Wyoming, 315

Swanson, Robert, 106, 291

Sweden, 314

Swell
magazine, 72

Swink, Colorado, 254

Switzerland, 47, 340

Sydney’s cafe, Traverse City, 213

Tahoe, Lake, 303

Talmadge, Herman, 96

Taos, New Mexico, 262–63

Tastee-Freez drive-ins, 315, 331

Taxes, sales, 63

Taylor, Robert, 243

Tecumseh, Nebraska, 243

Television sets, color, 279

Television shows.
See
TV shows

Tennessee, 64, 107–8, 117–18

Teresa, Mother, 56

Texaco gas stations, 181

“The Rifleman,” 277

Three Mile Island, 161

Three Rivers, California, 296

Thumb, General Tom, 210

Thunder Basin, Wyoming, 327

Timberline Motel, Leadville, Colorado, 259

Timbuktu, 338

Time,
118

Times Square, 165, 167–69

Toerag, Mr. (high school principal), 85–86

Toilet seats, sanitized, 34, 300, 328

Toiyabe National Forest, 303

Toledo, Ohio, 202, 203, 207–8

Tonto, 290–91

Topeka, Kansas, 322

Topic of the Town restaurant, Littleton, New Hampshire, 186–88

Tornadoes, 342–43

Tourists

in Amish country, 158–59

appearance of, 113

at Baseball Hall of Fame, 195–96

in Cody, Wyoming, 323

at Colonial Williamsburg, 126–28

Columbus Day Weekend in Cape Cod, 176–77

in Cripple Creek, Colorado, 257–58

in Deadwood, Wyoming, 335

dress and appearance of, 108

elderly, at Warm Springs, 88–91

gadgets and motor homes, 110–12

at Jackson Hole dude ranches, 316

at Newport, 176

at Presley birthplace, 76–77

in Provincetown, 178

in the Rockies, 259

in Taos, New Mexico, 262–63

in Wall Drug, 339

Towns

Amish, 158–59

college, 83–85, 344

county, on Sundays, 19

drug obsession of, 313

gold-mining, 255, 257

in Green Mountains, Vermont, 193

along Mississippi River, 30–31

preservation of, 129–30

search for perfect American, 44–46, 79–80, 103, 142, 195

small in Midwest, 18–20

Transients, 282

Travel, first rule of, 125

Traverse City, Michigan, 213

Tres Piedras, New Mexico, 262

Truman, Harry, 90

Trump, Donald, 168

Trump Tower, New York City, 168

Tulare County, California, 295

Tupelo, Mississippi, 74–77

Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 81–82

Tuskegee, Alabama, 83–84, 121

Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, 83–84, 124

Tuttletown, California, 302

TV shows

evangelists on, 328, 331–32

location shots for Westerns in 1950s, 290

Nevada local news, 287–88

and newscasters, 303

PBS fund-raising, 216

and the perfect American town, 45

“Preparation H” commercial, 104

in South, 81–82

on Sunday mornings, 331–32

surviving through, 233

talk show with Joyce Brothers, 37–38

and test patterns, 332

violence and murder on, 134

and weathermen, 260

See also
titles of shows,
i.e. “Mr. Ed”

Twain, Mark, 41–43

“The Twilight Zone,” 246

Twin Falls, Idaho, 311

Twin Lakes, Colorado, 258

Tybee Island, South Carolina, 96

Union Pacific Railroad, 311

United Kingdom.
See
Britain; England

United States

bars, compared to European, 215

Constitution, 148

geographical center, 244

government, And plutonium leaks, 313

health care industry, 224–25

murders, 306

scale of, 47, 303

size of trains, 322

University of Nebraska, and football games, 240

Unsinkable Molly Brown, 259

Upper Peninsula, Michigan, 221–23

Urbino, Duc d,’ 203

USA Today,
344

Utah, 275–81, 305

Vagrants

in New York City, 167

in the West, 268

Valley Forge, 132

Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 176

Vanderbilt family, 175–76

Vanderbilt, George, 102

Vermont, 189–93

and rich, yuppified towns, 193

Vern’s (Midwestern store names), 24, 35, 55

Versailles, Kentucky, 61

Victor, Colorado, 256–58

Videos, pornographic, 168

Vietnam War, 8, 84

Vikings, 170–71

violence and murder on, 134

Virgin River, 277

Virginia, 123, 182, 316

See also
Colonial Williamsburg

Virginia City, Nevada, 304

Visalia, California, 296

Wall Drug, South Dakota, 338–39

Wall Street crash, 206

Wall Street Journal,
79, 203

Walt Disney Corporation, 299

Walton, John-Boy, 87

Wanker, Hank, 81

War on Poverty (1964), 121

Warm Springs, Georgia, 87–88

Warsaw, Illinois, 31

Washington, Booker T., 83, 124

Washington, D.C., 148, 181

the Mall, 136–37, 139–40

size of, 136–37

and summer heat, 133–35

Washington, George, 105, 131–32, 210, 336–37

Washington Monument, 137, 141

Washington, Mount, 184

Washington Senators, 133–34, 136

Washington (state), 313

Water pollution, 201–2

Watergate scandal, 8

Wayland, Iowa, 16, 21