I found this postcard today at my local St Vincent de Paul thrift store. I thought it had to be unique, until I did a net search, when to my surprise I discovered that it is well known in the postcard collector world. In fact, you can get one on eBay for $10 plus shipping. Why anyone would pay more than 25 cents for it beats me, but it was worth that for the amusement. Anyhow, this guy is referred to as Earl, and alternately as Ray, take your pick. Earl-Ray appears to be a pretty standard white Anglo-Saxon (Protestant) American 1960’s era motel manager, complete with crew cut, white shirt, black leather belt, and skinny tie. Elvis could have slept here, but he didn’t, or they would have made note of it on the postcard!
My search turned up several more gems with Earl-Ray in his motel. Observe how each room shown has different coloured floor tiles. No boring grey carpets here!
Here’s Earl-Ray pointing out that they have two beds. “This bed is for the kids,” he says.
“We have phones and phone books in every room,” says Earl-Ray. “You can call your wife, or whoever you damned well feel like. No one will tell on you out here on the outskirts of Indianapolis.”
Check out the tiled walls. They could wash that room down with a hose in five minutes! My parents had that exact TV in the basement, on that same stand! One knob for on-off and volume, and a big clicking dial to switch the channels, all 3 of them. Note that there is a fan in every room as well, for those nights when it’s 95 degrees and you have to sleep on top of the sheets naked. I had to do that once in California. The sole difference being that we had an AC unit, which took about 4 hours to cool the room down from near oven heat. Ah the good old days! Canadian money was worth 98 cents US! Merchants took it at par. Now that was great. Bring that back! Canadians will start going south again, even if we get fingerprinted and orifice inspected… uh, maybe not yet!
Sadly, the Del-Ray is no more, but I found out that it was redeveloped as the Catalina. They merely switched from one Spanish sounding name to another! And I bet they still have a phone in every room. Or maybe it’s a condo.
nathanguitars 