
Take Off to 1960s Space Motels - johnny313
https://flashbak.com/take-off-to-1960s-space-motels-403711/
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rmason
The space program influenced everything back then. Clothes, toys, cars,
buildings and more. Nothing said the future better than space. Makes me
nostalgic for that time, anything seemed possible. When we stopped going to
the moon then it all sort of died.

~~~
TangoTrotFox
I think we'll get back there, but recent things really make me wonder what's
changed so much. When Elon literally put a roadster into space on the
experimental, and successful, debut launch of the most powerful rocket ever
built since the space race, to say nothing of the crazy design and autonomous
landings, I thought that we might see some sort of wider reawakening and
wonder as to what we can actually do now a days if we actually just decided to
do it. Literally gave me goosebumps seeing those boosters do their dance and
land in such beautiful harmony.

Instead, it received relatively little coverage in the media, and a fair bit
that of what coverage it did receive managed to somehow spin it into a
negative. The media is in general just so incredibly disappointing now a days.
So much time is wasted trying to ignite outrage when so many amazingly great
things are happening at this very moment.

~~~
harimau777
I think that what's changed is that people have lost faith that these
advances, however spectacular, are going to benefit them in any compelling
way. At most maybe we'll get a new method of soulless consumerism, but I don't
think anyone believes in the sense of optimism and adventure that NASA or old
sci-fi used to represent.

~~~
TangoTrotFox
I think there's a clear argument against this. Let's assume people were both
aware of, and believed, that e.g. SpaceX would achieve its goals. The
immediate, and monumental, benefit there is quite self evident. Starting a new
civilization would be akin to having something like expanding into a western
frontier that never ended. Of course there will be immense room for
scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers of all sorts, physicists, computer
scientists, and the like. But you'll also need everything from janitors to
system administrators to athletes in the longrun. Imagine the potential for
1/3rd g sports -- livestreamed (at the speed of light) from another planet.
Even 'small' things like asteroid mining will signal the end of any sort of
significant mineral scarcity on Earth and will almost certainly lead directly
to the construction of sophisticated development and construction facilities
in space to more efficiently utilize these resources. Again, think about the
vast numbers of people and opportunities available there.

And of course this is all just scratching the surface in the most superficial
way possible. Yet we're talking about a practically limitless number of new
jobs and opportunities for people of all sorts of backgrounds. Of course most
people don't think any of this will happen. And given that I'm certain similar
statements were put forth following the moon landing, it's not entirely
illogical to suggest this is all pie in the sky. But I think most people
aren't even to the point of knowing what's actually happening, let alone
deciding one way or another what will happen in the future.

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xattt
Given the rate at which these space-themed motels must have gone up in the
years through the space race, someone must have been saying that these are a
fad. However, despite seeming like they were a fad, they still bring an
unexplained sense of nostalgia. I am left to wonder what the modern-day
equivalent is to these motels and 50s/60s styling in general.

~~~
Rotdhizon
For 80s and 90s, I'd think a retro gaming/technology theme would be a good
representation of the times.

~~~
satsuma
there's a lot of awesome styling themes you could do for 80s and 90s:

80s - hair metal, synthwave/synthpop (think hotline miami, vice city, etc),
retro games pre/post crash. all in the 8 bit c64/atari color palette.

90s - grunge and the internet revolution. i think we still need some distance
from the 90s to really define the nostalgic points, but a lot of the last few
years is undoubtedly swallowed in the new millenia hype.

~~~
qiqing
90s for me: 90's era web design, frames, pre-CSS styling, blink tags, under
construction gifs; TI calculator games; original Duke Nukem, original DOOM;
ring pops, scrunchies, slap bracelets; dial up noises, AOL, getting a 2nd
phone line for Internet or getting someone off the phone to chat with friends
on AIM / ICQ; "parents" generation (though not my parents) not knowing the
difference between the Internet and AOL; Palm Pilot V, HP palmtop (and other
mobile devices without Internet Access)

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classichasclass
My favourite that I personally stayed at (IIRC early 1990s) was the Best
Western Space Age Lodge in the bustling metropolis of Gila Bend, AZ, along an
old alignment of US 80. It was a bit of a dump then, but the decor was
delightfully outlandish. However, the space theme seemed largely limited to
the exterior, thank goodness. We ate at the "theme" restaurant too and it was
really wacky inside and out (the food was just okay). It ostensibly opened in
1965:
[https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/76](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/76)

I went back in 2006 and it seemed to have been retrofitted somewhat, but
largely was as I remembered:
[https://www.floodgap.com/roadgap/6/entry?060803](https://www.floodgap.com/roadgap/6/entry?060803)

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pwned1
There's still a Space Age Inn in Gila Bend, AZ.

[https://www.yelp.com/biz/best-western-space-age-lodge-
gila-b...](https://www.yelp.com/biz/best-western-space-age-lodge-gila-bend-2)

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stcredzero
I was thinking of things like the station in 2001.

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tzs
I wondered if the people in the photos were models or actual guests.

If these photos had been made nowadays it would be obvious they are models,
because nobody in the shots of the pool is overweight, except maybe the guy in
the red tie who appears in the background in the postcard and the photo after
it, and the man standing next to the slide in that photo--his belly slightly
overhangs his swim suit.

But back when these were taken...it was actually plausible to naturally find a
half dozen people at a pool with none of them overweight.

Upon further examination...definitely models. The photo in the postcard and
the photo following were clearly taken at very different times, but the
foreground women are the same in both. Same faces. Same hair colors and
styles. Same swim suits.

How do we know the photos are well separated in time?

First, we see that the slides are on opposite sides...but that could be
explained by one of the photos being flipped. That was not uncommon in print.
It could also be explained by their actually being two slides, and we only see
one due to the angle of the shot. So forget the slides for now.

Second, we see that the Moon House seems to be in a different position. In the
postcard it appears that if someone swam straight out from the edge of the
pool nearest the camera to the opposite edge, climbed straight out, and
continued walking in that direction, they would pass the Moon House on their
left. It would not in any way obstruct them no matter where they started on
the near side.

In the photo, it appears that for most starting locations on the near side
doing the above would run them smack dab into the Moon House.

If there are really two slides...maybe we can explain the apparent Moon House
position by different shot angles, but not if there is only one slide with a
flipped photo...but we can settle the Moon House issue without having to
figure out the slide thing.

In each photo consider the diagonal line that goes through the corner nearest
the slide and through the opposite corner. (The pool is not actually a
quadrilateral, but is close enough that it should be clear what line I'm
talking about). Also consider the other diagonal, the one that goes through
the corner that would be nearest the hidden slide. Together these two
diagonals form a cone.

In the postcard, the Moon House is outside the cone. In the photo, it is
inside the cone. No mere change in shot angle or flipping of photos can change
inside/outside cone. That's an invariant.

Conclusion: the Moon House moved between the photos, suggesting the photos
were taken well apart.

(BTW, neither photo is flipped. Farther down is a third photo showing the pool
and motel, and you can see that from the point of view of the pool looking
toward the motel the motel extends far to the right, with little extent to the
left. In the postcard, we can see that the motel does not extend far to the
left. In the photo, we can see that it does extend far to the right. This
shows that the postcard is not flipped relative to the photo).

(We still don't have enough to figure out if there are one or two slides.
There are two if they haven't been moving slides. But these are people who can
move Moon Houses! To them moving a slide would be child's play, so it is quite
possible that the renovation that pool area renovation that moved the Moon
House also moved the slide).

~~~
dspig
Hmm, the three women have the same swimsuits on, and the vertical posts along
the balconies don't match. I think this is two different but similarly
equipped pools at the same Motel!

~~~
Finnucane
No, it's two different motels--the 'space age' and the 'cosmic age' hotels
were at different locations.

