Post by Paul S. PersonOn Tue, 09 Jun 2015 09:25:49 -0400, Rhino
Post by RhinoPost by anim8rFSKPost by RhinoPost by Your NameFrom yesterday's New Zealand Herald newspaper ...
Bedrock on the block
--------------------
"Flintstones" fans with a few million dollars
now have a chance to rule over the town of
Bedrock and own a page right out of history.
The owner of Flintstones Bedrock City, a
northern Arizona theme park designed around
the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, is selling the
property for US$2million. A spokeswoman says
business has been good at the park and
campground about 50km south of the Grand
Canyon.
I'm reminded of a gas station I saw on my trip to California in 1992. I
was there on business for a few days and had nothing scheduled for the
next week so my boss encouraged me to stay in Cali for that week and get
a bit of vacation in. I bought a guide book and one of the sites they
recommended was this gas station because it looked like something right
out of Bedrock.
I don't remember where this gas station was except that I saw it
somewhere on the trip from San Francisco to LA via the Pacific Coast
Highway but I gather it was somewhat legendary so any Californian will
likely know.
Anyway, this gas station looked as if it had been closed for a while
since it had chain link fencing around the pumps but it really did look
like it had been inspired by the Flintstones (or maybe vice versa). The
walls were all made out of big slabs of rock, just like the houses in
Bedrock.
Does anyone know the place I mean? Is it still standing? Does anyone
know the name of this place? Maybe I can find some photos online if
someone knows what it was called....
A Google Image search for
Flintstones gas station California
brings up all *kinds* of fascinating structures. Worth a look.
I tried the first several hits but didn't see anything familiar.
I found Google very helpful when I was trying to figure what, exactly,
the slides I took in the 70's were of. I learned a lot of Swiss
geography, and found the drive-by (I forget the name) facility
particularly useful on several occasions.
Ah, Switzerland, a lovely place! I've been there twice now, in 1983 and
1991, but both times were in the summer; it may not be quite so nice in
winter unless you love skiing.
Post by Paul S. PersonThe photo collections can be difficult, however: they tend to group of
lot of stuff together, not all of it relevant and, as I became aware
of what the various Alps I photographed looked like, depend a lot on
image owners correctly identifying them in the first place. Also, it
can take several screens before a match appears.
I was going through one such collection in PhotoBucket and went through
the first 25 pages or so without seeing it. There were some interesting
photos and some clearly went way back given the cars and clothing people
were wearing but none of them was the place I saw.
Post by Paul S. PersonFor example, several page-downs into "Flintstones gas station
California", I see an image of "Elvis Presley's Palm Springs Home",
which would seem to be a bit ... off topic.
That's for sure!
Mind you, I remember a time I was looking for a picture of some
contemporary actor or actress and Google did return photos of that
person but also returned quite a few of Stalin, who had no obvious
connection to the person I was seeking.
Post by Paul S. PersonA bit further down, there is an image of an abandoned station with a
chain-link fence around it. So your station /might/ be there ...
somewhere.
I saw some like that too but none were the one I was looking for.
Post by Paul S. PersonAnd there are residual puzzles: I have one photo of what I /think/ was
an outdoor modernistic sculpture in DC, but it isn't there now and I
could never find an image of it. And it might not be a sculpture; it
could just be a really elaborate venting system of some sort.
One reason for this is that most of the images are /recent/. Your gas
station, like my statue, may no longer exist, and so no recent photo
of it can exist.
I wouldn't be surprised if the gas station itself is gone now, torn down
to make room for something else. But if it was a tourist attraction that
made it into a major guidebook, I have to believe there are still some
pictures of it surviving. Lots of tourists use those guide books to
visit unfamiliar areas and will inevitably take a picture of themselves
beside the attraction just to show everyone they were really there.
If the gas station is long gone, then the photos were probably taken
with film cameras and were probably developed and put in photo albums
(or put in slide carousels). *Some* people might have scanned those
photos and put them online, although I suppose most people wouldn't have
bothered. Still, I'm only looking for one good picture so I might find
what I want if I'm willing to look long enough....
Post by Paul S. PersonPost by RhinoDarn! I actually had photos of this place that I had taken myself but
the camera (and virtually all of my other stuff) got stolen a few days
later when I was in LA. Naturally, they were never recovered.
Anything that made an international guide book seems like it might have
been remembered by a lot of people so I was hoping to track down some
photos online. Unfortunately, I don't remember the town that had the gas
station except that it was close to the PCH and relatively near to LA.
If I still have the guide book, it's in a box in storage in another town
so it's not handy.
I've posted on ca.driving; maybe someone there will remember it and know
where it is/was....
--
Rhino