Houses built from bottles.  Room-sized loaves of bread.  A restroom in a redwood tree.  Mid-century Americans could see it all – and now you can, too – along with dinosaur parks, wacky food festivals, and museums celebrating everything from atomic bombs to cypress knees…

(Your tax dollars at work at the Fort Hayes Experiment Station in Kansas)

Join me on Tuesday, Sept. 8 (7:30 pm) or Sunday, Sept. 13 (5 pm) for “Are We There Yet? Roadside Delights of the 1950s and 1960s”, a free-wheeling postcard tour of America’s oddest tourist attractions, all part of the 2015 Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

The shows will be held in our South Philadelphia art studio at 1548 E. Passyunk Avenue (corner of Passyunk, Tasker and Linn).  Tickets are $5, and can be purchased from the Fringe Festival website, the FringeArts box office (215-413-1318) or at the door, which opens a half-hour before each performance.  (And, yes, Tuesday’s show is filling up.)

(The neighbors won’t be looking out our windows again ‘til
Thanksgiving, but you’re invited to join us inside this week….)

DRIVING  DOWN  THE  ROAD  TO  CRAZY

Why the wacky postcards?  It all started innocently enough.  As some of you know, for the past eight years, I’ve written Time Warps, a weekly postcard feature for The Coaster newspaper in Asbury Park, NJ, where we lived for 20 years.

While looking for vintage Asbury Park postcards, I kept finding bargain-box images of giant frying pans, odd amusement parks, and peanut festival queens, and I just couldn’t resist…

(The “Mystery Spot” in Santa Cruz, CA.  Take my hard-earned advice:
Don’t try this if you’ve just had a big lunch….)

Soon I was combing through beat-up boxes at flea markets, antique centers and postcard shows – and Dave and I were scheduling road trips to visit the actual attractions.

My original plan was to collect two unusual postcards from each state.  Please don’t tell my mom, but let’s just say I now have enough cards for about 500 states…

(A Weeki Wachee mermaid in Spring Hill, FL)

Needless to say, it would be a lot more efficient to buy the postcards online.  But it’s way more fun to hit the road on a Sunday treasure hunt with Dave by my side and a bag of bad snacks in the car.  (And, yes, we’ll have a few bad ’50s snacks waiting for you on the 8th and 13th…)

So, please stop by if you’re in the area this week:  You never know who will show up…

(Lunchtime – for someone – at Yellowstone)

AND WHILE YOU’RE ON THE INTERNET…

BTW – If you love South Philadelphia and you’re not familiar with the online Passyunk Post, be sure to check it out. They’re not kidding when they claim to “eat, sleep and breathe the ’hood”, covering new and longtime restaurants, shops, special events, real estate and neighborhood news, everywhere south of South Street.

Want information on that incoming restaurant or wondering why those ominous construction trucks are blocking off your street? Publisher Albert Stumm is probably already on top of it.

And, yes, Albert’s been super supportive of all our ventures, from our holiday window project, to our ‘60s photo album adventure, to Kate’s upcoming Fringe Festival shows. What a guy….!

Enjoy this beautiful Labor Day!