Gimme Fifty Cents' Worth Of Regular

Standard Station TtV-Odell, IL, originally uploaded by William 74.

As promised, something new(ish).

This little gem is the historic Standard station in Odell, Illinois, and sits right along old Route 66. Opened in 1932, the station served travelers along the Mother Road until the sixties, by which time a bypass had taken travelers around the retail strip in Odell, and Rt. 66 itself was in a steady decline, losing traffic to the interstates and airlines. The station continued in business until 1999, doing repairs and bodywork, at which point the city bought the property with the intent to restore the building to it's original 1932 style. This they have done, and it serves as a visitors center along historic Route 66. It is beautifully done.

You may ask, Doug, why does this photo look all crummy and out of focus? Don't you have a fancy digital camera? The truth is yes, I do, and I did it on purpose. I shot this through the viewfinder of an old Spartus Full-Vue TLR camera, to get the distortion and dust, for that vintage, found in a shoebox look I like to call "Oldachrome". Did I succeed? Dunno. But I like it.