old movie theater | neondreamscapes

On our recent visit in a southerly direction, through Winchester, Harrisonburg and Staunton, Virginia, we happened upon various reminders of these town’s genteel and charming pasts. While the usual strip malls, big box stores and detestable chain eateries were very much in evidence, churning out their oh, so regimented and reliably bland totems to mass consumerism, we also encountered the quaint and polite charm of a by-gone era, along with the reminders of the individual American spirit that is so often overlooked today.
The Scales of Justice, Harrisonburg, VA.
The DIXIE Theater, Staunton, VA.
Home after a hard day’s work, Winchester, VA.
George’s, Harrisonburg, VA.
Cleaning up in Winchester, VA.
The skies the limit in Staunton, VA.
When a car dealership really meant something, in Harrisonburg, VA.
Now this is a home worth coming home to!

Once again, the intrepid traveler and neon explorer has loaded up the trusty Retromobile and set a southwesterly course through Kentucky and on to Tennessee before making my yearly pilgrimage to Princeton and Penningtonfest! As planned, it was a long drive, but one teeming with roadside treasures and surprises galore. My trusty and loyal crew and I were rewarded with new adventures and plenty of bizarre and interesting bits of vanishing small town Americana. …and, of course, plenty of neon, lost commercial ephemera from bygone eras and interesting architecture that the 21st Century has bid a not so fond farewell to in favor of a landscape of homogenized conformity.

What would a trip to Memphis be without a stop to Graceland. Sorry, no published pictures allowed! Elvis, Elvis!

Historic Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis- Beautiful!

Some cool neon in Memphis

I just LOVED this house- Was formerly a Doctor’s office, now up for sale, but too far from anything to make it practical

Old small town movie theaters

Several generations of wildly diverse roadside architecture in the South

Who knew that rural Tennessee was home to such great Deco design?