Well, our allowances were hardly enough to make a dent in what we wanted to buy, and it was clear even to us kids that the items were overpriced. Common things like candy bars were far cheaper at our local convenience store. We also knew we were going to be stopping at other places where our allowances might find better use. Sis and I were profoundly disappointed and we learned a lesson, which is why Mother stopped in the first place. We didn't bother her again about Stuckey's on any road trips!
This is the only Stuckey's in business on the roads I'm on most of the time. It's off exit 84 on I70 in Missouri. Dairy Queen partnered with Stuckey's in a lot of locations. It's a poor picture (pics taken at seventy mph are always a risky proposition) - but the roof is the traditional red for Dairy Queen on their end and blue for Stuckey's on the other. I've stopped there before - there is a scrap of graveled truck parking on the north side. It's no truck stop fer sure. Some of the guys I work with get a jones for ice cream, so that is a quick off and on for their fix. It somehow seems far smaller than the place we visited in my callow youth.
This one is also on I70 but in Kansas. I've forgotten the exit or exactly where it is, but since it's out of business, y'all won't wanna waste your time stopping. It's west of Topeka for sure, but beyond that I just can't pin it down. A lot of these old abandoned Stuckey's and Nickerson Farms have reopened as pr0n emporiums. And, no, I don't stop at those establishments. I can get all the midget pr0n I can stand for free on Algore's intertubes, thank you very much.
I dunno, I guess Stuckey's is bad juju for moi. Back in my grain hauling days, I used to go by the one in Grainfield KS that was a stopping point for a murdering crime spree - and the place closed up and gave me the heebie jeebies. I think it's been torn down - no businesses seemed to survive there. That in itself isn't unusual - there are all kinds of closed Stuckey's scattered in rural areas. Hindsight tells me that expecting only tourist dollars to survive and having stores about one hour apart wasn't the greatest idea in the world. The city of Grainfield certainly doesn't have the population necessary to keep a place like that alive.
But, they're hardly the only ones who've made tactical business errors. Too bad they weren't too big to fail, eh?
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If you took a lot of roadtrips as a kid, you'll remember, on the interstate, Stuckey's was the only place to stop. Well, maybe at HoJo's. But the Stuckey's I remember catered to truckers and did it well. They were massive, with huge lots for big rigs, pay showers and a massive cafe. I imagine in those days, before roads were widened into towns, it would have been a lot easier to park your truck at Stuckey's than try to negotiate your way into a small Main Street.
In fact, I always thought of Stuckey's as catering more to truckers while Howard Johnson's was for the tourist. I wonder if Stuckey's would be around today if they had kept servicing their core market.
Well, most of my road trips were on secondary roads or to an airport - so the only Stuckey's I saw were in Kansas on I70 out of western Kansas on the way to Topeka - state spelling bee for moi. We drove to OKC lots of time (no interstates) and the DFW area once from OKC - but it was Dad and me and we didn't stop at anything memorable - at least to me. The rest of the time, we drove to Wichita to fly out. We took two trips to SF and two to the Detroit area.
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