Read The Lost Continent Online
Authors: Bill Bryson
Radio stations
broadcast of baseball games, 204–5
and disc jockeys, 203–4
and hospital commercials, 224
mindlessness and stupidity of, 52–53
music
Eagles, 203–4
Mexican, 262
and news broadcasts, 206–7
public-radio network, 207
in South, 81–82
Spanish-speaking disc jockeys, 262
and talk-shows, 152
and weathermen, 260, 269
Rainey, Lawrence, 67
Ralph Lauren stores, 193, 316
Ramada Inn, Savannah, 95
Rapid City, South Dakota, 337
Reagan Administration and drug policy, 232
Reagan, Nancy, 136
Reagan, Ronald, 138, 189
as sportscaster, 8, 205
Recluse, Wyoming, 327
Red Cloud, Nebraska, 244
Redding, Otis, 91
Redwood National Park, 298
Redwood trees, 294, 296
Reed, Donna, 45
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, 57
Register and Tribune Building, Des Moines, 88, 308
Reno, Nevada, 304–5
Republicans, 4, 154–55
Restaurants
bowling alley, Elmira, N.Y., 198–99
breakfast in Columbus, Mississippi, 79
Caesar’s Palace buffet, Las Vegas, 286–87
Chuck’s in “Dullard,” 34
Dick’s Cafe, St. George, Utah, 279
4-Way Cafe, Wells, Nevada, 307
Golden Burro Cafe, Leadville, Colorado, 259
Happy’s Chinese, Idaho Falls, 314
Pennsylvania Dutch in Amish country, 159–61
Pizza Hut, Carbondale, Illinois, 55
“potato logs and cheese sticks”, Kanab, Utah cafe, 276–77
roadside cafe, Groton, Vermont, 191–92
Topic of the Town, Littleton, New Hampshire, 186–88
Revolutionary War, 131–32
Rhode Island, 173–76
Rice Krispies, 23
Ripley, Robert, 113
Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, 112–14
Roads
lack of signs, 31–32, 47–48
mountain, through Phantom Canyon, 255–56
Roanoke Island, 116–17
Roanoke, Virginia, 124–25
Roaring Mountain, Wyoming, 321
Rock Harbor, Massachusetts, 176, 178
Rock Island Railroad, 14, 322
Rock slides, 255, 275, 278
Rockefeller, John D., 130, 131–32
Rockwell, Norman, 45
Rocky
(film), 152
Rocky Mountains, 14, 58, 254–59, 275, 294, 311
snow storms, 260
and tourism, 259
Rome, Italy, 8
Ronald McDonald Institute of Mental Readjustment, 232
Rooney, Mickey, 14, 46
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 90, 91
Roosevelt, Franklin, 84
museum and Little White House at Warm Springs, 88–90
Roosevelt, Teddy, 336
Route 1, 181–84
Route 6, 234
Route 40, 302
Route 66, 267, 302
Rowan Oak (Faulkner’s home), 69–70, 73
Roy Rogers show, 290
Rules
of consumerism, 278
of dining out, 198–99
of travel, 125
Rushmore, Mount, 335–37
Ruskin, Nebraska, 243
Russell, Kansas, 245
RVs (recreational vehicles), 111
Sagamore, Massachusetts, 176
Saguache, Colorado, 261
St. Francis’s Cathedral, Santa Fe, 266
St. George, Utah, 279–80
St. John’s College, Santa Fe, 264, 266
St. Louis Cardinals, 198
St. Louis, Missouri, 146, 345
St. Onge, Wyoming, 335
Salad bars, and sanitation, 341
Salisbury, New Hampshire, 181
Salt Lake City, 281
San Antonio, Texas, 136
San Francisco, 299, 302, 305–6, 322
San Joaquin Valley, California, 292, 295
Sands (casino), 283
Sandusky, Ohio, 202
Sandwich, Massachusetts, 176
Sangre de Cristo mountains, 263, 316
Santa Fe, New Mexico, 260, 263–67
Santa Fe Railroad, 322
Santa Maria,
114
Sara Lee cakes, 106
Saturday Evening Post,
45
Sault Ste. Marie, 221
Savannah, Georgia, 92–95, 97–98
Savannah River, 95, 96
Sawtooth Mountains, 311
Schuylkill River, 150
Schwerner, Michael, 67
Scotch Grove, Iowa, 228
Seattle, 201
Segregation, 134–35
Selma, Alabama, 82
Senatobia, Mississippi, 68
Sequoia National Park, 294–97
Serenity, of Iowans, 1, 10, 347
Serial murders, 8, 306
Serling, Rod, 246
“Sesame Street,” 216
Sex
and college students, 84
on Philadelphia radio talk show, 152
and state laws, 107
Shacks, 121–22
Shannon, Steve, 204–5
Sheepeater Cliff, Wyoming, 321
Sheitelbaum, Mr. (author’s neighbor), 279
Shepler’s Ferry, Mackinaw City, 215
Shocknessy Ohio Turnpike, 203
Shopping malls, 156, 295
along Route 1zz, 182
and Wall Drug, 338–39
Shriners, 4, 329–31
Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, 275, 289, 296
Signs, Directional
on American country roads, 31–32, 48
at Yosemite, 299
Signs, roadside advertising.
See
Billboards
Silver Springs, Nevada, 304
Simons, Menno, 157
Singin’ in the Rain
(film), 297
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 338, 343
Sioux Indians, 325
Sister (author’s), 294
Ski resorts, 193
Skippy Peanut Butter, 106
Skull Cave, Mackinac Island, 220
“Sky King,” 332
Smiley, Governor Luther T., 294
Smith Center, Kansas, 244
Smithsonian Institution, 137, 210
Smokies.
See
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Snake Hollow, Appalachia, 118
Snake River, 318
Sneedville, Tennessee, 117–20
Snowflake, Virginia, 123
Snoyd, Mr. (deputy principal), 308
Soda fountains, 213, 279
Soda Mountains, 288
Soda Springs, Wyoming, 315
Sonora, California, 300–301
Sony Corporation, 167
South American Indians, 204
South Carolina, 78, 95, 96–99, 182
South Dakota, 337–43
population and size, 341
Southern Pacific Railroad, 302
Southern states, 9, 65–67
music and speech on radio, 81–99
shacks along roads, 77–78
temperatures, 92–93, 100
See also names of states
Southerners
and blacks, 74–75
and foreign place names, 61–62
as rednecks, 66–67
speech patterns, 62, 80–82
See also
Southern states
Southwestern states, 316
Space Shuttle, 290
Spahn, Warren, 196
Spanish settlers, 316
Spartanburg, South Carolina, 100
Spearfish, Wyoming, 330
Spielberg, Steven, 332
Spirit of St. Louis,
139
Spook Caverns, Oklahoma, 59–61
Spotted Horse, Wyoming, 327
Springfield, Illinois, 44, 47, 49
Stalin, Joseph, 84
Stallone, Sylvester, 143, 152, 170
Stan (author’s boyhood friend), 165
State borders, and taxes, 63
Stax Records, 124
Steamboat Geyser, 320
Steamboat Mountain, Wyoming, 315
Steinmetz, Charles, 212
Stern, Howard, 152
Stewart, Jimmy, 45, 46
Storm Lake, Iowa, 343–44
Stowe, Vermont, 192
Straits of Mackinac, 214
Strategic Air Command, Omaha, 240
Streisand, Barbra, 311
Striptease clubs, 169
Students
in Alabama universities, 83–85
Norwegian, on bus to New York, 139–65
at University of Iowa, 229–31
See also
High school
Sturgis, Wyoming, 335
Suez Canal, 221
Summer Island, Michigan, 222
Summerfield, Sally Ann, 295
Sun
(London), 169
Sun Valley, Idaho, 311–12
Sundance Kid, 328
Sundance, Wyoming, 328–31
Sunday Times Magazine
(London), 117
Sundays
breakfast ritual, 333–34, 335–36
in Pella, Iowa, 20
television programs on, 331–32
Superior, Lake, 221
Superman, 246, 291
Supermarkets, 106–7
Sutter Creek, 302
Swaggart, Reverend Jimmy, 328, 331–32
Swan Valley, Wyoming, 315
Swanson, Robert, 106, 291
Sweden, 314
Swell
magazine, 72
Swink, Colorado, 254
Switzerland, 47, 340
Sydney’s cafe, Traverse City, 213
Tahoe, Lake, 303
Talmadge, Herman, 96
Taos, New Mexico, 262–63
Tastee-Freez drive-ins, 315, 331
Taxes, sales, 63
Taylor, Robert, 243
Tecumseh, Nebraska, 243
Television sets, color, 279
Television shows.
See
TV shows
Tennessee, 64, 107–8, 117–18
Teresa, Mother, 56
Texaco gas stations, 181
“The Rifleman,” 277
Three Mile Island, 161
Three Rivers, California, 296
Thumb, General Tom, 210
Thunder Basin, Wyoming, 327
Timberline Motel, Leadville, Colorado, 259
Timbuktu, 338
Time,
118
Times Square, 165, 167–69
Toerag, Mr. (high school principal), 85–86
Toilet seats, sanitized, 34, 300, 328
Toiyabe National Forest, 303
Toledo, Ohio, 202, 203, 207–8
Tonto, 290–91
Topeka, Kansas, 322
Topic of the Town restaurant, Littleton, New Hampshire, 186–88
Tornadoes, 342–43
Tourists
in Amish country, 158–59
appearance of, 113
at Baseball Hall of Fame, 195–96
in Cody, Wyoming, 323
at Colonial Williamsburg, 126–28
Columbus Day Weekend in Cape Cod, 176–77
in Cripple Creek, Colorado, 257–58
in Deadwood, Wyoming, 335
dress and appearance of, 108
elderly, at Warm Springs, 88–91
gadgets and motor homes, 110–12
at Jackson Hole dude ranches, 316
at Newport, 176
at Presley birthplace, 76–77
in Provincetown, 178
in the Rockies, 259
in Taos, New Mexico, 262–63
in Wall Drug, 339
Towns
Amish, 158–59
college, 83–85, 344
county, on Sundays, 19
drug obsession of, 313
gold-mining, 255, 257
in Green Mountains, Vermont, 193
along Mississippi River, 30–31
preservation of, 129–30
search for perfect American, 44–46, 79–80, 103, 142, 195
small in Midwest, 18–20
Transients, 282
Travel, first rule of, 125
Traverse City, Michigan, 213
Tres Piedras, New Mexico, 262
Truman, Harry, 90
Trump, Donald, 168
Trump Tower, New York City, 168
Tulare County, California, 295
Tupelo, Mississippi, 74–77
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 81–82
Tuskegee, Alabama, 83–84, 121
Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, 83–84, 124
Tuttletown, California, 302
TV shows
evangelists on, 328, 331–32
location shots for Westerns in 1950s, 290
Nevada local news, 287–88
and newscasters, 303
PBS fund-raising, 216
and the perfect American town, 45
“Preparation H” commercial, 104
in South, 81–82
on Sunday mornings, 331–32
surviving through, 233
talk show with Joyce Brothers, 37–38
and test patterns, 332
violence and murder on, 134
and weathermen, 260
See also
titles of shows,
i.e. “Mr. Ed”
Twain, Mark, 41–43
“The Twilight Zone,” 246
Twin Falls, Idaho, 311
Twin Lakes, Colorado, 258
Tybee Island, South Carolina, 96
Union Pacific Railroad, 311
United Kingdom.
See
Britain; England
United States
bars, compared to European, 215
Constitution, 148
geographical center, 244
government, And plutonium leaks, 313
health care industry, 224–25
murders, 306
scale of, 47, 303
size of trains, 322
University of Nebraska, and football games, 240
Unsinkable Molly Brown, 259
Upper Peninsula, Michigan, 221–23
Urbino, Duc d,’ 203
USA Today,
344
Utah, 275–81, 305
Vagrants
in New York City, 167
in the West, 268
Valley Forge, 132
Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 176
Vanderbilt family, 175–76
Vanderbilt, George, 102
Vermont, 189–93
and rich, yuppified towns, 193
Vern’s (Midwestern store names), 24, 35, 55
Versailles, Kentucky, 61
Victor, Colorado, 256–58
Videos, pornographic, 168
Vietnam War, 8, 84
Vikings, 170–71
violence and murder on, 134
Virgin River, 277
Virginia, 123, 182, 316
See also
Colonial Williamsburg
Virginia City, Nevada, 304
Visalia, California, 296
Wall Drug, South Dakota, 338–39
Wall Street crash, 206
Wall Street Journal,
79, 203
Walt Disney Corporation, 299
Walton, John-Boy, 87
Wanker, Hank, 81
War on Poverty (1964), 121
Warm Springs, Georgia, 87–88
Warsaw, Illinois, 31
Washington, Booker T., 83, 124
Washington, D.C., 148, 181
the Mall, 136–37, 139–40
size of, 136–37
and summer heat, 133–35
Washington, George, 105, 131–32, 210, 336–37
Washington Monument, 137, 141
Washington, Mount, 184
Washington Senators, 133–34, 136
Washington (state), 313
Water pollution, 201–2
Watergate scandal, 8
Wayland, Iowa, 16, 21