Outrail posted:

What nightmare creature is this?

Pennywise the Frown posted:

We have drive thru liquor stores here in WI.

Gutter Phoenix posted:

halokiller posted:

These restaurant chain talk reminds me that Luby's recently died as well. It's a cafeteria style place that only old people like and was made fun of in King of the Hill.

quote:

In April 1989, a class action lawsuit was filed in Pensacola, Florida charging Shoney's with widespread racial discrimination where African American applicants were denied employment, and African American employees were denied promotion, harassed or terminated without cause, based on race, and that white managers were harassed or terminated for objecting to the practices. The case, joined by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, was filed by nine named plaintiffs: five black employees and four white managers.

The lawsuit claimed that racial policies were systemic, involving upper management including chairman Ray Danner, who was named individually as a co-defendant. On restaurant visits, Danner would allegedly tell managers to "lighten the place up" if he felt too many blacks were employed at the location, as "the number of blacks [needed] to coincide with [the] neighborhood ethnic group". Restaurant managers testified that Danner didn't want blacks seen by customers, because no one wanted to eat at a restaurant where "a bunch of [n-word]" were working. (Danner responded that he could not remember making such statements, and denied use of the racial epithet or having such racial policies.) Managers also testified that company officials instructed them to "blacken the 'o' " in the Shoney's logo (or the "A" in Application) on job applications of African Americans.

In 1993, the court approved an award of $105 million, ($132.5 million including costs and fees) the largest discrimination settlement at the time. Danner, who in the interim became a life member of the NAACP, surrendered shares of company stock worth $65 million toward the settlement, and resigned from Shoney's board of directors.The court also ordered a detailed company-wide affirmative action program, including training and educational programs.

Among an estimated 40 thousand persons in the class, compensation was awarded to every African American person employed at Shoney's company-owned restaurants between February 4, 1985 and November 3, 1992. Eleven persons received the maximum $100,000, (equivalent to $177,000 in 2019). The suit included company-owned food service operations such as Shoney's, Captain D's and Lee's Famous Recipe, but excluded franchised restaurants.

At its peak in 1998, the restaurant chain operated or franchised over 1,300 restaurants in 34 states. None of those businesses remains a part of the Shoney's restaurant enterprise today. In 2000, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and was acquired by Texas-based investment group Lone Star Funds two years later.

Gutter Phoenix posted:

Linux Pirate posted:

Here's an interesting video driving though what is pretty much a ghost town.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhXDnQEgRqg

Woof Blitzer posted:

Look up Trona, CA on google maps for an example.

TotalLossBrain posted:

A Small Car posted:

My dad's from there. It's not quite a ghost town yet, but that racist shithole will be soon enough.

Monkey Fracas posted:

Mike from Redlettermedia's long-lost sibling

Suspect A posted:

Yeah, I used to pass by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiles%2C_Texas (population 4). Reading about the history of that area was pretty interesting.
the only building that's not a trailer.

Pug Rodeo posted:

The bar looks familiar but I can’t place it. Is that Gold Dust Meridian?

manero posted:

Nightmare fuel

manero posted:

Nightmare fuel

AKZ posted:

Hahah that loving thing is wrapped in an american flag!

AKZ posted:

If I had any photoshop skills that hotdog would have a punisher skull, thin blue line, and trucknuts hanging off of it.

youre dick posted:

this isn't the same one, but we had these all over the place when I lived in Tuscaloosa



that was pretty sweet. Only issue is i was a yankee with a little sports car and even in the early 90s everyone else was driving a truck so i usually had to get out of the car to get the drink.

AKZ posted:

Americana tax

BalloonFish posted:

For me (as a non-American - a Brit, no less) those sorts of scenes are peak Americana. A small rural town somewhere flat and full of corn, cold in winter, hot in summer, one main street lined with independent shops ('Drug Store', 'Bar', 'Merv's Diner', 'Byzewski's Hardware Store', 'Chevron Gas') and a John Deere dealership overlooked by a water tower, lined with blue mailboxes, red fire hydrants and giant cars with too much chrome and fake wood on the side parked to the curb/kerb, with a brick courthouse with a civil war cannon and an American flag on a pole at one end. There's something so neat, snug, prosperous and friendly about such scenes when you see them on sunny days preserved on Kodachrome - almost enough to make you forget the litany of bad poo poo that was around in the 50s and 60s...

Imagine my displeasure when I first went to America and found out that those sorts of main streets haven't existed for about 50 years! The first time I actually found a small town which came close to my stereotype it was in Canada!

Big Beef City posted:

No no.
You don't understand.
Not that.

Liquor.
As in, you drive up and say give me two bottles of jack and a 6er of Miller lite.

Big Beef City posted:

No no.
You don't understand.
Not that.

Liquor.
As in, you drive up and say give me two bottles of jack and a 6er of Miller lite.

Code Jockey posted:

The small town I grew up near in Oregon (which was, amusingly, considered "the city" for country folk like me lol) definitely had a main street, and it was great. My parents' favorite dive bar was there, and I used to go with them a lot to get lunch. God I miss those "more grease and salt than potato" fries and them burgs. Also had a really amazing craft store and stationery shop, which was enormous, at least to young me. They used to close it for a few days every year during the summer for a local fair, where they'd bring in rickety carnival rides and people would set up booths to sell things, and the businesses along the street would participate. It was a lot of fun. Trick or treating along there was great too.

I miss walking along that street in the summer time.