The Georgia Motel Story
Written in 2010 and Re-written 2/12/2016
A true story and a good lesson for every married man
Howard Yasgar
It was December of 1963, and my new wife and I were headed down to Miami Florida.
We were driving to Miami Beach from Westville Connecticut.
My good friend Lou Gladstein, had asked me to do him a favor.
Lou had leased an auto wrecking yard located on North West 46 Street in Miami.
He had hired a fellow to manage the place, but after 6 months with no profit, Lou had come to the conclusion that the manager was stealing.
Since I had just gotten married and Lou was my best man, he and his wife Gladys suggested that my wife and I drive down to Miami Beach and investigate what was going on.
At the time my mother was leasing a small hotel on Miami Beach, so Lou and his wife suggested I tell my new wife we were going on a belated honeymoon trip to Miami. They all knew my mother would be happy to see us.
When I told Lou that my car probably wouldn’t make the trip, he offered to let me use a nice 1959 Plymouth sedan.
We had just gotten married in November, so going to Florida was to really be just like a honeymoon for us, and I agreed to do it.
My new wife loved the idea, so we packed up for a trip to Miami.
The first day of driving went well, by evening we had reached the Georgia state line.
As it was getting dark, we thought it was time to look for a place to stay for the evening.
My wife suggested we find a name brand hotel, however from watching the billboards I knew that most of the major hotels were charging around $35.00 an evening.
As This was our first long trip together I was determined to show my wife that I knew how to save money, so I carefully watched all the roadside signs for a better deal.
Eventually in a small town in Georgia I saw a sign advertising a family motel that was coming up in only 20 miles, and it was only $11.00 a night.
The picture on the billboard looked pretty good. They even had a swimming pool.
It was about 10 in the evening when we finally reached the place, and I pulled in.
It appeared we were the only car staying there that evening.
It was a nice motel with about 20 individual rooms and a large house in the rear that must have been where the owners lived.
So I just pulled up to what appeared to be the owners house.
It was December and a pretty cold evening, but I didn’t realize how cold it actually was, as we had been driving with the heater on.
I grabbed my overcoat, but I didn’t put it on, and ran up the stairs to ring the doorbell.
The door opened, and an elderly gentleman stood there, a blast of heat from his fireplace hit me in the face.
I told him we wanted a room, and he waved his wife over, I could see she got up and out of an old ratty armchair in the living room.
As I stood there freezing I filled out the form she brought.
I Juggled my wallet around and I gave him the $11.00 plus tax.
I saw him carefully put my money in a little metal box, on a table in the hallway.
Ours was the only money in the box.
Seeing that, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him, but he gave me the key from room number six and said all I had to do was turn on the gas heater.
I put my overcoat on and we backed up and I parked in front of room number six.
My wife was already bundling up as we knew the room would be cold and it would take a while for the room to heat up.
I looked over the gas heater, and I have to admit I had never ever have seen a contraption like that in my life .
I tried everything I knew but the gas heater wouldn’t light up.
I went back to the owner’s house and he dressed up with his wife’s assistance and he came down and started the gas heater working.
He said it would take about thirty minutes to warm the room.
Hearing that, my wife said she was hungry.
The owner suggested we drive up the road a ways, he said we could find something to eat, it was now about twelve in the evening.
We must have drove for miles, it was scary, but finally I found an all-night hamburger joint.
That restaurant was a first for us, it was the kind of place that sliced each 3 inch hamburger off a roll of meat like it was salami.
When we got our order, we looked around at all the characters sitting therein the restaurant
We decided to take the food back to our room, and eat there.
When we got back to the room, the heater was off and it was still freezing cold and my wife just stared at me.
But I had an idea, It was already 1:30 why didn’t we just sleep in our clothes, I said, after all we will be hitting the road an only a few hours.
I really knew the whole thing was a bad idea but I had to save face somehow.
Without saying anything my wife went to use the bathroom, and she called for me to come and look, there was a towel hanging on the wall with a big hole in it.
About a minute later, I heard the toilet flush and then my wife screamed, the toilet had overflowed onto the floor.
As a man of action, I took the towel, the one with the hole and put it on the floor but it didn’t help, but that’s when I saw a big carpet on the floor, it was partially under the bed.
I quickly grabbed it and pulled it out intending to use it to sop up the water.
When the carpet came out there was some ones pair of polished men’s lace up dress shoes sitting on it.
By now my wife was crying uncontrollably. I ran up to the owners house and demanded my eleven dollars back or I was calling the police.
I really had no phone to call the police with, and for all I knew this guy was the sheriff, but he opened up the metal box and gave me my money back.
It was now about 3 or 4 in the morning, and by the time I found a Holiday Inn hotel for $35.00 an evening, it was an hour later.
But what was important, my wife finally stopped crying, the room was warm, and there was even a coffee maker there.
I know there was a lesson to be learned here somewhere.
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