EASTMAN
When Brad Moore was growing up in the Midwest, summer always meant a trip to visit his relatives in Macon.
It was part of an understanding his father, Keith, had with Brad’s mother, Meldra. They met when he was stationed at Robins Air Force Base in 1950 and married two years later.
They lived in Kansas City, where Keith became treasurer of Hallmark Cards. Every summer, his wife made him promise to take her back to the land of grits and honeysuckle.
Brad remembers visiting his grandparents after the Macon Mall opened in 1975. He ate at his first Shoney’s restaurant. Another summer, he saw the movie “Rollercoaster” in “Sensurround’’ at the movie theater.
For a 10-year-old boy, sometimes the “going” was as much of an adventure as the “arriving.”
His father would unfold Texaco road maps and connect every dot from Missouri to Kentucky to Tennessee to Georgia. Sometimes the family would travel the concrete ribbon of the interstates. Other times, they would take the back roads past row crops and through sleepy little towns.
The planning always had to meet his father’s criteria.
“My dad’s trip route was always based on where the Stuckey’s were,” Brad said, laughing.
When the children in the back seat grew restless, he would tell Brad and his sister, Leslie, to look for those familiar red-and-yellow Stuckey’s billboards. They were as much of a highway icon as the famed Burma Shave signs. (And the Ron Jon Surf Shop signs of today.)
There were so many of them, one would swear Mr. Stuckey had cut down every pine tree in Georgia to let travelers know Stuckey’s was three miles ahead on the left.
Suddenly, at the next green exit sign or around the next curve, the sloping teal-blue roof would come into view like an oasis. It was as familiar as the golden arches of McDonald’s or the orange steeples at Howard Johnson motels.
“As our reward, we would get a pecan log roll,” he said. “I remember the roof was open all the way up to the top with wood beams. In a funny way, I think those Stuckey’s influenced my decision to go into architecture.”
He got his degree in architecture from the University of Kansas in 1988. He also developed his own side business, commissioning to build architectural models for apartment complexes and other businesses for promotional purposes.
That, too, was partly inspired by those family vacations. After visiting relatives in Macon, they drove to Orlando — stopping at most of the Stuckey’s stores along the way, of course. Brad was fascinated by all the “miniature” buildings at Disney World. His parents also bought him a set of Legos.
He stopped making model buildings about 10 years, then picked it up again three years ago. He wanted to make sure he hadn’t lost his touch. He also longed for the nostalgia of the “roadside Americana” he grew up seeing. It was a way to honor the memory of his late parents.
His first project? You guessed it.
Glue isn’t the only thing that has him stuck on Stuckey’s. It’s part of his story.
He studied old photographs on the internet. On a business trip to Florida, he found one of the original design Stuckey’s stores along Interstate 95 between Daytona and Coco Beach. He stopped and took photographs inside the store and out in the parking lot.
“I very (discreetly) tried to eyeball some of the measurements,” he said. “I’m sure the guy in there was probably wondering what in the world I was doing. I got all the information, took it home and drew up some plans.”
He purchased 4×8 foot sheets of raw, white styrene plastic. He cut them into strips and the project came to life. He made it a 1:24 scale, so a half-inch represented one foot.
He began in January 2013 and finished three months later. After he posted photos of his progress on his Facebook page, he learned about a “Stuckey’s Roadside Club” on Facebook. He joined the group and began sharing photographs of his Stuckey’s miniature.
It created quite a buzz by some of the page’s followers. Among them was Ray Smith, a lifelong Eastman resident, who contacted Brad that July.
“I told him if he ever wanted to give it away or get rid of it, Eastman would love to have it,” said Ray.
Brad told him he would think about it. He had once had a potential buyer — a man who was interested in Route 66 memorabilia. He also wasn’t sure about the seriousness of Ray’s request.
He noticed Ray’s hometown of Eastman was an hour from his old summer stomping ground in Macon. He had not been familiar with the company’s history, starting as a Depression-era roadside stand in Eastman that was the genesis for a pecan-rolling, gas-pumping empire that grew to more than 350 stores and at one time had thousands of employees on its payroll.
“I didn’t realize Eastman was the home of Stuckey’s and that it was so close to Macon,” he said.
Although the original Stuckey’s have given way to the “Stuckey’s Express” concept at convenience stores, truck stops and gas stations, Brad still finds himself waxing nostalgic for the old days.
What made it popular, he said, was that it was a known entity. It was consistent and reliable.
“People knew what they were getting,” he said. “They could count on it.”
After he completed the project, he stayed in communication with Ray. He also began a dialogue with Charles Williams from the Eastman-Dodge County Development Authority and Chamber of Commerce.
“When I saw a few pictures of the model, I was just amazed,” said Charles.
Brad told them that he wanted to present the miniature of a Stuckey’s roadside store as a gift to the city of Eastman. Arrangements were made for him to make the journey to Eastman this past week.
Members of the Stuckey family and others in the community met with him at a reception at the chamber of commerce Wednesday afternoon. The model is now on display in the lobby.
“I knew I was going to have to do something with it,” said Brad. “It couldn’t just stay in my basement or on my dining room table. This is where it needs to be. Everything happens for a reason. There was great joy in making it. But the real joy is in sharing it.”
Ed Grisamore teaches journalism, creative writing and storytelling at Stratford Academy in Macon. His column appears in The Telegraph on Sundays. He can be contacted at edgrisamore@gmail.com
