Even the losers need to a place to sleep

While doing a search for Route 66 news items, it was a jolt to find this New York Times book review of Charlie LeDuff’s new book, “US Guys: The True and Twisted Mind of the American Man.”

In this nonfiction book “about folks who claw and hang on by their fingernails,” the review says:

Things are not going so well for the trapeze jockeys and race-track hangers-out, the outcasts and outraced rats, the “have somewhats” or “the self-defeated, the people who fell off the table and are never getting up to the supper plate.” They are living in places like the Shady Rest Court on Route 66 in Tulsa, Okla., for $65 a week, and a flophouse on the Bowery where, deep into a partying night, when the beds run out, you sleep in the bathtub. They are horny-handed, hornswoggled and just plain horny.

Ah, the Shady Rest. If there ever such thing as the quintessential flophouse, the Shady Rest in west Tulsa was it. Even so, I’m shocked it was just $65 a week. The notorious Towerview Apartments in downtown Tulsa, known for rats, cockroaches, fleas, criminals and other vermin before it was torn down a few days ago, had rented rooms for $125 a week.

The Shady Rest, shown above, exuded seediness. On the way home on Southwest Boulevard, aka Route 66, I often saw an assortment of old pickups and barely running 1970s cars parked between the humongous, water-filled potholes. Maintenance on the old motel was so ramshackle that you often saw light streaming from beneath and the sides of closed doors.

Locals at a nearby bar said it was little more than a flophouse. Newspaper archives essentially confirmed it — the old motel was a refuge for addicts and criminals who had nowhere else to go. Even then, it was not much of a sanctuary — a homicide occurred there about 10 years ago.

Even so, the Shady Rest was historic. It had been on Route 66 since at least the 1940s. It still had carports and other interesting architectural details. The Southwest Tulsa Chamber of Commerce knew this and tried to prevail upon the owner to hang in there, as the property could be eligible for assistance for much-needed improvements. Maybe it could eventually be known as more than a flophouse.

In October 2005, city inspectors slapped the Shady Rest with fire, sewer and plumbing code violations, and issued an emergency order to vacate the premises. A few days after the property was emptied, one of its cabins burned down. Knowing that time probably was short, we sneaked under the police tape, snapped a few photos and entered one of the rooms, which was unlocked. The stench of soiled diapers and rotting food greeted us.

The landlord leveled the place before Thanksgiving. The Shady Rest was such a haven for losers, it became a loser itself.

I’m sorry the Shady Rest is gone, even though its fate was nearly inevitable. No one should have lived in such obviously substandard conditions.

Still, there were days, when a handmade “Rooms for Rent” sign was out, that I was tempted to stay there overnight, just to see what it was like. Such is the curiosity of the Route 66 aficionado.