Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the top of Mount Washington in April 1934 when a gust of-pencils ready?-231 miles an
hourwhistledthrough.Thatmusthavebeenanexperienceandahalfforthemeteorologists
who worked up there. Can you imagine trying to describe a wind like that to somebody?
,,Well, it was, you know, real … windy. I mean, really windy. Do you know what I'm say-
ing?” It must be very frustrating to have a truly unique experience.
Justbeyondit,IcametoBrettonWoods,whichIhadalwayspicturedasaquaintlittletown.
Butinfacttherewasnotownatall,justahotelandaskilift.Thehotelwashugeandlooked
like a medieval fortress, but with a bright red roof. It looked like a cross between Monte
Cassino and a Pizza Hut. It was here in 1944 that economists and politicians from twenty-
eight nations got together and agreed to set up the International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank. It certainly looked a nice place to make economic history. As John Maynard
Keynes remarked at the time in a letter to his brother, Milton, “It has been a most satisfact-
ory week. The negotiations have been cordial, the food here is superb and the waiters are
ever so pretty.”
I stopped for the night at Littleton, which, as the name suggests, is a little town near the
Vermontborder.IpulledintotheLittleton Motelonthemainstreet.Ontheofficedoorwas
asignthatsaid,“Ifyouwanticeofadvice,comebefore6:30.I'mtakingthewifetodinner.
('And about time too!'-wife).” Inside was an old guy on crutches who told me I was very
lucky because he had just one room left. It would be forty-two dollars plus tax. When he
saw me start to froth and back off, he hastily added, “It's a real nice room. Got a brand-
newTV.Nicecarpets.Beautifullittleshower.We'vegotthecleanestroomsintown.We're
famousforthat.”Hesweptanarmoveraselectionoftestimonialsfromsatisfiedcustomers
which he displayed under glass on the countertop. “Our room must have been the cleanest
room in town!”A.K., Aardvark Falls, Ky. “Boy, was our room ever clean! And such nice
carpets!”-Mr. and Mrs. J.F., Spotweld, Ohio. That soft of thing.
Somehow I doubted the veracity of these claims, but I was too weary to return to the road,
so with a sigh I said all fight and signed in. I took my key and a bucket of ice (at forty-two
dollars plus tax I intended to have everything that was going) and went with them to my
room. And by golly, it was the cleanest room in town. The TV was brand-new and the car-
pet was plush. The bed was comfortable and the shower really was a beauty. I felt instantly
ashamed of myself and retracted all my bad thoughts about the proprietor. (“I was a pom-
pous little shit to have doubted you.”-Mr. B.B., Des Moines.)
I ate fourteen ice cubes and watched the early evening news. This was followed by an old
episode of “Gilligan's Island,” which the TV station had thoughtfully put on as an induce-
ment to its non-brain-damaged viewers to get up immediately and go do something more
