A retired colleague writes from the Midwest:

The Normal Hotel, back in the days when it was still called The Belvedere, and before it lost its top floor.

Not too terribly long ago, it was considered normal for people to live in hotels. Transience wasn't reserved for the homeless in those times. Salesmen and -women drifted from town to town, dog-dick or otherwise, and they found rooms as easily as they found places to park their cars.

Quite a few people still rode the rails then, and hotels tended to cluster around train stations. The Normal, where I once worked, was one of those.

Pamela S. parked her car on the edge of the park, barely a block away from the train station and The Normal Hotel. “I prefer to stay at The Normal,” she said, “because I always get such a warm welcome there.”

The Normal Hotel in Normal, Illinois offered second-floor guests sweeping views of iron rails that stretched East and West. There was no third floor, and the ground floor was almost entirely taken up by the Normal Bar & Grille.

Nights at "The Normal" were anything but.

“Traveling loses any romance it might’ve had, when sales are involved,” said Glenda R., who sold junk jewelry coast-to-coast. “And any glamour the merchandise had was strictly up to me. But the nights I stayed at The Normal were romantic AND glamoro… — “Traveling loses any romance it might’ve had when sales are involved,” said Glenda R., who sold junk jewelry coast-to-coast. “And any glamour the merchandise had was strictly up to me. But the nights I stayed at The Normal were romantic AND glamorous.”

“Oh man, oh boy,” said Deirdre B., “if there was one thing they knew how to throw at The Normal, it was parties. ‘Cause they never really threw any. Friendly conversation and generous cocktails were plenty available downstairs, and then the parties … — “Oh man, oh boy,” said Deirdre B., “if there was one thing they knew how to throw at The Normal, it was parties. ‘Cause they never really threw any. Friendly conversation and generous cocktails were plenty available downstairs, and then the parties of both parts, or however many parts there were, went upstairs together. It was all just…so natural. Or maybe I should say, ‘Normal’.”

“Since I was in the unpainted furniture business,” said Brenda V., “I could really appreciate how comfortable were The Normal’s furnishings. Everything in the place seemed modern, too. Like you were living in the future. Just sitting in the lobby al… — “Since I was in the unpainted furniture business,” said Brenda V., “I could really appreciate how comfortable were The Normal’s furnishings. Everything in the place seemed modern, too. Like you were living in the future. Just sitting in the lobby always made me feel sorta Cubist.”

“Nylon stockings sold themselves” said Deborah T. “The customers literally peeled ‘em off me. I musta moved tons. Especially at The Normal. The men who stayed there were gentlemanly, and always gave a lady a hand.”

“What I remember most about The Normal was that it was always nice n’ warm in the rooms, and the beds were supremely comfy. Those mattresses really had some spring to ‘em. Now, it’s like winter all the time.”— Roberta E., cosmetics representative

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Normale vita d'hotel

Una collega in pensione ci scrive dal Midwest statunitense:

L’Hotel Normal, ai tempi in cui le locomotive sbuffavano nuvole di vapore, vantava ancora un secondo piano.

Non tantissimo tempo fa era considerato normale che la gente vivesse in hotel. La transitorietà non era riservata ai senzatetto, allora. Venditori e venditrici ambulanti vagavano da città a paesino a metropoli, e trovavano alloggio tanto facilmente quanto un parcheggio.

Molti si spostavano ancora in treno in quegli anni, e gli hotel erano raggruppati attorno alle stazioni ferroviarie.

“Incontravo persone interessanti sui treni,” dice Belinda F., commessa viaggiatrice di collant. “Per curiosa coincidenza pernottavamo spesso negli stessi hotel.”

Il Normal Hotel a Normal, Illinois offriva agli ospiti del primo piano ampie viste dei binari diretti a est e ovest. Non c'era un secondo piano, e il pianterreno era occupato quasi per intero dal Normal Bar & Grille.

Le serate a quel locale erano tutt'altro che "normali".