Motel Paradiso

When I checked into the Sands Motel on Treasure Island, just off St. Petersburg, Florida, I was pleased to find everything precisely as I remembered it. The white exterior walls gleamed in the sun, and everywhere I found invitations to lounge—under yellow-and-white beach umbrellas, around the well-tended swimming pool, and at the shuffleboard court, which was conveniently lit for night play.

My fond memories of the Sands were not in the least complicated by the fact that I had never been there before. I needn’t have been. The Sands is just one principality in a loose and sprawling confederation of independent motels that spread across the nation during the golden motel era, the quarter century or so following World War II. These motels were towering landmarks in my childhood. I loved everything about them, from the drinking glasses wrapped in crisp “sanitized” paper, to the individually controlled heating and air-conditioning, ...