In a rapidly homogenizing nation of chain restaurants, big box stores, and utterly characterless office buildings, one woman is fighting to keep the country interesting. 

Beth Lennon, a.k.a. Mod Betty, seeks out authentic vintage places that are going the way of the dodo bird (or, more accurately, the Watusi), and brings attention to them on her web site, Retro Roadmap. Lennon is a champion for mom and pop operations, drive-in movie theatres, soda fountains, kitschy roadside attractions, and any classic place that’s in danger of disappearing from the landscape.

Retro Roadmap isn't just a site that leads you to cool vintage places. Although she does give shout outs to locations her readers suggest—these are indicated as “Retro Roadmap Reader Recommendations”—Lennon personally vets every locale she blogs about and gives it her stamp of approval. Beyond that, she pins her Retro Roadworthy spots on the interactive map she’s created that’s not only fun and easy to use; it’s the central nervous system of her site.   

Driving through a part of the country you've never been and you’re hungry? Don’t stop at the first famous burger joint you see; click on the map and discover that there’s an awesome family-owned diner right down the road! You get to experience something new and fun—not to mention probably delicious—and your dollars are actually keeping the place in business. Plus, Lennon says, it helps you learn your geography! 

So what led Lennon to start Retro Roadmap in 2009?

First of all, she’s always loved to drive around and photograph the cool places she stumbles upon. As an art history major and photography minor at the University of Massachusetts, Lennon’s first big project was creating a book of photographs she took of defunct drive-in movie theatres.  

Second, Lennon loves to share her finds, and the internet provided the perfect outlet to reach the largest audience possible. She recalls being disappointed that there was no resource for locating authentic vintage places while traveling to parts unknown several years ago. Lennon found that niche and filled it.

Third, and perhaps most important, is the big picture of preservation. Lennon’s trying to save these places from being bought out by yet another chain store or leveled for new luxury condos. 

Lennon is nothing if not passionate. I got to see that passion in action when I spent a day Retro Roadmapping with her and trust me when I say nothing’s better for a gal trying to beat the winter blues. Her energy outshines the sun; her enthusiasm warms the soul; and her zeal for discovering Retro Roadmap-worthy spots transports you from a winter of discontent to the merry month of May…complete with a tiki bar. (More on the tiki bar later.)

We began our dreary January Saturday with a hearty breakfast at Daddypops diner in Hatboro, PA. This is precisely the kind of place that Lennon features on Retro Roadmap: a small, stainless steel diner built in the ‘50s, complete with vintage barbershop stools. No trendy, faux-retro menu here; this is the real deal and the low prices and utter lack of pretension reflects that. 

Suitably nourished, we spent the rest of the day exploring Hatboro and finding several gems hidden within including two thrift stores, an old school bakery, and a crazy place called Joys & Toys, which has toys, games, and a bunch of whozits and whatzits galore stacked to the ceiling. 

The sheer volume of stuff packed into this tiny store is overwhelming but it didn’t take Lennon long to find some Jerry Blavat records. 

Lennon doesn’t just talk the retro talk; she walks the retro walk…and dances the retro dance. She takes classes to learn the Chez Vous, the South Street, the Wagner Walk, and other ‘60s line dances that are alive and well at the parties Blavat (the Geator with the Heater!) continues to host. (Full disclosure: Lennon talked me into joining the line dancing classes with her and they really are a lot of fun!)

The home she shares with her Retro Roadhusband, musician Cliff Hillis is an ode to mid-century modern living both inside and out (including their beautifully restored vintage camper), and lovingly referred to as “The Hacienda.” It’s nestled in the heart of Phoenixville, PA, a funky little town that’s home to an enclave of other cool and creative types the Retro Roadcouple has befriended. 

Phoenixville itself is Retro Roadmap-worthy: it’s home to the historic Colonial Theatre, where the 1958 Steve McQueen cult classic The Blob was filmed. Every year, the Colonial celebrates the film with the very popular Blobfest, a three-day extravaganza which includes screenings of The Blob and a re-enactment of the famous scene of moviegoers running out of the theatre in fear. 

Yes, Lennon has truly found her home.

But it was a long road to get here. It included taking a leap of faith to move from Boston to a sleepy beach town in southern Delaware (they call it “Slower Lower” for a reason) to be closer to her future husband.  “Yeah, why don’t I move to a beach in a state that I really don’t know and date a dubious musician? That sounds brilliant!” To be clear, there is actually NOTHING dubious about Hillis. Regardless, Lennon notes for the record: “Mom, we didn't move in together. I had my own place!”

After a few years, however, Lennon felt restless with a string of unfulfilling jobs and no outlet for her creativity, pre-Retro Roadmap.

“My sister and I used to talk about the concept of ‘blooming where you’re planted,’ and we fully believe in that. However, the thing is it’s really hard to bloom when you’re planted in sand."

Lennon and Hillis took another leap of faith when they followed their instincts and moved to Phoenixville, a community in which they are now thoroughly entrenched. They support the town by patronizing its many shops and restaurants (“Every Friday is ‘Foresta’s Friday.’ I shop at the local market instead of Acme or Wegman’s. They won’t miss my 30 bucks,” says Lennon); Hillis often plays gigs at Steel City Coffeehouse; and Lennon has scheduled events for her readers at places like the Colonial Theatre. She’s organized several events for her readers on her site and has recently begun using the Meetup app to facilitate the process, which has been very successful.

In fact, remember how I said there’d be more on the tiki bar? Well, Lennon has created and will host a Vintage Tiki Weekend at the fabulous Caribbean Motel in Wildwood, NJ in May. She pitched the idea to the owners of the mid-century modern motel, and they loved it. 

“You know what you do to help preserve mid-century modern America? You go to Wildwood, New Jersey, and you stay in a motel, and you have tiki cocktails and you dance to ‘60s music, and you meet people who are also into that stuff. Like, how much more fun can history be?”

Her readers agree. All 30 rooms blocked out for this weekend sold out in just 10 days.

Lennon’s latest project is her Kickstarter-funded videos. She’s just completed her 7th episode and her subjects include a root beer stand, a drive-in movie theatre, and New York City’s Donohue’s Steak House, family-owned-and-operated since 1950. Lennon also wrote about Donahue’s for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, an organization fighting the good fight and for whom she is a frequent contributor.

With the help of friend and filmmaker Rob Waters and his production company, W Films, Retro Roadmap has reached a wider audience. Lennon sees the purpose of these videos as providing education, entertainment, and the importance of preservation.  She dubs it edutainment.

Lennon is an enthusiast, a cheerleader, and a connector. It’s understandable that she got her moniker when a sassy friend urged her not to resist the dreaded nickname, pointing out that she clearly wasn’t just a “Betty,” she is a “Mod Betty.” She embraced it even more when she came across The Betty Book: A Celebration of Capable Kind o' Gal, boasting that “these can-do types love whipping life's little problems as much as they adore beating egg whites.”

Although I’m not sure Lennon adores beating egg whites, she definitely adores whipping life’s problems; especially those relating to the blandification of America. One of Lennon’s life goals is to travel the entire country to see what all 50 have to offer and stick at least one Retro Roadmap pin in every state.

“Why bother traveling if every place looks the same?" Lennon muses. "People go to Rome to see the coliseum. People will come from around the world to see America if there’s something worth seeing.” 

Visit Mod Betty's flickr page, read about her in the media, befriend her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter and Instagram, and all the rest and, of course, check out Retro Roadmap!

"It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely." Albert Einstein.


I am not a fan of Joan Rivers. I don’t know anyone who is. I’ve never found her funny; I’ve found her only mean and annoying. However, after seeing the 2010 documentary A Piece of Work, I have mad respect for her.

Cameras followed Rivers for a year, but this is no Kardashian “reality.” This is actually real. In fact, I don’t recall ever seeing a celebrity so raw, intimate, and stripped down. The opening scene epitomizes this. The credits roll over her naked face as she gets made up and becomes Joan Rivers. What egotistical image-obsessed Hollywood actress would allow her bare skin seen so up close on the big screen let alone a 75-year-old (at the time) infamous for her nipping and tucking?

Rivers’ age is an important theme running through this film. She says of age, “It’s the one mountain you can’t overcome.” And I learned how much she has overcome.

I don’t think I understood just how much of a trailblazer she was in the 60s. I was mostly aware of her as Johnny Carson’s frequent guest and permanent sub for the Tonight Show; her subsequent late night show on Fox, which put her in direct competition with her friend and mentor; the show’s quick cancellation followed almost immediately by her husband Edgar’s suicide. I’d say those are a hell of a lot of mountains to overcome.

A Piece of Work was filmed during the time when Rivers was cast on—and won--Celebrity Apprentice. This was a huge success for her because she’d been blacklisted from appearing on NBC since pissing off Carson. In fact, he never spoke to her again. After 20 years of whatever-Hollywood-friendship-thing they had. It made me realize what a huge deal it was when she appeared on the Tonight Show’s inaugural episode with Jimmy Fallon as host. She was one of the celebrities who laid down $100 in the “lost a bet Jimmy would ever host the Tonight Show” gag. By the way, Leno had never invited her on during his reign of the Tonight Show, so he confirms that douchy status we all suspected.

I also realized how hard she works. I mean, wow! She gives “workaholic” a whole new meaning. She will do anything, play anywhere, hock any product. She is immune to humiliation. She’s not living if she’s not working. Others call her focus to succeed “chronic,” “maniacal,” “fanatic.” One interviewee says, “Joan will turn nothing down. She hears the clock ticking every minute of every hour of every day.”

Among the jobs she’ll take is doing stand-up in some bum-f#%@ town in the Midwest and I’ve never seen Rivers this way. She’s filthy, enraged (“Anger fuels the comedy”), and actually funny. I was really surprised to laugh a few times during this film. She’s also incredibly quick. She destroys a heckler. And I mean destroys. She’s “like a trapeze artist” (her words) keeping the audience on her side and laughing when they’re scared and not sure if they should. And, equally surprising, she feels sorry for the heckler after the show. My goodness, Joan Rivers has a heart! Who knew?

Rivers’ heart is all over this thing. She supports several friends and family members financially; she’s put several people through school (including one of my co-workers friends); she recounts her time with Carson so fondly; she has a sweet relationship with her grandson; she loves her daughter, Melissa.

Okay, Melissa. That’s a whole thing. First of all, yikes. Imagine Joan Rivers is your mother. Second, she grew up thinking of “the business” as “her sister.” Her sister. Then they did that Lifetime mother/daughter cheesy-ass movie of the week about surviving Edgar’s suicide. I mean, isn’t that how we all grieve? By making a made-for-Lifetime movie? Starring ourselves? Rivers says doing the movie “totally mended the relationship.” Yeah, just wrap your head around that for a minute.

Then there’s the bit about Melissa joining Joan on Celebrity Apprentice. Those dynamics are what keep therapists and pharmaceutical companies in business. Rivers worries that it will be traumatic if Melissa is voted off first. She claims she’ll “hold back” to help Melissa shine and succeed, but Melissa knows her mother is in denial: “She can’t hold back.”

In a way, it’s downright maternal of Rivers to want to protect Melissa from the cruelty of show business; on the other hand, she sends a not-so-subtle message to Melissa that she doesn’t have what it takes to succeed in Hollywood: she is “supportive but not encouraging.” Rivers is a woman obsessed who claims to have no choice but to be in the business. But if Melissa doesn’t stand on a red carpet with her mother—and her “sister”—making  snarky comments about what the stars are wearing, how else will she get to spend time with her?

The most surprising thing I learned about Rivers is that she thinks of herself as an actress. “My career is an actress’s career and I play a comedian.” Huh? Hmm. I thought that was nuts until I saw the passion and emotion with which she speaks of her acting. She breaks down in tears when she says, “My acting is my one sacred thing in my life.” Her vulnerability is real.

She wrote and starred in a one-woman show that was a huge success at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but as one friend says, “There is nothing she can do that will be industry-embraced.” That is proven when she considers bringing the show to New York. So terrified of bad reviews, she decides to can it. Yet, she continues to knock, scratch, and force her way into a club that will never accept her. She’s the master of just sticking in there. Regarding George Burns, Phyllis Diller, and Don Rickles, she wants to be the last one standing. “I’d like to beat them all…and I think I will.”

I think she will, too. She can’t not be “on.” She jokes with doormen, cab drivers, fellow voters when she goes to the polls. Her life is a comedy routine. Just as the opening scene epitomizes the intimacy that Rivers is willing to share, the last line of the film epitomizes her entire life and is chilling to consider:

“The only time I’m truly happy is when I’m on a stage. I’m a performer. That’s my life. That’s what I am. That’s…it.”

In 1992, I was working at a B. Dalton bookstore in Minneapolis. One of the best perks was getting advanced copies of books. One day I picked up a thick galley with a gorgeous cover called The Secret History and upon reading the first paragraph, I was hooked.

To this day, it remains one of my favorite books. Over the years, working in bookstores and libraries, and hanging out with book-loving friends, I've recommended it countless times. It famously took Tartt 8 years to write The Secret History so it wasn't too surprising it took 10 years for her second book, The Little Friend, to be published. This brilliant tome (500+ pages, just like its predecessor) is Tartt's take on Southern Gothic, complete with religious zealot snake-handlers, meth addicts, and the unsolved murder of a child. It kept me up until 4:30 in the morning on more than one occasion.

Eleven years later, right on schedule, The Goldfinch arrived. I am more than halfway through its 784 pages and I'm already dreading its end. After all, I'll have to wait until the 2020s to read her next one. 

The Goldfinch begins with 13-year-old Theodore "Theo" Decker barely surviving a terrorist attack on New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. He spends several harrowing--and ultimately futile--hours searching for his beloved mother. 

Theo's life becomes one of chaos and instability as he is thrust into sudden orphan-hood. Various caretakers don't always have his best interest at heart. He copes with his living situation and ever-present grief by delving into alcohol, drugs, and petty crime. He navigates a precarious adolescence in which the reader holds her breath, just hoping he won't fall off the edge. 

I got to meet Tartt at a reading at the Free Library of Philadelphia last October. We didn't become best friends, as I had hoped. I was too nervous and geeky and I think I came across as aloof in my effort to mask it. But she's very astute and it's possible she sensed that and knows how much I love her.

During the Q&A many commented on her lack of prolificacy. "If I did my math right," she said, "this could be three 250-page books."

Instead, her lengthy novels have a depth and richness that would be sorely missed in a shorter story. She started out writing poetry and short stories in college, "but it wasn't really until I began writing my first novel that I understood that I had found what I did best, what I like to do, and the long-form novel is, really, just what suits me best." 

Her approach to writing mirrors other facets of her life:

Tartt's decade of dedication to one work of art is evident on every page, in every word. Her talent is immense. She weaves a perfect narrative of plot, pacing, and character development with beautiful language, unexpected humor, and meticulous detail. The result is a moving, thought-provoking, and endlessly entertaining tour de force. There is no doubt in this reader’s mind that the world she creates is not one of fiction, but a living, breathing universe.