The period between the end of signs and the start of trees.

See the large building in the background? That’s the RETLAW hotel, now a Ramada. If the name sounds peculiar, just run it backwards. That’s right. Named after its builder. Locals say it’s haunted. Credulous locals, anyway. Rumor says the owner was murdered on the site, and that explains the ghostly doings. It might, if he’d been murdered, which he wasn’t, or died here, which he didn’t.

I’ll bet all the rumors started shortly after “The Shining” was released, and employees went around croaking RET-LAW just for fun.

The Osco sign is the same as the one we had in Fargo. As a kid I thought it was a local company; little did I know.Those signs are probably lodged in the recesses of everyone who grew up in towns like this, forgotten until they see it again in an old picture with clunky cars.