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Man takes a stand for oranges

Category: Open Roads

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Written by Randy Garbin

Here's a nice little ray of California sunshine for our readers that comes by way of the Los Angeles Times.

California's main squeeze

Orange-shaped juice stands recall state's simpler days.

By Martha Groves

As they motored through the scorching Central Valley in the family station wagon, Mel Haynes' nine children watched for the juice-and-fruit stands shaped like immense oranges that dotted California 99, symbolically proclaiming the Golden State's eminence as the king of citrus.

"Those guys could spot those orange stands from five miles off," said Haynes, 78, "and we had to stop at most of them."

Inspired by those family memories, Haynes satisfied his own thirst 11 years ago by buying one of the giant orange stands at the southern edge of the Northern California farming town of Williams from an owner who sold it as part of a package with the motel next door.

Haynes thus finds himself the proprietor of one of California's six known remaining "oranges," 20th century relics that a national preservation group has named to its list of the nation's 10 most endangered roadside places.

Squeeze out the rest of the story here...