Starlight Motel

Starlight Motel
Bennington, VT
June 2016

I travel all day by car and am anxious to find a cheap hotel so I can grab a beer, take a shower and sit in front of the TV all night.  I don’t have any obligations until tomorrow morning. So a quiet night would be a relief.

I pull in to Cambridge NY and look up hotels.  There are only 4 of them.  One is closed down.  One seems to cater to old men with few to no means of support. A third hotel is an expensive B& B and booked and the fourth one was converted into an assisted living facility.  I am shit out of luck.

The closet hotel for me this night is in Bennington, VT, about ½ hour down the road.  I call the Starlight Motel and am told that, yes, there was a room available for me tonight.  The manager wanted to know when to expect me.

“At this point, probably around 9:30.  I hope that isn’t too late for you”.

“No, no problem.  I will wait for you.  Drive safely”, he tells me.

I arrive and find a half dozen men sitting outside the main entrance.  When I pull up, they scatter like roaches when the light is turned on.  Instantly they are gone and it is just the manager and me.

“Good evening, good evening, welcome.  I am ready for you.  You are in room 7, just right up the hill,” he points. “I hope it is OK for you.”

“It will be fine”, I assure him and then ask where I can get a quick bite to eat this late at night. He throws out a few suggestions and I take off. About an hour later I return after my meal and drive up the hill to my room. I noticed I am the only car in the parking lot. I am the only guest in this hotel tonight. Thoughts of Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Psycho run through my mind. I’m nervous to be in this roadside hotel all by myself.

I get in my room and lock the door.  I even use the bolt as a secondary lock. The room is musty. I don’t think anybody has rented this room in a long time. The furniture, the towels, the linens are all dated and skanky. The air is heavy with odors. I decide just to go to bed and not think about my surroundings at the moment.

The next day I get up and again the parking lot is empty. I go down to the lobby, looking for my free continental breakfast. There is no one around but I hear a noise off to the left; it’s a television playing. I look and see about half a dozen people sitting around watching television. it looks as if they could be family members. I call to let them know that I am here and I begin to walk towards the door. A woman stands up and moves towards the door. I think she’s going to greet me so I greeted her first. “Good morning”, I called to her, using my most pleasant voice.

She says nothing. She just gently takes the door and shuts it closed on my face. She doesn’t acknowledge me. she doesn’t greet me. she sends a very clear message that I’m bothering her. And I think to myself, “really, you have no other customers and you cannot extend a common courtesy, really. no wonder you have no customers”. I wanted to say this to her but I don’t. I ignore her rudeness. Then the gentleman from last night appears and offers me a yogurt for breakfast and tells me where I can buy coffee if I’d like coffee. I thank him and leave, grateful to get out of there.