WAY OFF THE ROAD: DISCOVERING THE PECULIAR CHARMS OF SMALL-TOWN AMERICA, by Bill Geist, Broadway, 240 pages, $23.95
When Bill Geist was a print journalist in New York he wrote "The Zucchini Plague and Other Tales of Suburbia," which got him noticed on a wider stage. Pretty soon, he was a TV funnyman-journalist, popping up on the CBS Evening News, then "48 Hours" and finally "CBS Sunday Morning," where he still delivers some very funny but telegenic stories.
His latest is "Way Off the Road," which makes Geist seem like a more amusing successor to Charles Kuralt, the former host of "CBS Sunday Morning." Kuralt spent the greater part of his television career driving to out-of-the-way places to find unusual stories he could film with pear-shaped commentary.
Geist cultivates a funny expression on his face that Kuralt would have never considered, but it works for him without silliness. Nonetheless, he plays it more for laughs. For instance, he wrote: "In rural Kansas, I asked our motel desk clear for the name of the best restaurant in the area. After mulling it over, he answered: 'I'd have to say the Texaco, 'cuz the Shell don't have no microwave."'
This book is a mix of people Geist has met during his broadcasting career, plus some of those he found during a 5,600-mile RV trip across the country. In Cortez, Colo., for instance, he visited the Movie Manor Motel, "where guests like myself can lie in bed indoors and watch an outdoor drive-in movie with the sound piped in."
It was built 40 years ago "and is still flourishing."
Geist also discovered that farmers there have a never-ending problem with burrowing animals — prairie dogs, barking squirrels and sod poodles. To get rid of them, Gay Balfour, a welder, tried everything he could think of — then he considered a prairie-dog vacuum.
He asked the sanitation department if he could borrow the sewer vacuum truck — and they sold it to him. He took it to an industrial supply store and bought some big green hoses. In 45 minutes, he vacuumed up "23 dazed prairie dogs" — after which the Ute Indians signed him to a $6,000 contract.
In New Glarus, Wis., a cheese-based culture, Geist found a cow photographer, Kathy DeBruin. She is, said Geist, "the Annie Leibovitz of cow portraiture." She has photographed cows for 30 years — although she occasionally uses the camera on horses, sheep, pigs, dogs, cats and "even a few humans."
People use them for catalogs, but also for formal photos, wedding parties, family portraits, Christmas cards, business cards — and "scenic cow photography." "No bovine boudoir photography, I was pleased to note."
Driving around the country through the eyes and words of Geist is precious. Clearly, Kuralt didn't locate all the strange things.
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com