Waterloo was my hometown.  Located in North-Central Iowa, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls metro area was served by U.S. Highways 218 running SE-NW through town, 63 running north-south, and 20 running east-west.  Largely an industrial town with not much sight-seeing opportunities, there remain but a few older relics/motels in the area.  However, a real treasure is this old feed store just east of downtown Waterloo on Sycamore St.  My dad has mentioned that this Coca-Cola sign has been on that wall since he was a teenager in the 40's.  A rare find indeed!  

     By sheer coincidence, I have come across this EARLY downtown Waterloo postcard of the 5th St. bridge, which is still there.  This picture must be from the late teens/early 20's.
Author's addemdum 01/08/06:  per my Pop who still lives back in Waterloo, all of the original bridges over the cedar River were replaced by the late 50's 60's.  

     And what Midwestern town is complete without a bowling alley?  After all, there's not much to do when it's 10 degrees out and a foot of snow on the ground!  Luckily, Maple Lanes and Cadillac still sport some vintage neon for us to enjoy at night...

    Further west in Cedar Falls, I had found an old linen postcard (no PM) of the Cedar Falls Motel. Located just a bit west of the intersection of old 218 and old 20 near my favorite Island Park frisbee golf course, I remembered this old place from my younger days.  A quick drive across town showed me that yep, the Cedar falls Motel is still there-though now apparently serving as regular apartments/rental units.  Compare what once was with the appearance of the motel last Christmas.

     Pheasant hunting used to be a great pastime for my friends and I.  Get out of town, find some abandoned field or railroad right of way to work, or just plain ride around all day and stop in a small town for some beer and pool.  Sure miss those times.  There used to be some good hunting SW of Waterloo near Tama, although I sure don't recall this old cafe and sign.  Can anyone enlighten me to what happened to the King Towers cafe and souvenir stand??  BTW, the pheasant hunting isn't that good anymore either.  Too many warm winters and soybeans.
Author's addendum, 05/30/06: Per Larry Adams of Marshalltown, the King Towers cafe is still there and still open for business.  Thanks for sharing Larry!

     Heading south on old 218 SE out of town down to Cedar rapids and Iowa City used to be a study in 90-degree curves until I-380 bypassed this long stretch of road in the 80's.  Now, whole communities have been left withering on the vine.  The larger cities are doing OK.  For example, Cedar Rapids was recently voted one of the nation's '10-best communities to live in' (2-years running).  Seems kind of funny to us that lived nearby...to us, Cedar rapids has always been known as the 'city of 5 smells' due to the many corn sweetener plants and other 'industries' in the area.  I couldn't believe it when I came across this postcard of the Quaker Oats plant downtown Cedar Rapids.  This plant has remained  virtually unchanged in the 60 or so years since they stopped making linen postcards.  All I can figure is that Cedar Rapids was really hard-pressed to find postcard images that day...

     Iowa City, home of the University of Iowa and the Big-10 Iowa Hawkeye's, used to have the highest ratio of doctors to population in the U.S. due to the presence of the University Hospital complex.  Hear that ladies??  Iowa City is also home to this great neon sign at the Capri Lodge located on the west side on Highway 6.  Does the shape of the sign look familiar??  This sign may pre-date the Holiday Inn franchise.

     The Quad Cities.  Long time busy port along the Mississippi, early French trappers were exploring the territory as early as the 1700's.  Since then, the area became a trading crossroads, with several U.S. highways and railways running through the area.  Evidence of this industrial past is evident by the large warehouse district in downtown Davenport.  There are many ghost signs to be seen similar to this great Bull Durham sign on the side of a cafe in 'The Village'-a small nice area with many country shops and antiques.  Emies (Ee-mees) Automotive is still hanging on closer to the warehouse area.