The Wisconsin Project: Abandoned Sonic Drive-In, Darboy, WI

16.10.12

Abandoned Sonic Drive-In, Darboy, WI

Abandoned Sonic, America's Drive-In, Darboy, Wisconsin, July 24, 2012

"A fun-retro future look" is how the Sonic® website describes the franchise's architecture to investors. Our friend Amber commuted to the location to work as a manager and we'd see her occasionally as we commuted to our college professor gig. The day we made this photograph in July, the temps were hovering near 100 degrees. "The Ultimate Drink Stop®, SONIC's line-up of Fountain Favorites® drinks..." had ceased operations and hence no carhops to serve the thirsty in the parched parking lot near the Kohl's. By October, the carport had been removed and the building otherwise reconfigured painted. A sign posted at the edge of the parking lot announced that a Dunkin' Donuts® would open soon and it did.

3 comments:

Anonymous23:04
When my training team opened this location and others we were so busy it required the use of traffic control. I loved the concept--a full menu available all day long--burgers for breakfast and egg burritos for supper. In early summer 2009, after a 1 month training at the West Milwaukee location, I helped my franchise open Sonic locations in Oak Creek, Waukesha, Greenfield, Darboy, Appleton and finally Green Bay. We offered over 168 thousand drink combinations and I believed in the brand. Each drink we served with a mint on top of the lid. Why? Because our customers were worth a mint to us. Summer was buzzing for my franchise. I helped open several locations prior to my final destination at the Green Bay Sonic. Our franchise had been contracted to open 22 locations in Wisconsin. Winter 2010 took a hit on our business--nearly a 80% decrease in sales compared to the summer months. In April 2010, I left. This was after working 9 months straight at an average of 85 hours per week (on salary) and my commute added an additional 12 hours per week. On my way out, my district manager told me I would never amount to anything...well, I guess they didn't either. The franchise closed several locations shortly after I had left, and in late 2011, they sold the 5 remaining stores. Within the last few weeks, the new owner of the Green Bay location shut it's doors for good.
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THE WISCONSIN PROJECT

Our research-driven Wisconsin Project contemplates the rooted-ness and state-of-mind resulting from inhabiting a single place, our native Wisconsin, for a long time. Through critiquing postcard views both made and found, we learn a great deal about past and present Wisconsin. We began making postcard views of the places immediately around our studio and on our drives around Wisconsin in about 2008. We use the vintage postcard film format and print the cards in palladium and cyanotype. By communicating details of a specific place, seeming to register only marginally on the national radar, the project seeks to bring audiences into a Wisconsin mental space. Some in the art world would argue that the Midwest, particularly Wisconsin, makes for banal “fly over” subject matter. Our project challenges that by finding meaning in the ordinary and inviting audiences to examine, dialog, and reflect on the particular emotional quality of the idiosyncrasies of place and the perceptions of those both inside and outside of it. Sometimes distant memories are involved and a longing for a time now gone. Wisconsin’s glacier inflected landscape and proximity to the Great Lakes creates an exotic arena for living that informs our project. The life cycle plays out and rural and urban ruins serve as monuments to existences as people, places, and ideas surface then vanish. Ultimately, we aim to grapple with complex perceptions of Wisconsin ranging from nostalgic, romantic, and idealized--as depicted on myriad real photo postcard and standard tourist postcards--to mysterious, dark, and Gothic as conveyed in works of art and literature such as Michael Lesy's "Wisconsin Death Trip" book and Werner Herzog's "Stroszek" film. The project culminated in a residency with workshops and community collaborations and the installation "We Go From Where We Know" at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center 10.13.2013-3.7.2014 and later the Harvestore Bandshell for Fermentation Fest in 10.2014. The blog continues the exploration of postcards.