Barbara Maltby

Letom: Motel Spelled Backwards True Tales of a Mom and Pop Barbara Maltby

The author, Barbara Maltby was 'Mom' and wrote Letom from a collection of hastily scribbled notes on scraps of paper that were thrown into a box marked, hopefully, Book, over the years she was in the motel business. Sources were also copies of letters written to friends and relatives, the yearly newsletter sent to guests and friends, and her daily log. The stories are mostly humorous or bizarre. They draw a naked picture of human behavior in a setting that seems to bring out the real person often void of the trappings of polite society. It gives glimpses of the traveling public behind closed motel doors and tells stories of the lives of people seldom seen through other exposures. As maid, desk clerk, handyman, maintenance crew, laundress, bartender and cook, this Mom and Pop saw interesting interludes in the lives of travelers. What she tells is true and is a personal expression of what happened to them and what it did to them. A friend told the author that more happens at the motel in one day than most people experience in a lifetime.