Knotty Pine Lodge – Cashmere Bouquet Hotel Bar Soap

“Haunted Bismarck”

The soap itself is another Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Co. Cashmere Bouquet Toilet Soap—so I don’t need to write again about that, and its nostalgic fragrance c. 1872. People do accuse me of being nostalgic for the Seventies! The stylish wrapper is from “Knotty Pine Lodge – Bismark (sic) North Dakota”—what about this Knotty Pine Lodge? There’s a postcard for it, online—classic looking Fifties motor hotel—victim of the ol’ neon-sign fire, in 1985. There now, is an empty lot, but nearby there’s a newer, cheap motel, and just down the street there’s a Big Boy (across the street from a Frankie Latina location) and really cute looking café called the Little Cottage Café—my first stop next time I’m in Bismarck—which is also a doughnut—and could be my new home. Because when I then continue on into the heart of downtown, I come to the most imposing, 10-story, apartment building I’ve seen in a while—called The Patterson—once a hotel with a speakeasy, secret casino, brothel, and secret tunnel to the train station. If that place isn’t haunted, then ghosts don’t exist. It may be a “senior living” place, now—but guess what, I’m a senior. No website—I guess you just show up with some folding green and ask what’s open. There are, online, a few photos, at least, that’ll chill your blood.

Soap Review No. 216