Day 9, Wednesday, May 7, 2008

We made it to Winslow, AZ, very late in the day. It was probably too dark to be taking pictures, but Dean's camera has umpteen settings on it, and it did a good job. We were bound for Winslow because of Standin' On
The Corner Park.



This is another of those Route 66 Roadside Attractions that is worth seeing--at least if you're a fan of The Eagles' song Take It Easy. The lyrics say,

"Well, I'm a-standing on a corner
In Winslow, Arizona
And such a fine sight to see
Its a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford
Slowin down to take a look at me"



This is the Park that Winslow dedicated in 1999. Route 66 follows Second Street through town, and the park is on the Route, on the northwest corner of Second and Kinsley Avenue.

The Park is one of Winslow's efforts to revitalize the town. Here's a very brief history of Winslow. Until the 1960's, Winslow was the largest town in northern Arizona. It held a prominent location along Route 66. But that prominence nearly disappeared when I-40 by-passed Winslow in the 1970's. Many downtown business closed their doors. For the next twenty years, downtown Winslow was frozen in time.

Now, if you're a movie buff of any kind, you'll realize that this sounds very much like the plot of Disney's Cars. I don't know who thought of the concept for that movie, but it's right on the money. So many of the towns we saw on this trip were exactly like the fictional Radiator Springs. Actually, Radiator Springs was a composite of many of the towns and prominent buildings along old Route 66. (We got pictures of a few of those buildings on our trip home that I'll post.) It was great fun to watch Cars after we got home and see how accurate it was.

Anyway, I applaud Winslow for finding ways to bring life back to their little piece of Route 66. Here are some of the details of the Park.



This is the life-sized bronze statue of a 1970s young man, standing on the corner. It's a little irritating to some fans of the song that the lyric is "standin' on a corner" but the Park is named "Standin' on the Corner." Oh, well, it sounds better this way. A lot of folks never even notice.



The statue was done by Ron Adamson. Some people think it looks like Jackson Browne, of The Eagles, who co-authored Take It Easy with Glenn Frey. I don't know--what do you think?



The most prominent feature of the mural on the wall behind the statue is the 'reflection' in the window of a girl in a flatbed Ford, slowing down to take a look. The mural was painted by John Pugh. There's only a wall standing now, but originally the mural was painted on the side of the historic J.C. Penny-Rasco building. The building burned in October of 2004, and there was some damage to the mural, but Mr. Pugh repaired it, so it looks great again. There was also apparently some question about what would happen to the wall now that the building is gone. The city bought the property, and the wall has been reinforced, so the wall and the mural are safe.



The window immediately above the statue has an eagle sitting in it.



And one of the other windows has a couple in it. Note that she's blond, as is the driver of the flatbed Ford. The song never tells us the outcome of the encounter between these two, but the park planners seem to allude to the fact that it went well.



A vintage flatbed Ford truck is a recent addition to the park. (It's good, but I think they should figure out a way to put the blond in there.)



One of the ways the park committee raised money for this project, and for downtown revitalization, was to sell bricks. You can see some of them near the statue in this shot, as well as in some of the other pictures of the park. Each brick has writing on it. Some are memorials, some are thank-yous, some are dedications, some are just names. The idea is that you (or your loved one) can permanently stand on the corner in Winslow, Arizona. If you'd like you can order your own brick. They come in 3 sizes, and range in price from $50 to $250.

If you look closely at the shoulders of the statue, you can see that it's shiny. I'm sure that's because there have thousands of people who pose with their arm around the shoulder of this guy. Who knows how many pictures that are out there with this statue in them. (He's not overly tall, so it's pretty easy for even vertically challenged people like me to pose this way.)



This is a poster in the window of the business on the northeast corner. I wonder if it's original....



Route 66 Roadworks is on the southwest corner.



It's in an old 1904 Bank Building. That makes me wonder if this was originally owned by the Kaufman family....



They were the ones who donated the land for the Park. According to the plaque, someone in their 5 generations was into banking. On a side note--I really enjoy genealogy. Dean has Kaufman's in his family tree. Distant relatives, I wonder?



According to Images of 66, "Roadworks is one of the few great gift shops along old 66 which has upscale Route 66 items, along with Harley Davidson, Santa Fe Railroad, and The Eagles merchandise."



They've even created a place outside where you can sit and gaze at the Corner Park, if you'd like.

Well, that's it for Winslow, and for Day 9 posts. We went on to Holbrook from here, to keep that hotel reservation we couldn't make on the way out. We took a couple of night shots of neons in Holbrook on Wednesday, but I'll post those with the Thursday daytime pictures we took there.

Later......