Standing on a Corner So, there I was, standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona and all I could think of was, why Winslow Arizona? As far as I could figure the only reason anyone knew about Winslow Arizona is from the line in the Eagles hit song “Take It Easy.” Apparently, the song wasn’t written about any particular corner in Winslow, but the town realized they should give the thousands of visitors something to see when they came to have a look around the town. In 1999 they created “Standing on the Corner Park” at the intersection of Route 66 and North Kinsley Avenue right in the center of town. There are two bronze statues on the corner now. The original is of Jackson Browne who wrote Take It Easy, and the other of the late Glenn Frey who was the song co-writer and original Eagles band member, which was added to the corner on September 24, 2016. As the story goes, Jackson Browne developed writer’s block with the song “Take It Easy.” He was living in a basement suite below the apartment Glenn Frey was renting in Los Angeles. Frey liked the song and wanted Browne to play it for him. Browne had already written the part about Winslow, as he ended up spending a long day in Winslow after his car broke down on his way to nearby Sedona. He had written about his “women problems,” you know, out of the seven women on his mind only one was his friend, the rest wanted to own him or stone him! The whole song had been written but he didn’t have a finish to the second verse. As Jackson played the second unfinished verse, "Well, I'm a-standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona...", Frey said, "Such a fine sight to see. It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin' down to take a look at me.” As Frey said, “That was my contribution, really, just finishing the second verse.” The first time I stumbled across the now-famous corner was with a friend of mine as we drove Route 66 on our way to a golf tee time in Phoenix, but that’s another story for another time. It was a rainy afternoon when we arrived in Winslow, and we got lost trying to get to the hotel as we were forced to zig-zag through town due to a series of one-way streets. As we came around the corner, there it was, not just any corner, it was “The Corner,” complete with a “Flat Bed Ford” parked at the curb. The hour was getting late, and we didn’t really want to get out and get the obligatory photo in the rain, so we made a mental note that it would be the first thing we did before we headed south to Phoenix in the morning. The next day we made our way back to the corner and took several photos as did a steady stream of other tourists. Souvenir shops are conveniently located across the street selling Eagles merchandise as well as Route 66 mugs, signs, and t-shirts. One line in one hit song sure made a difference in a town that had seen better times. Before “Take It Easy,” Winslow already had some acclaim as it was one of the towns you had to drive through when traveling along Route 66. Up until the 1960’s it was the largest town in northern Arizona and to this day it is home to the Arizona head office of the Santa Fe Railway. There is also a historic hotel called the La Posada, a magnificent old building that has survived since the late 1920s and was part of several hotels and restaurants owned by the Santa Fe Railway. It was a luxurious stop for people traveling by train across the U.S. In its heyday in the 1930s, many Hollywood stars and VIPs who traveled by rail across the country would make stops at the Santa Fe Hotels. People like Albert Einstein, Bob Hope, Gene Autry, Howard Hughes, John Wayne, U.S. Presidents and Senators. The Santa Fe hotels were much like the CN-owned hotels that were tied to the rail line across Canada. After being closed to the public in 1957 and almost demolished in the mid-1990s, The National Trust for Historic Preservation found out about those plans and added La Posada to their endangered list. In the late 1990s La Posada underwent an estimated 12 million dollar restoration and is once again open for business. I mention the hotel in great length because we enjoyed staying there and if you ever get a chance to visit the town, keep La Posada in mind, even if it’s just for lunch or dinner. It’s a wonderful piece of history restored to its old-world charm. Besides, as far as I could tell it was the only thing to do in Winslow other than stand on the corner! Till next week… Wayne |
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November 2024
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