Yep, at around lunch today we were “standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona” taking each others picture with “Easy”, the bronze statue of a ’60ish figure with a guitar. “The corner” is right on Route 66. The building behind the statue has a mural painted on it and you can see the girl in the flatbed Ford slowing down to take a look at you.
As I stood there, lost in the nostalgia of the moment, the thought crossed my mind of what a crazy world we live in and what crazy quirks of fate, circumstance, luck, karma, whatever you want to call it, come and completely reek havoc with all that is logical and normal. I mean look here at Winslow, Arizona. It is just another one of the many of small towns that became ghost towns almost overnight when the Interstate Highway System came and all traffic bypassed them. One day literally thousands of cars and trucks that had been going through and stopping in their town stopped doing so. They were gone for good. Just ask my grandsons. They can tell you how a little town just down the road apiece call Radiator Springs fell victim to the Interstate and only Lighting McQueen could save it. KaChow!
Winslow was already settling into oblivion and would have gone softly into the night but for two artists living over 500 miles away. Jackson Browne had written the first verse of a song he titled Take It Easy. He showed it to his then neighbor and friend, Glen Frey (lead vocalist for the Eagles). Frey immediately liked the song and told Browne he wanted the Eagles to record it. But the song had only one verse and Browne said he just didn’t have the time to finish it right then. Frey finally talked Browne into letting him, (Frey) finish the song and record it. Finally Browne agreed. Frey took no time in writing the second verse which started out with,” I’m standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona”. The Eagles recorded Take It Easy and released it as their first recorded single on May 1, 1972, over 40 years ago. It went to number 12 on the Top 100 National Chart. It was placed on almost every album the Eagles recorded and became one of their best known songs. Rolling Stone Magazine has said it is one of the 100 songs that changed Rock and Roll. It also changed Winslow, Arizona! Several cottage industries have popped up to supply all of us die-hard Eagle fans with all sorts of paraphanailia! But here is the part that drives me crazy. Why Winslow? Why not Flagstaff, or Phoenix, or Tombstone, or Sedona? OK, I’ll have to say Sedona probably wouldn’t have worked. That just doesn’t sound right. But do you get my point? Because some guy who may or may not have ever been to Winslow puts it in a song, this little town will continue to have cars leaving Interstate 40 to get on a strip of Route 66 that takes them into Winslow where they can “stand on the corner”. And you can say what you want, but after 40 years “Take It Easy” still kicks butt!
OK, we are snugly tucked away into the Grand Canyon Railroad Hotel where in the morning, we will board the Grand Canyon Railroad for a trip to and around Grand Canyon and return to the hotel. We will be in the “Pamper Me Silly” club car,(no kids allowed) for the royal treatment trip. Now that’s what I call roughing it! Someone pass me another stem of bubblely!
Ted Purcell 
Did they have the Red Pickup truck parked along the street where the Statue of one of the Eagles is located?
We stayed at the La Pasada Hotel right up the street from that corner where you took the photo’s. The dining room inside the hotel was wonderful, reminders of the famous Harvey Girls. The gardens are also very nice.
Glad you are enjoying your road trip, enjoy the ride to the Grand Canyon and the view once you get there. Nothing like it and we always enjoy seeing it.
Pat Boston
Hey Pat,
Thanks for the post! Yep, the old flatbed was parked on the curb. We had lunch at La Posada and it was great. I tried their home-made hummus and the funky blue corn super-thin bread wrapped in a roll. Also their soup was awesome! Half was corn chowder and the other half black bean. In the same bowl! It was different but good.
Keep posting in!
Hey Ted, what a great read on the Eagles. Thanks. “Our” trip seems to being going great so far. I am loving this virtual thing – not costing me a solitary dime and I’m having a great time.
BTW – I looked up the word “tourist” this morning in my old Webster’s – and your picture was shown there with that Nikon hanging around your neck. Loved it.
Enjoy the train ride.
Edge
Hey Edge,
Yeah, I think I’m going to try to come up with some kind of scam that will let me travel around the country looking all curious and sticking my nose into the local’s business until I dig up some dirt that one of the networks will pay me for. Or as Don Henley of the Eagles so aptly put it in their song, “give me dirty laundry”! I could maybe become kind of a Charles Kuralt but with no motives, no money, and no mistress. Who knows, it could work! Just bouncing around America sharing my profound insight into today’s sticky situations while assuming no responsibility or accountability for my outbursts of blog verbage! What’s that you say? Someone already has that job? Who’s Rush Limbaugh?
Hey Ted….You know, Paul and I must have the same ‘Old Webster’s Edition’ cause sure enough there ya were, but with a Kodak Instamatic around your neck. My Websters edition was a 1965 Edition…a graduation gift from my parents…who knew it would be a such a reliable reference source 47 years later.
It was neat to see your pics of Winslow, and the references to ‘Take It Easy’ and the Eagles. Takes us all back aways. Here’s a bit of Eagles Trivia to add to your ‘Eagles Kick Butt Repertoire’. ‘One of These Nights’ album cover …Skull and Feathers… was created by Texas Artist Boyd Elder of Valentine, Texas. I had the distinct pleasure and good fortune to take several graduate art classes taught by Boyd at SRSU. What a great experience to hear about his years as The Eagles Album Artists while having a cool one at the Riatta Outdoor Beer Garden in Alpine….after class of course. Boyd Elder still lives in Valentine and is a working artist….give him a Google.
I posted your standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona pic on your ‘On The Road w/Ted’ on the 65’er Website and linked Day Three-Take It Easy. Looking forward to your pics of the Grand Canyon. Enjoy the Bubbly and make sure Charlotte get’s ‘Pampered Silly’.
Hey Sue
Thanks so much for the post and for the “voodoo that You do” in getting the Winslow shot on the ’65 site. With any luck we will get a few shots from the Grand Canyon and the Railroad trip by tomorrow. Tonight we are “walking the streets of Bakersfield”. Tomorrow we will be heading for Santa Cruz and the coast to meet up with my cousin and his wife who are there in their RV.
Thanks for everything and keep posting in.
P.S. Thanks for the Eagle trivia also. Next time I go to Big Bend, I will drop into Valentine and meet Boyd.
Ted