You do something – you hear something – you remember something – you experience something – you see something – it sticks with you. You were impressed, touched, stirred.
You try to explain it to others, but you don’t have the right words. Or they just don’t seem as interested as you thought they’d be – expected them to be – hoped they’d be. That’s the way it is. But it’s still yours. Your memory. Your experience. It’s still there. You own it.So it was early in September when Ron and I traveled to Winslow, Arizona. I had seen pics of others “standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona,” and I hoped to make it a part of our Southwest trip. It was!
We had camped in Flagstaff, so this was one little venture where we didn’t have to pull the travel trailer behind us. We drove about an hour on I 40, which is the “new” Route 66, but exited on the old, original Route 66 for the side trip through Winslow. I expected a cute little town filled with shops, rock music playing, lots of traffic, classic cars cruising, reminiscent of our days. Instead, it’s an old rundown town, with dried-out, unkempt stucco and block buildings. It was difficult to locate the corner Browne and Frey wrote about in their song, “Take it Easy,” recorded by The Eagles. We drove around several times finally seeing a little sign, directing us to the corner.
I’ve been wanting to stand on that corner for years – especially since Jan and Bill Kubiac shared their pics from a trip some years ago. Now it was our turn!
I must say we were both excited, but Ron – the most! For the next two hours, we traveled back in time. We were young again. Although his newer Dodge Ram sat in the public parking lot, it seemed like we had actually driven his ’69 GTO into town. We stood on the corner and took photos. Oh my word – he insisted we kiss in one of the photos! What was happening to Ron! We browsed the souvenir shops and sat at an outside table, enjoying a cup of coffee.
I connected to the Eagles song, “Take it Easy,” on my IPhone and blared it as loud as I could. (Link and listen here, if you’d like!) We laughed together like old times. Then an unusual thing happened, Ron’s eyes welled up. He reached across the table, took my hand and said “This is so neat. I love you.” He said we should Facetime the kids and show them what we were doing, but we didn’t. Looking at each other, we both knew they couldn’t possibly understand. “Take it Easy” wasn’t a part of their time. We looked around us at the few dozen tourists on and around the corner. They were all about our age. I wondered if they were young again, as well, while in this town.
Click here to listen to “Take it Easy” recorded by The Eagles
Even though Ron’s a GM man, he saw me that day as his “girl in a flatbed Ford.” We ate lunch at Relic Road, and kind of didn’t want to go back to our trailer to move on! We were liking it here! But we moved on, reluctantly aging as we found our Dodge Ram in the public parking lot and stepped back into the present.
It was a great two hours – invigorating, youth-renewing. It was our memory. It was our experience. It’s still there. We own it.
When we moved on, I discovered God had a special treat in store for me yet in Arizona. One I hadn’t researched or planned.
