July 1, 2021: The enterprising townsfolk of Winslow, Arizona have come up with a genius way to court tourism: Standin' on the Corner Park. Now if you were born in Tunisia after 2005, you might not get the cultural reference, but for everyone else, the lyrics to Take It Easy are burned into your brain so deep that if you were in a coma and they played it for you, you'd come out of it just to tell them to change the station.
"Well, I'm standing on a corner
In Winslow, Arizona
And such a fine sight to see
It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford
Slowin' down to take a look at me
Come on, baby, don't say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love
Is gonna save me
We may lose, and we may win
Though we will never be here again
So open up, I'm climbin' in
So take it easy".... etc.
So in Standin' On The Corner Park, which was quite well attended, one has many photo opportunities to insert oneself into various tableaux suggested by the song. There are bronze statues of Jackson Browne and Don Henley, a real flatbed Ford, a mural devoted to the scene, and the diner next door pipes in the song as well as other retro hits. And lest we forget, we're still getting our kicks on Route 66.
Winslow is a cute small town which is well worth a visit, especially if you can wangle a trip out to Meteor Crater or Homolovi State Park while you're there. This was a definite downside to train travel - we were on a tight schedule and did not have the ability to go out exploring as much as we would have liked.
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