April 16-25, 2022

“Well, I’m Standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona 🎶

And such a fine sight to see.
It’s a girl my Lord in a flatbed Ford slowing down to take a look at me!

Come on baby, don’t say maybe 🎶

I got to know if your sweet love is going to save me

We may lose, and we may win 🎸

Though we will never be here again

So open up I’m climbing in 🎶

Take it easy!

(Eagles’ first single, released in May 1972.)

So how did these famous lyrics come about, and how did this town begin to benefit from that song? I did a little digging online to get the background. Jackson Browne had been stranded in Winslow and after that experience decided to put that City in a song. But he couldn’t come up with the rest of the lyrics. The introduction of the flatbed Ford came from Glenn Frey. Jackson is quoted as saying…

“he came up with this great flatbed Ford thing , that’s a transformation right there. I dug the fact that all these women in Arizona were driving trucks so that appealed to me. “.

Yes, we like driving trucks!! 😃. And we don’t have to be from Arizona!!

Winslow, like a lot of cities, used to get a lot of traffic through the city on historic Route 66. However once the interstate was built and bypassed the city in the 1970s, things drastically changed. Without the constant traffic, business trickled and slowed to almost nothing and businesses started to shutter their doors.

It took years and the development of the internet before they realized they may be able to bring tourists back by capitalizing on the song. The song became a lifeline for the city. The city council and members decided to take advantage of the reference and create a place for song lovers and tourists to actually visit once they turned off the interstate to the city.

Change didn’t come until 1999! They took the corner downtown and started to develop it into the Standin’ on the Corner Park. It was really a great idea and it is so cool and nicely done. Almost everybody takes their picture or has their picture taken with the two statues that are there and /or by the red pickup truck. And people offer to take pictures for each other so everyone can be in it. It’s a nice spot to interact with people. 😊

The Old Trails museum in Winslow has a letter from an Eagles band member Don Henley and a donation of $1,000 toward the Standin’ on the Corner Park. They totally backed it. 👍

What’s on the Corner?

Glenn Frey, in the History of the Eagles documentary commented on why their music is still played and enjoyed. He stated ” people did things to the music of the Eagles. They fell in love, they fell out of love, they hung out with friends, they went on road trips and started families. That music was there while they did that. So people have a very tangible connection to those tunes.”

(I think we all have our favorite songs that bring back particular memories, don’t we? 🙂)

Glenn Frey, the co-founder of the Eagles, died in January 2016. A Phoenix radio station stepped up and donated funds towards creating a statue of Glen for the Standin’ on the Corner Park. The city provided the rest and it was added to the park in 2016.

The statues are just out of sight to the left and the right. This is the mural on the building on the corner. Notice the reflection of the girl in the flatbed Ford on the window. Looking up above in the window is an eagle and of course in the other window is a young couple dancing to Eagles’ music! It’s a nice backdrop and it really captures the song.

I came out of the guitar gift shop and was going to go across the street to the ice cream shop when I saw the police car. Apparently they were picking up a local who had imbibed way too much . After it left I went into the ice cream shop and came upon the officer. It was obvious everybody knows everybody, because this woman with her young child was buying the officer his ice cream. So while we waited I struck up a conversation with him. ( Of course!).

It’s always an easy transition when I bring in the information that my son works at the Green Bay, Wisconsin Police department. We discuss what my son does and then he shares his work . Alex was very interesting to talk with. Knows a lot of the people that they have to pick up and take in, no surprise. Has been on the force for 15 years! He’s lived in the area his whole life and is now going to Phoenix to their police force. He also has mental health support and stress assistance training. I hope he can keep his pleasant demeanor and disposition, because I don’t think the people down in Phoenix are going to be as understanding as the people he deals with in his hometown. 🤞Of course he has to deal with drugs, tourists and drive-thrus as well. 🤔

After I got my ice cream, I sat outside .But it was too windy there. I went across the street back to the guitar gift shop and sat there instead. It was enjoyable just to sit back and watch the other tourists stop and get their pictures taken and enjoy the corner. The traffic ebbed and flowed.

Unfortunately, while sitting there, there was another man, probably in his ’40s dressed in work clothes and cowboy hat, that was staggering down the street towards the park. He was a friendly sort and wanted the tourist to come and take pictures with him. He danced, played air-guitar and hung on to the shoulders of the “troubadour”. He was motioning people to come over and take a picture with him. Of course everybody disappeared. Eventually the other Native American men who were sitting outside the ice cream shop, called him over. Thank goodness. He sat and talked with them for a while and then he spotted me and started coming across the street! I was ready for that as I had my stuff ready to pick up and I went right inside the gift shop! He called to me and I just went right in. The shopkeeper looked out the window and said yeah, sometimes he comes and knocks on the door. The police would eventually come and take him away too. The shopkeeper stated that they cannot drink on the reservation. So they come into town to do it.

Interestingly, they must buy it at a grocery store because I did not see a single bar in the whole city. Not one. There is a Walmart on the outskirts of town, and also of interest, I noticed they did not sell hard liquor or wine but only beer, unlike other Walmarts. 🤔 Later I saw another guy on a side street who was feeling good and the police were talking with him and taking him away. From the conversation you could see they dealt with him numerous times before and they knew right where they were going to take him. Probably home.

I spent a little more time then just walking down the city street and found a park hideaway off the sidewalk. It had an interesting history of the city. It also was a sitting area that would be very inviting when it was hot !

If I had not been walking down the street, I would have missed this little museum. The photo below is from the opposite end, looking toward the sidewalk.

Route 66 & the airport

In the beginning…

The Sante Fe Railroad was a really big deal…

it was nice to have the time to actually browse and read everything on display and look at the photos. Perhaps it makes a difference and is more interesting when you are at the place that it all happened. I was also surprised to see those large framed displays out in the open. But then it dawned on me. Arizona barely gets any rain!!

Didn’t expect this…

Just out of town they have a 9/11 Memorial. I decided to stop to take it in. It took me a moment to realize that those bent steel beams were from Ground Zero in New York City. It was a sobering moment to stand next to them and actually touch them and realize where they had been and what they had gone through.

You can’t see it from this direction, but near the area where there is a change in color, there is a cutout space. I looked in it and saw stuff tossed in there. At first I thought that was disrespectful until I took a closer look. Then I realized they were momentos. Sobering X 2.

Then back “home”…

Can we say windy??!!

I went downtown to Winslow a couple times. The first time I just found the tourist corner and got my photos and the second time I took in more of the city.

Next blog, I hope to share the state park that I am in. It has historic ruins on its land as well as a Mormon cemetery.