Look Left. Look Right. Dream.

NOB HILL--We in New Mexico seldom seem to recognize how important our surroundings are to the rest of the world. Let me call attention to only one of them: Route 66. It is famous WORLDWIDE. Yet, we do nothing to draw attention to it. No signs on I-40 east and west of town advertising the vintage motels and local restaurants available. In fact, we seem to be saying it is easier to close most old motels rather than restore or preserve them. Even the neon signs are vulnerable to economic forces. Look at what happened to the wonderful neon cowboy downtown at what is now the Colosseum. They took pliers, broke all the tubes, and painted the metal white. Public remodelling done by an idiot.

Meanwhile, a Swedish photographer stood in front of the 66 Diner tonight setting up his camera to take a picture of the neon on the building. He was working for a Swedish magazine. Route 66 is famous over there. Being a helpful guy, I thought I would suggest some neon signage for him to shoot. Whatever I mentioned he had already photographed it: El Vado, La Puerta, El Don, El Rey. I didn't bother telling him about the downtown cowboy.

When I was teaching 4th grade at Emerson ES I rode my bicycle to school most days. Once they got over my owning a car but still rode a bike, we started talking about dreams I had when I was their age about just riding away on my bike through the small towns on my Illinois map...Genoa, Marengo, Stillman Valley, Pecatonica. As a child I would dream about this...riding to Ottawa, Rock Island, Effingham, Leaf River, St. Charles. Anyway I would tell those kids at Emerson that 3 blocks from our classroom was Route 66. That if you turned left you could ride your bike to California and the Pacific Ocean...turn right and you could ride to Chicago, Lake Michigan, and beyond. 66 is magical. Nob Hill wouldn't be the same if the main street did not reflect in its signs and buildings that energy of the Road, that dream of adventure, the lure of strange-sounding places. "Now you go thru St. Looey...Joplin, Missouri! And Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty. You'll see Amarillo...Gallup, New Mexico. Flagstaff, Arizona: don't forget Winona, Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino."