This photo is of my mother, circa 1936.
I've never visited Amarillo, Texas, but it doesn't take too much imagination to figure that the view of the town's city limits changed considerably since my grandmother snapped this photo of her daughter.
November 15, 2008, was the 40th anniversary of the opening of
Interstate 40 that bypassed Route 66 and Amarillo Boulevard, then the main thoroughfare in town. I'd be curious to know if my mother was standing beside old Route 66 or if the city limit sign was on Amarillo Boulevard.
There is an informative and poignant look back at the construction of
Interstate 40, and of the destruction it left in its path in Amarillo, here at Amarillo.com. Here's a brief excerpt:
Car-cultured Americans love the poetry of the road.
We ponder our fates at crossroads, question the fork we should take.
Amarillo found itself at a crossroads in the 1950s as an evolving society accelerated plans to leave the quaint kicks of Route 66 in the dust.
Interstate 40 - and other interstates in the 40,000-mile system launched by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 - promised travelers a "limited-access, high-speed" driving utopia.
"There will be no traffic tie-ups where the interstate goes," declared the narrator of a 1961 film the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads produced to counter criticism that interstates would displace homes and businesses, harm cities and cost too much. . .
In reality, I-40 displaced many Amarillo residents and workers by the time it opened here 40 years ago on Nov. 15, 1968. And many small towns suffered death-by-bypass.
The then-Texas Highway Department acquired about 770 parcels of Amarillo land - 500 of which included homes or businesses - so that I-40 could slice through the city on a much-disputed central route.
I love nearly all music, and, although country music isn't a favorite of mine I do have a few favorite country songs and a few favorite country performers. Amarillo by Morning by George Strait is in both categories.....Amarillo by Morning, what a pleasing, teasing song.....George Strait, what a class act.
Amarillo By Mornin'
Up from San Antone
Everything that I got
Is just what I've got on.
When that sun is high in that Texas sky,
I'll be buckin' at the county fair.
Amarillo By Mornin'
Amarillo I'll be there.
They took my saddle in Houston,
Broke my leg in Santa Fe.
Lost my wife and a girlfriend,
Somewhere along the way.
I'll be lookin' for eight
When they pull that gate
And I hope that judge ain't blind.
Amarillo By Mornin'
Amarillo's on my mind.
Amarillo By Mornin'
Up from San Antone
Everything that I got
Is just what I've got on.
I ain't got a dime,
But what I got is mine.
I ain't rich, but Lord I'm free.
Amarillo By Mornin'
Amarillo's Where I'll Be.
Amarillo By Mornin'
Amarillo's Where I'll Be.
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