Monthly Archives: May 2013
Quarters only
The last few years of my grandfather’s life, he went on vacation with us. He had an intense curiosity and keen interest in everything he saw from his spot in the front seat; nothing escaped his attention.
I want to think I inherited a bit of those fine qualities.
He was a map reader. Every time we’d stop for gas, he’d return to the car with a new map from the rack inside the station.
I know I inherited his love of maps.
Our route from Texas to our most-frequent vacation destination would have taken us through Santa Rosa, and maybe to this very station. It’s funny that I hadn’t thought about him, or the trips, or the maps for years, but the very instant I saw this old map display, all those memories returned as if the trips were just a couple of years ago.
Although, in my grandpa’s time, the maps would have been free.
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
photographed 5.4.2013
Dilemma
I can’t decide. I tried to choose one version, but I couldn’t do it.
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
photographed 5.4.2013
Tall signs can’t save commerce. Or themselves.
Interstate 40 Business Route is mostly a courtesy title, at the east end of town anyway. The big truck stops – Love’s Travel Center, TravelCenters of America, and Big Rig Truck – are an easy off-then-on from the main highway, and anyway, if you go to one of those, you don’t have to watch your speed along that stretch of old Route 66 that goes through town.
This giant sign could surely have been seen from the interstate, but it wasn’t enough: the sign, and the station behind it are long abandoned.
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
photographed 5.4.2013
Less than it was
Of course, a place like Santa Rosa would have once had a business with some kind of arrowhead theme. It was, at one time, sort of expected.
I guess the demise of a business with some kind of arrowhead theme is also sort of expected.
Today, the empty arrow points toward a weedy, dusty vacant lot that’s got a swingset and one basketball goal, and nothing else.
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
photographed 5.4.2013
One Day | One Image 