SANTE FE, New Mexico — For jaded souls who write off
the U.S. Southwest as a slag heap of bozos, burgers, beer,
ribs and shotguns, as much a cultural wasteland as a vast
desert, this little city is a rerearkable anomaly.

Gary
Bannerman

Its hundreds — if not thou-
sands — of red adobe homes and
low rise buildings nestle in the
foothills of the Sangre de Cristo
Mountains.

Were it not the state capital,
one doubts if history and tourism
alone would justify Sante Fe’s ex-
istence, but it has flourished as a
sophisticated centre for arts and
culture.

Billing itself as City Different,
its internationally renowned opera
has featured all of the great stars,
from Maria Callas to Luciano
Pavarotti. The opera house, par-
tially open to the sky, is high in
the hills, 7,000 feet above sea
level.

Only 50,000 people live here.
One senses that many make Santa
Fe home to escape an otherwise
troubled world. Bustling Albu-
querque, just 50 miles south, or
dynamic Denver, 350 miles to the
north, are in the mainstream.

Last week we wrote about a
civic charity in El Paso, Texas,
Getermined to buy bullet-proof
vests for the police department.
This was the most bizarre of many
current local initiatives we en-
countered.

In Sante Fe, civic fathers have
recognized tha! medians at major
intersections are ‘aluabie billboard

space,

Hundreds of them have little
monuments erected with messages
such as, “ADOPT A MEDIAN —
Richard P. Shacklehouse, At-
torney.”

There are no sales pitches or
phone numbers. Those who spon-
sor the construction of a traffic
island, simply get prominent men-
tion.

Throughout Arizona and New
Mexico, similar endeavors pro-
mote the anti-litter campaigns
along highways.

The “ADOPT A HIGHWAY”
road markers usually list service
clubs and community groups as
sponsors. The Interstate Highway
rights-of-way ars immaculately
clean,

Only in America would you
find a town named after a televi-
sion game show, but Trith or
Consequences has been a southern
New Mexico landmark for ever 40

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Host Ralph Edwards and the
popular show visited the village —
then named Hot Springs — in
1950.

So charmed by all of the atten-
tion, the local council decided to
maximize on the notoriety by
abandoning the commonplace
name and adopting the game show
title.

It was a narrow vote at the
time.

Little remains of the fabled
Route 66, the Chicago-Los
Angeles connector immortalized
on television and in song.

Both the north-south and the
east-west Interstate links have
taken so many slices out of it,
there remains today only smali
business frontage segments along
its former lengthy route.

We spent a night in the centre
of Navajo country, at Gallup,
New Mexico, where major local
celebrations are planned for an
upcoming anniversary of Route
66, Sadly, the town seems little
more than a five-mile strip of
motels and seedy restaurants.

One does not think of Arizona
in terms of snowstorms, but we
encountered an impressive blizzard
and a foot of snow as we ap-.
proached Flagstaff. Near white-
out conditions paralyzed the
freeway, bringing traffic to a
standstill for a brief period.

As we proceeded cautiously
through ice and snow, Patricia

advised that she felt quite safe in
a rented Lincoln with Florida
licence plates. She urged me to
look in the mirrors.

It was apparent that no one
dared come within 200 yards of
me. Could this be a new safety
technique employed by rental
agencies?

There was a great prize awaiting
us at the end of this difficult
journey. We had previously visited
what must be the world’s most
awesome natural phenomenon, the
Grand Canyon. To see this ma-
jestic vista covered with snow was
an indescribable treat.

The fire roared in the 85-
year-old El Tovar Hotel, on the
canyon rim, as we dined just feet
away from a spectacular winter
wonderland.

aes

A day later, not far south at
Lake Havasu City, I was golfing
in shirtsleeves. Locals complained
that the 65°F temperature was
unseasonably cold.

if the Grand Canyon is sublime,
Lake Havasu City belongs on any
list of geography’s ridiculous
adventures.

In 1964, the McCulloch chain-
saw people bought vast tracts of
Arizona desert along the south
Colorado River, right at the
California border.

The hope was to create a dream
retirement community, but the
early effort was 2 financial
nightmare.

The developers, one day about
1970, read that the British were
planning to demolish London
Bridge, replacing the structure
with a wider, stronger span.

The Havasu team, in a moment
of inspiration, negotiated for and
purchased the old bridge, and a
shipload of granite and ornate
lamp standards was dispatched
across the oceans.

London Bridge was meticu-
lously reassembled to cross a fake
canal diverted from the lake.
Folklove has it that the McCulloch
group, at its unveiling, were
distressed: they thought they had
bought the more impressive Tower

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Sunday, January 19, 1992 — North Shore News -

Down the sideroads of the American West

Bridge.

Yet this became the spark to
salvage the real estate promotion.
London Bridge, with its little
English village or the shore, trails
only the Grand Canyon as an
Arizona attraction.

We had expected to discover a
pathetic, humorous fiasco. In-
stead, we were impressed by the
tastefulness of the setting. The ci-
ty isn’t much, but the bridge is
worth seeing.

We have a modest news flash
for those who will not be deterred
from a conviction that Ameri.-ans
are the best gasoline retailers.

Theft has now forced U.S. con-
venience stores to post signs on
the pumps: ‘‘PLEASE PAY BE-
FORE PUMPING GAS.,”’ This
feigned politeness was a redun-

dancy as the pumps were useless
until the cashier turned them on.
The customer now has to pay
cash or provide a credit card be-
fore serving himself. Credit card
customers must make two trips.

Impressionist Rich Little, pack-
ing them in at The Sands in Las
Vegas, discussed his roots, and he
said he is proud to remain Cana-
dian. This didn’t prevent a brief
broadside at Brian Mulroney.

But his best laughs were award-
ed his Ronald Reagan impression.
His skit placed Reagan at a press
conference.

A reporter asked: ‘‘Sir, were
you a drop-out?”

Puzzled, Reagan earnestly ad-
vised the reporter: ‘‘No, I was a
Caesarean!’*

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