Mood:
vegas luckyTopic: "Airline Highway" (5)
There is a stretch of road that intersects from the west with Interstate 75 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Since it bypasses the local airport, the cognomen quite naturally evolved into "Airport Highway." It always struck the transient Frodo suspiciously that nearly all of the available real estate alongside the Airline Highway has been devoted to automobile dealerships. That, dear reader, is probably one more piece of Americana that is about to face a significant alteration .
What replaces the vacant showrooms? Does this stretch of road now become "Hamburger Highway," offering the McDonald's Corporation the opportunity to get your business, coming or going? What about the people named Chuck Clancy or Greg Baranco? Do salesman simply go and find something else to sell, maybe offering you cash for your golden rings, thereby becoming the "Pawnshop Parkway." What will the local governments do to offset the loss in sales and property taxes from businesses that no longer exist? Will entrepreneurs and start-up companies emerge to start over again, simply because there is no one to hire them, offering a potential "Millionaires' Multiplex?"
In "Dances With Wolves, " Kevin Costner comes into contact with a noble people who ask themselves great questions. They want to know how their lives will change. They are confronted by a lessening of the precious resources which have sustained them since their fathers were young men, and they fear that "Buffalo Boulevard" will soon become an empty path. They debate their choices, and they smoke the sacred pipe so that what they do will be ensconced with the blessings of the spirits.
Frodo wonders if Chief Dan George is still alive? What about the noble actor who appeared in that great environmental message with a tear in his eye as he looked out over a factory belching smoke above the wide plains? Frodo supposes they are gone now. He will probably think about them a great deal more, and certainly when next he drives the "Airline Highway."
