Friday, June 03, 2005
What Happens When You Lose Track Of History.
Happened across this little "Reader's Opinion" in yesterday's NY TImes.
That's a rather important bit of information to exclude when you are extoling the history of something, don't you think?
A couple of weeks ago my dad pointed out that there is only one major route out of California over the Sierra Nevada if you are north of Bakersfield. That road is Interstate 80. Other roads cross the mountains, but in a tentative, almost exploratory way. Eighty is the way in and the way out. The roadway has been blasted with cold and heat. And if, while you're climbing it, you happen to remember, as I did, that this is the one eastern crossing out of northern California, the route somehow seems unduly fragile, cutting its way through time.The writer then goes on to extol the virtues of this particular highway. I have driven this highway many times and agree. So much so that my wife and I took a vacation a few years ago the sole purpose of which was to follow that highway. She talks about the history of the trail, but ignores one overwhelming fact. Interstate 80, with the exception of a short span near the Great Salt Lake, is the route of the original Transcontinental Railroad.
That's a rather important bit of information to exclude when you are extoling the history of something, don't you think?
