Magic in Amarillo

Magic is going to happen Aug. 19 in Amarillo. If you’re in the area, I strongly urge you to show up to see it.

A group of volunteers from the Texas Old Route 66 Association — of which I am a proud member — will be pitching in to help bring a piece of history back to life.

We’re going to descend on the historic Triangle Motel on Amarillo Boulevard at 7:30 a.m. and do … well, whatever the owner needs us to do.

I haven’t discussed it very extensively on here, but Route 66 preservation is my greatest passion. Let me explain why.

My husband and I got involved with Route 66 about six years ago. One of the things that hooked us right away was the prospect of helping with hands-on historic preservation projects. At the time, we lived in Illinois, where the state Route 66 Association had a lively preservation committee. They did all sorts of cool projects, and although our schedules wouldn’t allow us to help with everything they did, we were able to participate in enough projects to become completely addicted to the rush of driving past a historic site and thinking, “I helped save that!”

One Saturday at Soulsby Station in Mt. Olive, Ill., I managed to smear caulk all over my most comfortable jeans.

It wouldn’t come out, so I relegated the jeans to weekend-only status and wore them to every preservation project from that point on.

It started out as a practical matter — I didn’t want to ruin all my jeans, so I just saved this one grubby old pair to work in — but as the stains and rips increased, I started to realize their significance. Each one represented a direct link to the past. Each one was evidence of my involvement in the effort to save some piece of history. I began jokingly referring to my work jeans as “my historic pants.”

Beginning with that fateful day and continuing to the present, I have collected caulk and dirt from Soulsby Station; yellow and black paint from Vernelle’s Motel; red and black paint from the Vega Motel; blue paint from the Eat-Rite Diner; every imaginable shade of paint and several rips and stains from downtown Depew, Okla.; and probably several others I have forgotten at the moment.

Every stain on those pants tells a story.

Somewhere along the line, I began a tradition of collecting autographs from the leaders of the historic preservation projects I did, so some of the stains now have messages and signatures scrawled next to them (or, in some cases, directly on them) in black Sharpie.

Here’s the weird thing about these pants: I got involved with the Mother Road in 2000. Six years and 15 pounds later, I’ve gone up more sizes than I care to discuss … but somehow my preservation pants always seem to fit.

I can’t explain it, so I just chalk it up to road magic.

Route 66 always feels magical, but the magic is most potent on a preservation site.

It’s the magic that lets you overcome a quarter-century of fear and ride 30 feet into the sky on a boom lift to repaint a historic sign. It’s the magic that lets you keep working hours and hours past the point of exhaustion because you have to get back home in the morning, and you don’t want to leave the project unfinished. It’s the magic that keeps you from noticing that deep, crimson sunburn on your back and shoulders until the moment you climb down off the ladder and step back to admire your work. It’s the magic that makes a simple supper of hot dogs, coffee, and store-bought cookies taste like a fine gourmet dinner at the end of a long day. It’s the magic that turns plain old tap water out of a plain old motel shower into healing waters from some ancient spring.

It’s the magic of new friends and old friends and right motives and right actions and community spirit and the power of the grassroots unfolding before your eyes.

It’s magic you can hear about all day, but it’s magic you can never fully understand until you’ve been there and experienced it.

Magic is brewing in Amarillo. Come out and share it with us.

The magic starts at 7:30 a.m. Aug. 19 at the Triangle Motel in Amarillo, just west of Lakeside on Amarillo Blvd.

Admission is free. Dress is casual, but work gloves are recommended.

Come experience magic in the Texas Panhandle.

Emily