“San Bernadino” February 18, 2008
Posted by Ron in Music, Towns.1 comment so far
I’m a fairly big music nut, but confess to never hearing about the British pop band Christie and its 1970 single, “San Bernadino,” which was a worldwide hit but barely scraped the bottom of the U.S. Billboard 100. Incidentally, the spelling of the song’s title is correct, if not accurate.
And after much lobbying to the City Council, the Route 66 town of San Bernardino, Calif., adopted “San Bernadino” as the city’s official song in 2005.
Incidentally, Christie front man Jeff Christie is not related to Tony Christie, another British musician who also had a sizable hit about another prominent Route 66 town with “(Is This the Way to) Amarillo.”
Here’s a clip of Christie and “San Bernadino” during the band’s prime, on German television:
(Hat tip to reader Ray Chan.)
When Two Guns was Canyon Diablo February 18, 2008
Posted by Ron in History, Towns.add a comment
The Route 66 ghost town of Two Guns, Ariz., has a rather ominous name. But its former moniker was Canyon Diablo, essentially meaning Devil’s Canyon in Spanish.
Clay Thompson, who answers history questions to the Arizona Republic, recounts the town’s rather colorful history.
