QUARANTINE BLOG # 625

December 15, 2021

Kyle and Cathy headed west after spending 2 months at 233, and a part of the trip that they anticipated greatly was traveling on Route 66, the Main Street of America or the Mother Road.  It was one of the original highways in the U.S. Highway System, established on November 11, 1926.  One of the great things about Route 66 is the collection of “stuff” along the old highway – motels, restaurants, souvenir places, just a collection of Americana that is gone from almost every other place in the country, rarely preserved, but fondly missed.

Like the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ (it reminds me of the Cozy Cone Motel in the Pixar movie “Cars” – the first picture even has “Ramone,” the '59 Chevy).

Or the Blue Swallow Motel and Palomino Motel in Tucumcari, NM.

Or the Rusty Bolt somewhere in Arizona.

All of these pictures – and many more – are from “KW & CJ's Most Excellent Adventure.”  Before I get to the point of all of this – and you were hoping there would be, aside from the great pictures – I need to tell you that KW and CJ are not Kyle William and Catherine Jean, but a Tasmanian Devil and a Fox, pictured below posing in Forrest Gump’s running shoes outside Bubba Gump Shrimp in Santa Monica, CA (my brother and sister-in-law are known in the “Most Excellent Adventure” as Tour Guide and Mrs. Tour Guide – you can guess who are Cruise Talker and Mrs. Cruise Talker).

Well, anyway, Route 66 doesn’t have the only collection of quirky roadside attractions.  Check this one out in Natchez, MS – Mammy’s Cupboard, U.S. Highway 61.

Mammy’s Cupboard was built by Henry Gaude in 1940.  Henry had a gas station, and wanted a roadhouse that would capitalize on the then-current craze for Gone With the Wind.  One tale is that Mammy was designed as a white Southern belle, and Mammy’s shape does seem more Scarlett O’Hara than Hattie McDaniel.  Henry then transformed the big lady to black from white because black was better than white in the road-food visual shorthand of 1940 Natchez, conveying ideas of nurturing and nourishment.

The website atlasobscura.com says, Mammy’s “sells lunches and desserts with a healthy helping of politically incorrect architecture.”  Mammy has changed color over the years

but still serves meals Tuesday through Saturday from 11 to 2.  Bring cash, or a check,  because they don’t take plastic money. 

QB will try to locate more of these quirky places.

👉  Some Signs of the Times:

👉  Back to the origin of NFL Nicknames, the Houston Texans, Houston’s 2002 expansion franchise, became the sixth professional football team nicknamed the Texans.  Houston owner Bob McNair chose Texans over Apollos and Stallions.

The Baltimore Colts, a member of the All-America Football Conference from 1947-1950, were named in honor of the region’s history of championship horse breeding. The name remained when a new franchise began play in 1953 and again after the team relocated to Indianapolis in 1984 (Owner Robert Irsay, under the threat of an eminent domain court case from the city of Baltimore, moved the franchise to Indianapolis in the middle of the night on March 29, 1984).

The Jacksonville Jaguars nickname was selected through a fan contest in 1991, two years before the city was officially awarded an expansion team and four years before the team would begin play.  Other names considered included the Sharks and Stingrays.  While Jaguars aren’t native to Jacksonville, the oldest living jaguar in North America was housed in the Jacksonville Zoo.

👉  Our close today, “A Catalog of Newnesses,” is from Celebrating Abundance, by Walter Brueggemann.

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me” (Matthew 11:2-6).

The distance between John the Baptizer and Jesus is small, not more than a millimeter, but it is a space upon which our faith turns. It is the huge leap between advent and preparation and the birth of newness in the Christ. It is not more than an instant. It is quick and the world does not even notice. But it is the great leap of our life, moving from the severity of the John season to the Jesus season, and the leap makes a big difference.

The Jesus season for which we wait at Christmas, that we Christians count on and are baptized into, is a season of wondrous healing, of unexplained newness, of free gifts that will let us live whole, joyous lives. Jesus is too good to be true, and John his cousin cannot believe. John is something of a “theological terrorist” whom King Herod has imprisoned and charged with disturbing the peace. From his jail cell he sends an inquiry to this unbelievable cousin Jesus: Are you the one who will make it all new? Are you for real? Should we count on Christmas?

Jesus answers, always prudent and cautious. Let me give you the data you need to make up your own mind about your question:

“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” (Matthew 11:4-5).

Jesus offers a catalog of newnesses, of miracles, of wonders, transformations that take people in their fear and failure and disability, and wrap their lives in newness beyond themselves. That is what Jesus does. Everywhere he goes, newness happens. Newness and healing and well-being emit from his body wherever he is. That is what it means to live in the new world birthed at Christmas. John can draw his own conclusions, but this Jesus is surely doing everything promised, everything hoped for. Not bragging, just reporting on the birth of newness that the world cannot manufacture.

Prepare our hearts, O God, for the newness that is coming to the world. Open our eyes to the places it is breaking out in our world and in our lives, that we may know that we can count on Christmas. Amen.

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