...a street in Memphis called American Way. That part of town was developed in the Cold War era and I'm sure whoever named it had some sort of anti-Communist motive. It was never an especially fancy part of town, but it was a reasonable "Wonder Years" type neighborhood even as late as when I was a kid in the 1980s, and I spent a lot of time there as the biggest mall in town was right there off the interstate on American Way. By the 1990s the neighborhood was "changing" and became a very undesirable place to live. The mall closed in 2003 (most of the shops had long since gone vacant) and was torn down shortly thereafter. Not sure if it's still true, but at the time it was billed as the largest mall ever to be demolished. The site is still a grassy field and from time to time a muder victim will be found among the weeds. Obviously, the street is still there, but nearly all redeeming businesses are gone. There are some run down hotels, liquor stores, and predatory lenders that are probably doing a fine business down on American Way. I don't get down that way too often, but whenever I do, I think about what the man who named that street would think if he could see what's on American Way. It makes a good metaphor.
