Travel At Marietta ‒ and before heading back onto I-75 ‒ a car wash was essential to remove all of the red clay mud which seemed to cling to your car from the Old Dixie. Many who drove “The Gap” in those days will remember Marietta’s Big Red Chicken with its mobile beak just before rejoining I-75 – it’s still there! For 12 years, construction of “The Gap’s” I-75 was blocked by lobbyists who did not want the interstate cutting through lands surrounding Allatoona Lake. But it was an embarrassment to Georgia so, when the State’s favourite son Jimmy Carter became President, he issued an edict - get “The Gap” fixed! So 40 years ago, dignitaries gathered at Marietta ready to open a newly constructed 45km of interstate. A brandnew Ford CLT-9000 tractor-trailer rig broke the ribbon stretched across the road, accompanied by roadside loudspeakers playing the lively musical beat of theBallad of I-75. And now to the song. A number of years ago, I received an e-mail from an I-75 snowbird. He was cleaning out his late father’s house and came across a brown scrapbook with newspaper cuttings, photos and the official I-75 Opening Ceremony program. His dad was Bill Hone, the driver of the tractor-trailer which cut the ribbon across I-75. The package also included a 45 rpm record. Joe knew of my interest in the freeway’s history, so he sent the memorabilia to me… and that’s where my adventures began. The song was an enigma. It seemed to have faded from local memory and I suspected that I had the only recorded copy in my possession. I was able to trace the composer, but he died some years ago without family. Similarly, the singer had died…and theMarietta family which originally commissioned it couldn’t be found. The record was produced by “Soundshop,” a Nashville studio which declared bankruptcy shortly after its production and, according to those in the industry, Soundshop’s meagre assets were probably destroyed. I hired a U.S. lawyer who specialized in music copyrights to seek the song’s ownership, but he was not able to track it down either. Through this article, I want to share some unique I-75 memorabilia, Bill Hone’s scrapbook and a long-lost but iconic interstate song. I may very well have the only copy of the music played on the day I-75 opened, all the way from Sault Ste Marie to Tampa; the planned end of 1977’s I-75. Big Chicken beside the Old Dixie Highway Scrapbook - Various Press clips 18 | www.snowbirds.org
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