Charles’ 
Slide of the Week: June 29th, 2007
Route 66, Texas, 1964
This is Mrs. Polehugger “gettin’ her kicks,” just like the song suggests, “on route 66!” I have no idea what this woman’s real name is but I do know she holds onto poles wherever she goes. She is really hugging America’s Mother Road, as John Steinbeck called Route 66 in his 1940 novel the Grapes of Wrath.
I recently got my kicks on Route 66 traveling from Los Angeles to Tulsa and back on route 40. Crystal clearly marked historic sections of the old road are the main streets of towns and cities along the way.
Among the world-class collection weather beaten space age gas station and motel carcasses there are many amazing gems form the golden era of road tripping to see and experience. Every America should spend at least one night of their precious life in the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona. The same goes for ever-and-oh-so rustic El Rancho Hotel in Gallup New Mexico. And if you ever have a craving for a FREE 72 oz steak you wouldn’t want to consume that anywhere else than The Texan, an uber-wild west themed restaurant/motel extravaganza in Amarillo. These are unquestionably roadside Americana institutions of the highest order. The same can be said for the charming array of Native Americana themed souvenir stands also to be discovered along the way.
The idea for a super-highway linking big cities and small towns from Chicago to Los Angeles was dreamed up in the early twenties by Cyrus Avery of Tulsa, Oklahoma and John Woodruff of Springfield, Missouri. Ironically, Route 66 goes through both Tulsa and Springfield but unlike Saint Louis, Joplin, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Gallup, Winona, Flagstaff, Kingman, Barstow, and San Bernardino, neither city is named in the classic song, Get Your Kicks on Route 66, which was first recorded by Nat King Cole in 1946.
Over the years high-speed four-lane interstate highways replaced Route 66.
Finally in 1984 the weary old road was de-commissioned as a federal highway when the last section, though Williams, Arizona, was bypassed by I40.
A few weeks ago I was chatting with a 30-something fellow American and Route 66 came up in the conversation. He said he’d never heard of it. I was stunned. Isn’t that that’s like not knowing who Marilyn Monroe or Elvis?
Here’s to your Route 66 road trip!
Charles Phoenix
Los Angeles
June 2007
Sets this Slide belongs to:
Roadslide & Transportation
18 Comments on “Route 66, Texas, 1964”
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June 29th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Dear Mr. Charles Phoenix. I am a Brazilian and new member of your beautiful website. I love reading and seeing old pictures mainly of the forties, fifties and sixties. I live here in São Paulo, Brazil. Thanks and congratulations for this great site. Ezio Campos
June 29th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Grapes of Wrath was by John Steinbeck! Unless there’s another Grapes of Wrath by Hemingway. Love your pictures, BTW. And like Ezio above, I’m a non-American who feels deeply drawn to images from the forties, fifties and sixties. Something special about those particular decades. Everything before was too curlicue, everything after too smug.
June 29th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Hello Ezio!
Welcome to AMERICANA!
Cheers!
Charles
June 29th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
My hometown of Springfield, Illinois was connected to all these others on the Mother Road. We traveled to California in the early 60’s and I saw the country from the back of a station wagon. Sidelined by a flat tire in Arizona, the family sat on the shoulder waiting for service and I had my first encounter with a cactus. My footwear was referred to in those days as “thongs” and could not prevent a frightening experience to a 6 year-old.
June 29th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Hi Charles –
Long-time reader, occasional commenter, purchaser of many of your books (especially the Pomona Valley ones, which is where I grew up), and I have to chime in here and say that Grapes of Wrath was written by the most wonderful and sublime *California* author John Steinbeck, and NOT Ernest Hemingway (talented though he was)! PLease, please, please, issue a correction or fix the email or something, because this is a major faux pas, and I hate to see you embarrassed this way!
John Steinbeck is probably THE premier California author, and Grapes of Wrath was his most famous work. Ernest Hemingway — who wrote some excellent novels himself, like The Old Man and the Sea, The Sun Also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls — is more closely associated with Spain and France, and, here in the Western hemisphere, Cuba and Florida and other parts of the Americas that wish they were California, but aren’t.
Please, Charles, I love your weekly output, but you need to issue a correction of some sort for this.
June 30th, 2007 at 2:23 am
Hello Charles I really enjoy your photos of how America was “back in the day” keep up the great work.
June 30th, 2007 at 6:34 am
Route 66 road food! Braum’s Ice Cream in OK, and El Modelo for tamales in Albuquerque. I moved from FL back to CA with my cat, dog and sister, and every one gained at least a couple of pounds. Thanks Charles for the memory trip. Your pictures are oddly familiar. I always wondered what happened to that box of postcards and pics that used to be in my mom’s attic. I appreciate your existence.
June 30th, 2007 at 6:40 am
Hello, we just got back from a road trip–Charlottesville, VA to Las Vegas on Route 40/66. We had done it once before on our way here from LA (we finally had to leave LA last year, where I drove to work and back on 66 every day). It was and is a religious experience. We came back wanting to buy a trailer and live on it, just driving from place to place in the beautiful desert scenery. God bless Route 66! A thrill from end to end.
June 30th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
“Ernest Hemingway called Route 66 in his 1940 novel the Grapes of Wrath.” Tsk, tsk, Charles!
June 30th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
I love all the photos you have on your website and really look forward to getting the “weekly slide” in my e-mail!
My friend and I took a road trip, to Lubbock, Texas, in 1992, and we travelled on Route 66 for a while, and stopped at some of the cool sites. It was soooo neat to see the old motels, restaurants, etc..that remain down there. One motel sign still said “We have Refrigerated Air” HA!HA!
The photo you posted this week is very cool of Mrs. Polehugger (ha!) and Route 66!
Have a great week!
June 30th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
OOOPS!!! Well, doodle-lee-doo…I made a boo-boo! And quite clearly I have egg on my face!… I love eggs… scrambled, just like my brain was when I wrote that Ernest Hemingway called Route 66 the mother road in his book, The Grapes of Wrath. It was John Steinbeck.
June 30th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Ya, saying you’ve never heard of Route 66 is kind of like saying that you’ve never heard of rollerblades or the Beatles. Either that, or it’s some kind of admission that you’re not actually human but an alien spy sent here from another planet.
June 30th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Charles,
Thank you so much for all of your great slides!! They’re really swanky!!
I also loved your trip report. I live 30 miles from the Wigwam Motel. Have you seen the Disney-Pixar movie “Cars”? If you haven’t, you have GOT to see it!! Trust me!! And please, let me know how much you loved it.
Pam
July 2nd, 2007 at 7:24 pm
amazing how in style the lady is now…… haircut great, tight pants the right length, current colors…. only thing that gives her away is how tee-tiny her waist is versus ours these days…………………
July 3rd, 2007 at 1:04 pm
And check out her shadow, it’s not much wider than the pole itself. Speaking of the shadow,since the sun is in the south,the shadow is pointed north and is straight up. I’d say we’re heading eastbound at mid-day in the Texas panhandle.
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:45 pm
On one of my yearly trips to Colorado from L.A. I wanted to try the historic Route 66 instead of the freeway, especially after stopping the year before in Kingman, AZ which has a wonderful Route 66 museum.
In many caes, when I started, it just paralled the freeway and was bumpy and uncomfortable so I got back on the freeway. Two stops that must be made, however, are the SnowCap ice cream shop in Seligman and La Posada Hotel in Winslow.
I had made the detour in Seigman to look for a Harvey Girls stop, didn’t see it, so went on. We had seen several signs saying, “closed for the memorial services of … ” I’m sorry I don’t remember the gentleman’s name. On the same trip we were listening to NPR talking about this funny little ice cream stand in Seligman, tour buses used to stop there and a lot of other people also, just to enjoy the crack pot humor of the owner. He loved practical jokes and his son carries on his tradition. It is well worth a stop.
As for La Posada — just do it. Whether to spend the night or for lunch or dinner in the Turquoise Room, just do it. It was designed by Mary Coulter of Grand Canyon fame and opened just before the depression. It was supposed to be a Harvey Girl send off into Indian Country. Everyone arrived by train, so that was the front door. It’s being reinvented by two wonderful artists, with the help of grants and donations. The prices are reasonable and there is a mural of “a girl, my lord, in a flat bed ford, slowin down to take a look at me” just down the street.
I’ve stayed there four times and am going back for more. Even if it means pushing my trip a little harder the first day.
July 6th, 2007 at 5:00 am
I remember this photo from one of your books. I’m 34 years old and have read books about Route 66 and have seen the documentary hosted by Martin Milner entitled “Route 66 Return to the Road.” Guess that makes me an exception.
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:51 am
Uh, I think that she is attempting to dislodge the sign. Souvenir, you know.
…Lorenzo