Traveling Route 66.

• Author: Kreyche, Gerald F.
• Position: Books

TRAVELING ROUTE 66 BY DAVID FREETH UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS 2001, 408 PAGES, $14.95 (PAPERBACK)

Remember the song? "If you ever plan to motor west/Travel my way, take the highway that's the best/ Get your kicks on Route 66!/It winds from Chicago to L.A./More than 2,000 miles all the way/Get your kicks on Route 66!" The song, composed by Bobby Troup, was one of the most popular of its time, and in reading this book and looking at the 204 photos, I guarantee you will be getting your kicks all over again. Often called the Mother Road, or America's Main Street, Route 66 is pure Americana. Today, parts of the highway run parallel to or are a section of the highways that have replaced this old route. Historical markers proudly point out places where one can still drive on Route 66.

The road opened in 1926 and immediately headed southwest from Chicago, eventually ending in California. The old maxim has it that "Getting there is half the fun" and it is a truism here. The highway originally got its fame from the days of the Great Depression, when Okies fled to California looking for jobs and land that wouldn't blow away. Happier times came to it shortly after World War II, as Americans now could indulge in the wanderlust that was postponed by the war. They had better cars to fulfill the American Dream by going to the Sun Belt and the fabled California. The interstate highway system, begun during the Eisenhower presidency, would be a long time aborning, and for decades, Route 66 became the most-used road for going west.

Nostalgia will overwhelm older readers when they peruse the pictures of roadhouses, cafes, trading posts, and filling stations with the...