Route 66 and the quest to connect America
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The last time Antonio Mays Sr. heard from his son, it was in a note the 16-year-old left in the family's garage.
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Hey, it's Run. A quick note before we start the show. This weekend will mark one year since Congress voted to eliminate federal funding for public media. That funding, more than a billion dollars of it, is gone. But we're still here, making through line every week and taking you back to the moments in history that have shaped our current world. Because you, the public, continue to make this work possible. If you're already an NPR Plus supporter, thank you. If not, you can join the community of people who power public media at plus.npr.org.
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Summer, it's road trip season. Come on, get in the car. we're taking a drive down the most famous highway in America, Route 66.
Time for the 7-Eleven weather watch. You may be our next winner. 66 is the path of a people in flight.
It's not all of America, but in its heyday, it traversed a lot of it, almost 2,500 miles of its middle, the well-trod path for millions of Americans who were on their way.
Refugees from dust and shrinking land, from the thunder of tractors and shrinking ownership.
John Steinbeck called it the Mother Road.
From the desert's slow northward invasion, from the twisting winds that howl up out of Texas, from the floods that bring no richness to the land and steal what little richness is there.
Millions of Americans... They weren't just using the highway to get someplace. It was personal. As you drive down Route 66, you're rolling through tire tracks left by generation after generation.
You're the navigator.
In the 60s, there was a TV show called Route 66. It was about the adventures of two young guys. In a Corvette.
Now that sounds like a town where it'd be hard to get into trouble.
Meeting girls and solving murders and whoever knows what on Route 66. My generation grew up with that show. It's the only highway I know of that has its own theme song.
If you ever plan to motor west Get your kicks on Route 66. Travel my way Take the highway that's the best
Nat King Cole recorded it, and it became famous. It became the anthem for the highway, for the vacationers. You can hear how Route 66 changed and how road trips changed in covers of this song, recorded between the 1940s and the early 2000s. The Rolling Stones gave it some tempo. The Pesh mode introduced cement. And John Mayer brought it all full circle in 2006 with a version that makes you feel like you're pulling out of a diner parking lot in your Chevrolet Bel Air.
I'm Randapir Fattah, and you're listening to ThruLine from NPR. This November, Route 66 turns 100. Today, the highway is largely defunct, broken up, and bypassed. But in other places, it's been restored to its old glory, America's most nostalgic road trip, with wide-open road, sunsets that fill the whole sky, dirt-kissed Chevy trucks, and revving motorcycles. But Route 66 started out as a muddy road to nowhere. And today on the show, we'll meet a league of Gilded Age bicyclists, a ragtag gang of cross-country runners, and a very stubborn highway commissioner who turned it into the main street of America. Hi, this is Jewel from Toledo, Ohio. You're listening to ThruLine. from NPR. Thank you guys so much for all you do.
I love listening to through line on my drive and on my run and really anytime. So thank you guys for all you do.
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