June 28
ROUTE 66 DAY
“Get your kicks...on Route...Six...Six” The words to the classic song made famous by Nat "King" Cole, The Manhattan Transfer, Rosemary Clooney and many others is remembered today, along with the TV show of the same name.
The 59-year-old highway of 2,200 miles of blacktop was decertified as a U.S. highway on this day in 1985. The highway that was a legendary part of Americana saw highway crews removing the classic roadway shield-markers that designated it as the highway west.
Route 66 started in Chicago, Illinois and continued into Santa Monica, California. Martin Milner and George Maharis took us for many spins on the famous highway through the TV series which aired in the early sixties. To travel from one end of Route 66 to the other, one would go through eight states and three time zones. Today, a very small portion of the highway is still open. In some places, grass and vegetation, as seen from the interstate highway or railroad tracks nearby, have all but obscured the once well-traveled Route 66. Some one-stop, out-of-the-way places such as gas stations and greasy-spoon diners are now nothing more than decaying shells of their once glorious past.
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 then two thousand miles all the way. Get your kicks on route 66.
Now you go through St. Louis, Joplin, Missouri and Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty. Now you’ll see Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico, Flagstaff, Arizona, don’t forget Winona ... Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino.
Now won’t you get hip to this timely tip. When you make that California trip get your kicks on route 66.
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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