Dr. Andrew Wood
Office: HGH 210; phone: (408) 924-5378
Email: wooda@email.sjsu.edu
Web: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda

Introduction : Course Calendar : Policies : Readings
Assignments : Check Your Grades : Return to Frontpage

Reading: Scott, Q. & Kelly, S.C. (1988). Route 66: The highway and its people. Normon, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.

Study guide: Focus on (1) dust bowl, (2) significant literature of the Depression, (3) architecture of the U-Drop Inn, impact of the Interstate on Route 66, (5) decade of Route 66's decommissioning.

Quinta Scott and Susan Croce Kelly tell the stories of Route 66 travelers heading West - and the roadside business that sustained their journeys - in the twentieth century. Many were spurred on by the Dust Bowl which decimated central states and southwestern farming communities in the 1930s.

This crisis was illustrated most powerfully by John Steinbeck's 1939 novel, Grapes of Wrath. In his book, Steinbeck labeled Route 66 - pouring southwest from Chicago to Los Angeles - the "mother road, the road of flight" (quoted in Scott and Kelly, p. 59). During the Dust Bowl years, thousands of new business sprouted up along the road, each responding to the road pilgrims in their own way. Diners, motels, gas stations, and other small businesses responded to an America on the move. Frequently, these businesses - such as the Shamrock, Texas U-Drop Inn - depended upon eye catching architecture to draw motorists from the highway. After the Second World War, returning servicemen took their families south - following the landmarks celebrated in Nat King Cole's immortal version of "Route 66" (written by Bobby Troup):

Since then, literally hundreds of musicians, ranging from Manhattan Transfer to the Rolling Stones to Depeche Mode have produced versions of Route 66. By the 1960s, Route 66 had been even immortalized in a television show of the same name. But the interstate highway system that stitched the country so tightly together after the war spelled doom for the two lane highway. The age of mom and pop business owners who might be willing to wait for payment if a motorist had fallen on hard times rapidly came to a close. By the mid-1980s, the highway was finally decommissioned. Yet, even after losing its official status, people from around the world continue to seek out its heart. Using guidebooks, videos, and inspiration, they struggle to survive the winding turns, abrupt breaks, and lonely stretches of the "highway that's the best."

Activity

Select a brief prose piece about Route 66 and share an interpretative reading with your classroom colleagues. You might wish to consult my library on the subject, or go straight to two fine books with narratives of people who'd lived and traveled on the Mother Road: Michael Wallis' Route 66: The Mother Road or Tom Teague's Searching for 66. For your Show and Tell activity, summarize your piece and describe at least three interpretative choices you've chosen to make in your reading.

Supplemental Websites

California Historic Route 66 Association <http://www.wemweb.com/chr66a/>: "California's Route 66 is hard to beat as a travel theme for your next vacation. A pathway to California's history, cultural diversity, geology, geography and architecture, Route 66 in California reflects a significant part of our National Heritage."

National Historic Route 66 Federation <http://www.national66.com/>: "Visit the wonderful old trading posts, gas stations, motels, tourist traps, diners and villages along the scenic Mother Road"

Swa Frantzen's Historic Route 66 website <http://route66.netvision.be/>: "Where the Mother Road meets the Information Superhighway"

Traveling Historic Route 66 <http://www.travelinsurancereview.net/Travel-Facts/traveling-route-66.html>: Link recommended by Caitlyn Stewart

Return