Student Project (Photo Brad Bowling)
CONCORD, N.C. (March 20, 1998) – Students from eight Charlotte-Mecklenburg high school art classes will disprove the old axiom “Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be” when they unveil 10×20-foot murals created especially for the Route 66 display at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Food Lion AutoFair, to be held April 2-5.
Few stretches of ancient asphalt receive as much attention these days as Route 66, a highway that served as “America’s Main Street” for most of the 20th Century before it was made obsolete by the superslab interstate system.
Route 66 once ran from Lake Michigan in Chicago to the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica – interrupted only by the hundreds of small towns that prospered along the way. What would become known as Route 66 began in the early ‘20s as a patchwork quilt of cow trails, dirt roads and stagecoach byways traveled by families in Model Ts and truckers moving beef, groceries and construction supplies to every small burg along the way.
In the late 1920s, the highway was a much-needed artery for commerce between Chicago — the bustling supply hub of the Midwest — and California, the state that ultimately represented the country’s obsession with westward expansion begun in the 1800s. Because automobiles of the day were crude and slow compared to the air-conditioned living rooms-on-wheels that would come later, traveling the full 2,500 miles of Route 66 was no picnic. Nor was it particularly safe, with its many flood-prone areas and enormous stretches of car-killing desert. The fact that it was finally possible to link the Midwest and the West by road gave Route 66 such historical significance.
The ‘30s saw farmers from Dust Bowl-ravaged lower Midwestern states, especially Oklahoma, using the highway as an escape to the vineyards and orchards of southern California, where whole families would slave for pennies a day. John Steinbeck poignantly described this “Okie” migration in his novel “The Grapes of Wrath” — a chapter of which was devoted to the travails the Joad family faced on what he called “The Mother Road.”
In the ‘40s, Route 66 became a major part of the country’s defense during World War II, efficiently moving, housing and feeding troop convoys on the way to California and battle in the Pacific. Civilians driving the old highway during this time of gas and tire rationing relied on the hospitality and creativity of new friends met along the way.
Perhaps the busiest military installation fed by Route 66 was the Kingman (Ariz.) Army Air Station, a base so central to West Coast defense that after the war, there was a six-mile-long line of bombers and fighters parked wingtip-to-wingtip, three rows deep, waiting to be dismantled for scrap. Just a few miles to the west at Fort Irwin in Barstow, Calif., General George S. Patton trained tank crews for desert warfare.
Route 66, like America itself, prospered during the 1950s, with a postwar economic boom and comfortable, modern cars making it feasible for Mom and Dad to travel cross-country with the whole tribe for weeks at a time. Vacations were planned around air-conditioned motels, roadside attractions like the “World’s Biggest Rattlesnake” and “Meteor Crater,” and clean, well-lighted diners.
By the late ‘50s, the country was beginning to enjoy the thrill of life at full speed but Route 66 was not for people in a hurry. Travelers started viewing the towns along the mostly two-lane highway as speed bumps and ticket traps. The luxurious, powerful finned cars of the period were designed for high-speed travel, not stop-and-go tourism. When President Eisenhower signed the Interstate Highway Act into legislation in 1956, it was the beginning of the end for Route 66 and its thousands of shops, hotels and restaurants.
In the ‘60s, construction of interstates 55, 44, 40, 15 and 10 began to bypass towns on old 66, but not before the highway had one more affair with America’s popular culture. “Route 66,” a television series about characters Tod and Buzz and their Corvette roadster, premiered in October 1960 and enjoyed a four-year run. Each week it was introduced by a brilliant theme song that seemed to capture the romance of the road. Each episode was filmed on location – an innovation for the period – and chronicled the adventures of the two young men as they found new adventures.
The twilight years of Route 66 came during the ‘70s, when increasing stretches of divided highways and non-stop freeway traffic killed off the tourist trade for most of the towns. America was abandoning mom-and-pop diners for more consistent fast food franchises; locally owned motels shaped like teepees went out of business while cookie-cutter hostelry popped up at every exit.
People had all but forgotten about Route 66 in the ‘80s. Newspapers carried photos of road workers removing the last of the famous highway’s signs in 1984, when the last section of I-40 was completed and The Mother Road was officially decommissioned.
Nostalgia for the old road was born sometime in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, when travelers — weary from a thousand miles of lookalike interstate scenery – began making side trips to visit Main Streets and taste some of the local flavor. There are now dozens of books, magazines and videotapes devoted to the history of Route 66. Just about every town with a stretch of the famous asphalt to call its own has a museum or gift shop dedicated to it. Vintage car clubs plan driving events around the longer sections that are still navigable.
As a tribute to Route 66 at the Food Lion AutoFair, Charlotte Motor Speedway has coordinated with Visual Arts Specialist Dean Johns, of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System, to have the art classes from eight high schools produce murals depicting each of the states touched by the old highway. Local automotive artists Dan McCrary and J.C. Caskey will judge the paintings and distribute awards and prize money. The winning school will receive $400, while the runner-up gets $100. All competing students will receive a 1998 Food Lion AutoFair commemorative T-shirt and plaque as well as dinner at the speedway on April 2.
Participating schools include Butler High School, Garinger High School, Independence High School, North Mecklenburg High School, Northwest School of the Arts, South Mecklenburg High School, Vance High School and West Mecklenburg High School. Food Lion AutoFair hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday. Ticket prices are $7 for adults; children under 12 are admitted free when accompanied by an adult. Parking for the event is $5. For more information, contact the speedway events department at (704) 455-3205.
