ROUTE - October / November 2020

ROUTE THE MAGAZINE THAT CELEBRATES ROAD TRAVEL, VINTAGE AMERICANA AND ROUTE 66

October/November 2020

Magazine

The Journey of the Wagon Wheel Motel

$5.99

The Saviour of Atlanta

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MICHAEL J. FOX: STILL OPTIMISTIC ROUTE Magazine i

When every week looks the same, give yourself a weekend!

Take a few days to explore the Birthplace of Route 66— Springfield, Missouri! Celebrate the legacy of the Mother Road at the newly opened History Museum on the Square, see classic cars at the Route 66 Car Museum and enjoy a burger and shake at one of our vintage American diners, all while experiencing the local arts and culture scene in Springfield!

Plan your Getaway at

SpringfieldMo.org

A masking ordinance is in place for the city of Springfield. For details, visit SpringfieldMo.org. ii ROUTE Magazine

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Order a free Oklahoma Route 66 Passport at TravelOK.com!

Miami — The only active franchise of the 1960s chain, Waylan’s Ku-Ku Burger cooks every entrée to order.

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Tulsa — Blast off to Buck Atom’s

Cosmic Curios to meet the Muffler Man and browse eclectic gifts.

Tower Theatre — Oklahoma City Originally a 1937 movie house, this revitalized theatre’s stunning marquee dazzles the Uptown 23rd District.

Discover more bright lights and delightful sights at Travel

Arcadia — Featuring 700 soda flavors and a towering neon pop bottle, POPS is an iconic place to stop.

.com.

Clinton — The state’s official Route 66 showcase, the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum introduces guests to all things Americana.

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St. Louis is open and ready for you to re-explore responsibly.

Book your next group trip to visit the recently re-imagined experience at the Gateway Arch. Or bring your crew to the nationally acclaimed Saint Louis Zoo for free admission and priceless encounters. And don’t forget to check out other attractions in Forest Park like the iconic Missouri History Museum.

From great restaurants to monumental attractions, St. Louis has you and your safety covered.

Visit ExploreStLouis.com/GroupTour to begin planning your trip, and remember: masks and fun are both mandatory.

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Oklahoma City Museum of Art American Banjo Museum

THE MODERN FRONTIER

When your heart is nudging you to hit the open road, follow it and discover a city that's wide open with possibility.

Oklahoma City's stretch of Route 66 promises an experience that's alive with adventure and a welcome that's genuinely warm.

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CONTENTS

Pahrump Big Friend. Photograph courtesy of Joel Baker.

18 Still On The Road

By Cherwyn Cole Located in the serene Route 66 town of Cuba, Missouri, the Wagon Wheel Motel represents classic Mother Road motels at their finest. Discover the fascinating history of the longest operating venue on the old highway, and how a determined woman from Iowa helped restore it to its former glory.

26 Nowhere Like It!

By Matthew Wade South of the Border in Hamer, South Carolina, has been entertaining and bewildering tourists for over 60 years with outlandish statues and Mexican kitsch. But it wouldn’t have been possible were it not for the entrepreneurial spirit of a local family. Prepare to be wowed by this offbeat tale that is way off Route 66.

32 A Conversation with Michael J. Fox

By Brennen Matthews One of the entertainment industry’s most bankable stars for decades, Michael J. Fox saw his life and career change dramatically after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s. In this issue, he shares about his adventures in Hollywood, his time on Route 66, and how optimism and his family’s love have kept him going. And he has a brand new book out this fall!

40 Born Again In Kansas

By Theresa Romano Despite dying three times, the Route 66 town of Galena, Kansas, is going stronger than ever, in no small part because of four women’s love for the Mother Road. Taking inspiration from a popular Pixar film, they refurbished an old gas station into an attraction that continues to draw tourists from around the world.

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54 A Small Town Experience

By Cheryl Eichar Jett Growing up in small towns in Illinois, Bill Thomas developed a love of history and community. One day, he happened to read a story about a clock tower in Atlanta, Illinois, and the place called to him. In this fascinating article, learn how Bill collaborated with others to obtain the puzzle pieces he needed to revitalize Atlanta, and how the renovated Palms Grill Cafe has wowed diners with its attention to historical authenticity.

62 Staying Gold

By Heide Brandes Whether in print or on film, The Outsiders is a story that has touched the hearts of millions, including a New York-born hip-hop performer that overcame a broken home to achieve fame and fortune – before losing it all. Recognizing himself in the characters onscreen, he decided to transform a central Tulsa, Oklahoma, filming location into a museum that has attracted a myriad of fans and changed his life. Meet Danny O’Connor and the house where it all happened.

ON THE COVER Route 66, OK Canadian River Bridge.

Photograph by David J. Schwartz - Pics On Route 66

In 1889 a shot rang out.

A land run started.

And El Reno, Oklahoma would become the front door to the American West.

Photo courtesy of Canadian County Museum.

Historic El Reno, Oklahoma, where the glamour of Route 66 meets the Old West drama of the Chisholm Trail. Where the world’s largest fried onion hamburger is celebrated, and where you can ride a rail-based trolley through historic downtown. Nearby Fort Reno is home to the colorful U.S. Cavalry Museum, as well as the graves of Buffalo Soldiers, Indian scouts and World War II prisoners of war. For information, visit www.elrenotourism.com.

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EDITORIAL A lot of people I know are beginning to breathe a sigh of relief that this year is almost behind us. 2020 started with enormous potential. Everyone was excited to see what the twelve months would bring them, and things looked promising. Then the coronavirus hit, and things changed dramatically. Soon international travel ground to a halt as the infection numbers around the country rose. Tourism took a huge hit and revenue across Mother Road destinations almost dried up. People lost their jobs and uncertainty rose. The year that had started with so much enthusiasm evolved in ways that we could not have imagined. It has been a difficult year for sure, but it has also been a pretty amazing one in many ways. If we look a little deeper, we will see that what was also happening is that people were uniting together to support one another, pray for each other, and rally toward a united fight against a virus and its consequences that may have impacted every aspect of our lives, but not our spirit and determination.

I think many of you would agree that there is much more that unites us than divides us. These things, in my opinion, are where we need to focus on moving forward. One major thing ROUTE readers care a great deal about is Route 66 and the protection and preservation of classic Americana. America’s Mainstreet represents the same freedom and adventure today that it did almost 100 years ago. And to that point, I believe that all of us are eager for 2021, for everything that invaded the joy of this year to be behind us, and for the ability to freely jump in our vehicles and hit the open highway again. At the time of writing this editorial, the virus is on the retreat in many locations and there is expectation for a vaccine in the coming months. If we stand together, we are going to be much stronger and more ready to usher in a year as phenomenal as Mother Road neon.

I am glad that even as the world is going through a transformation, we at ROUTE are still able to bring you stories that speak to resilience and hope. In this issue, we feature one of my favorite actors of all time, Michael J. Fox. Some are connected to him from Family Ties and others from Back to the Future, but Route 66ers hold a special place for Doc Hollywood, the precursor in many ways to the blockbuster film Cars. While measurably slowed down by Parkinson’s Disease, Fox still has his hands full, and you will really connect with him in this candid, fun, personal interview. We love what he has to say about Flagstaff and Kingman, Arizona!

If you ask road warriors about their top Route 66 motels still lighting the road today, Wagon Wheel in Cuba, Missouri, will likely be on every list. Perhaps the oldest continuously operating motel on the old road, Connie Echol’s Wagon Wheel has a great story that has seen many chapters, and they have not all been pretty, but they have been interesting. This is a story that will inspire you to make a reservation today.

Make sure you hang out by the neon sign at night and take in the silence of the old road under its glow.

One of the most delightful towns along Route 66 is the tiny hub of Atlanta, Illinois.

It is home to a beloved giant, a great museum that is packed with kitschy items and unique history, terrific wall murals, and one Bill Thomas. In this article, get to know one of the most dedicated, creative people on the Mother Road, and be inspired by his personal journey and his tremendous passion for Route 66, and specifically his little town of Atlanta. Thomas is someone we should all be watching.

These stories and a ton more fill this fall issue. We hope that you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed writing them and bringing them to you. Route 66 and two-lane America is a magical, beautiful place that regularly reminds us that when all is said and done, we need each other, and are all interconnected in an unbreakable manner.

Please remember to like and follow us on social media. And don’t forget to visit our website, there is so much more online. Also, please be sure to pay our advertising partners a visit and enjoy their phenomenal hospitality as well. They really are some of the best on the road.

Blessings, Brennen Matthews Editor

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ROUTE PUBLISHER Thin Tread Media EDITOR Brennen Matthews DEPUTY EDITOR Kate Wambui EDITOR-AT-LARGE Nick Gerlich LEAD EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHER David J. Schwartz LAYOUT AND DESIGN Tom Heffron EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Matthew Wade Phoebe Billups Theresa Romano Tyrone Jorelle Barrozzo DIGITAL Matthew Alves ILLUSTRATOR Jennifer Mallon CONTRIBUTORS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS Alex J. Rodriguez Anouk Krantz B. Hammond Carol M. Highsmith Cheryl Eichar Jett Cherwyn Cole Casey Wichmann Efren Lopez/Route66Images Go Lake Havasu Heide Brandes Joel Baker John Margolies Julie Journeys Mark Payler Mark Seliger Editorial submissions should be sent to brennen@routemagazine.us To subscribe visit www.routemagazine.us.

Advertising inquiries should be sent to advertising@routemagazine. us or call 905 399 9912.

ROUTE is published six times per year by Thin Tread Media. No part of this publication may be copied or reprinted without the written consent of the publisher. The views expressed by the contributors are not necessarily those of the publisher, editor or staff. ROUTE does not take any responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photography.

DISCOVER CLINTON, OKLAHOMA

WHERE ROUTE 66 TRULY COMES ALIVE!

• HIS TORI C HOTE L S• D IV E RS E D INING• •M OHAW K LOD G E IND IAN S TORE• •THE WATE R ZOO•

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T A K E A WA L K O N T H E WAC K Y S I D E

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oute 66 is defined by a sense of wonder and happenstance, with kitschy, one-of-a-kind attractions waiting around every bend. And for visitors driving into Braidwood, Illinois, on Route 66, a zoo unlike any other awaits them.

A polar bear, covered in shredded nylon, stands tall behind a pink elephant that’s made of spray foam.

Next is the metal skeletal frame of a red-faced bull with golf balls for eyes, gleaming white pipes for horns, and a horseshoe for a nose ring. A life-size giraffe towers above all the other quirky creatures gazing out on the Mother Road.

This colorful, weird-looking collection of animals, many made from parts of classic cars that once cruised Route 66, is the work of Jack Barker, a one-time gas station and auto shop owner turned folk artist from Essex, Illinois, just six miles off of sixty-six.

Growing up in a little town in the 1940s, Jack had motor oil in his bloodline. In the ‘60s, he opened an auto shop—Essex Motors—with the help of his wife Eleanor, and they raised four children just a few blocks from the shop and Route 66.

For their oldest son, Jack Jr., the shop held a special lure with its piles of shining scrap. He often saw his father save a strip of colorful metal from an Oldsmobile or Buick to tinker with later. When he was not working on a car, Jack’s hands were busy bending metal into whimsical figures. However, Jack Jr. was most in awe of his dad’s artistry when he watched him detail a car or make a mangled wreck look as good as new.

“Somebody who can take a completely deformed car and with just hammers and a little putty, make it look like nothing happened to it, in and of itself, that’s art,” said Jack Jr. “I think he always had artistic talent, even as a painter.

He would paint cars.”

Jack was a skilled artist long before he called himself one, but his creative vision truly blossomed after a series of bad breaks. When a recession hit Illinois in the 1980s, the auto shop was forced to close its doors. With his longtime livelihood suddenly gone, Jack took a job as a security guard at a local power plant to support his family. Just before his sixtieth birthday, the company fired him. He could have sunk into a depression or grown bitter. Instead, Jack marched back into his workshop and began hammering out metal giants day and night. Two rusted bumpers became the outstretched wings of a bird. Some silver metal formed a replica of the C-141 Jack Jr. flew in the Air Force. Soon, the front yard of 14 ROUTE Magazine

the shop overflowed with wacky, brightly-colored dinosaurs, animals, and cartoon characters, all made from anything and everything that he could find. From pipes, to old farm machinery, to propane tanks, barbeques, and metal bed frames, Jack saw art in all of it.

The quiet, small town of Essex had never seen anything like the topsyturvy menagerie that quickly grew to cover Jack’s property. His yard, newly bursting with oddity, caused quite a stir in the community. Neighbors were not sure they wanted Jack’s quirky, larger-than-life sculptures to be the first impression visitors had of the small town.

“Some people thought that maybe my dad had started to lose his marbles,” said Jack Jr. “There wasn’t anything like that before in the town. They just didn’t understand why he was doing it. ‘Why are you wasting your time putting stuff together that’s so whimsical and sits out there and rusts?’

Of course, his answer would be, ‘Because I enjoy doing it.’”

Road travelers and visitors weren’t put off, though. In fact, they came in droves.

In a serendipitous turn of events, his work also caught the eye of a professor of art education on her commute from Chicago to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Elizabeth Delacruz was going about her day when she glimpsed a jungle gym of criss-crossing, peculiar sculptures.

Elizabeth introduced herself to Jack and the pair stuck up a friendship.

When Jack passed away in May 2012, many of his pieces were auctioned off, but thanks to the business community in Braidwood, his work survives him on Route 66 through the Braidwood Zoo. His artful assemblages have become beloved fixtures in the local community, intertwined with the fabled road that helped launch his career. During the summer, families grill in the picnic area around the “zoo,” while children play peek-a-boo with the gaggle of odd creatures.

At Christmas, the zoo and its waggish residents come alive in the magical glow of lights.

Jack’s sculptures joined the Mother Road’s tradition of uniquely captivating landmarks, delighting travelers from all over. Braidwood’s unconventional “zoo” is one town’s enduring tribute to the whimsy and unusual beauty that springs up around the Mother Road. Its colorful captives wait patiently to meet all who venture along this stretch of picturesque highway in search of unexpected pleasures.

Image courtesy of Casey Wichmann.

Braidwood Zoo

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The American Cowboy

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he mystique of the American Cowboy looms large in the romantic landscape of the Old West, a fascination that is embraced around the world.

The word itself – “cowboy” – inspires the image of a lone rider astride his trusty horse silhouetted against that big western sky, or fast-drawing his six-gun on a dusty street, another Hollywood-tinged image. Or, like French photographer Anouk Masson Krantz, our mind’s eye conjures the Marlboro Man, complete with cigarettes, chaps, and a big belt buckle.

However, the modern cowboy is quite different. In her new exhibit, “WEST: The American Cowboy,” at Oklahoma City’s National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Ms. Krantz hopes to convince viewers to brush aside their “outdated” views of cowboy culture and realize how much relevance this way of life holds today.

Growing up in France, all that Anouk Masson Krantz knew of cowboys was what she read in books or saw in movies or on television. She was sure it wasn’t an accurate portrayal, but she had no way of proving otherwise, that is, until she had the opportunity to see for herself. Krantz inched closer to her dream in the 1990s, when she moved to New York City.

There, she completed high school, worked for a magazine while earning a bachelor’s degree, and landed a job in Cartier’s corporate office.

Then in 2004, she visited McCracken, Kansas, a tiny town with an award-winning rodeo. Struck by what she saw, she felt compelled to begin a photography series depicting rodeos, ranches, and the cowboy community. Over the next 14 years, she ventured west again to photograph rodeos, but it wasn’t until 2018 that she focused solely on completing her dream project. In June of that year, she pulled her kids out of school, flew from New York City to Dallas, and began her journey. But while it had been easy to find and photograph rodeos and landscapes, capturing ranches proved to be much trickier.

“It’s a big community in America, but it’s also very private, and being French, being a woman from New York, that was not something where doors were automatically opened right away,” she explained.

Armed with just a single phone number to start, she trekked thousands of miles tracking

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down ranches to photograph. Krantz flew back and forth from New York City until December 2018, when she realized she had collected enough material for her massive project.

Despite her detective work to discover the names and locations of these ranches, she does not reveal that information in the exhibit, because she doesn’t want to glorify a particular ranch or their brand. Rather, she wants to portray anonymous cowboys, side-by-side, in order to celebrate the unique culture that is still very much alive. To that end, Krantz photographed her subjects from behind; any rancher or rodeo rider should be able to imagine themself in the evocative pictures.

After devoting years to finding the modern cowboy, Krantz elaborated on the cohesiveness of the community work ethic.

“It’s hard work, they work hard, they wake up very early in the morning, they work late at night, but they do it all together,” she observed. “And I’m not saying that doesn’t happen in the cities as well, but we’re much more in for ourselves than for everyone together.”

In 2019, Krantz’ book–a companion piece to the museum exhibit – WEST: The American Cowboy – was published.

Through her photographs, she hopes that museum visitors will come to appreciate these communities’ collective spirit, as well as their core values of dignity, integrity, and respect for one another.

In fact, those down-to-earth values came in handy as she photographed her subjects. Krantz did not stage them, costume them, or place them on sets. Rather, she instructed them to do what they do every day and just forget that she was there. Her commitment to authenticity impressed these hard-working folk and allowed her access to additional ranches.

“You look at those skies and those landscapes, and it’s just unbelievable, and once you’re there, and you stand there, and it’s six o’clock in the morning, the sun rises, you understand why they want to stay, and [understand] the people who are doing what they’re doing.”

Although the word “cowboy” may evoke a slightly different image in modern times, it will always draw us back to those never-changing landscapes redolent with western romance. Because, even just a little, we envy the cowboy.

Image courtesy of Anouk Krantz.

A F R E NC H WOM A N ’ S V I E W OF T H E W E ST

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THE ROAD

By Cherwyn Cole Opening photograph by Efren Lopez/Route66Images ROUTE Magazine 19

estled into lush landscaping along old Route 66 stands a row of storybook English cottages. Little different in appearance now as when they were constructed in 1938, 80 years ago, the earthy venue rests peacefully in a serene setting, seemingly untouched by age.

Rose bushes and fruit trees dot the spacious grounds, creating a quiet country sensation, and the history of the venue is as interesting and unassuming as those who have been responsible for its fate. Fanciful masonry and steep peaked roofs adorn the quaint stone cabins which, instead of each one being free-standing, were built conjoined into three wide single-story bungalows. This picturesque lodging, now on the National Register of Historic Places, can be none other than the Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri.

As automobile travel grew exponentially in popularity as the 20th Century pushed on, highways became lined with primitive tourist camps, which in turn gave rise to tourist courts during the 1930s and ‘40s. Pretty cottage courts sprang up, offering all the comforts of home. And even at the time, the Wagon Wheel was one of the finest.

The 1941 AAA Directory of Accommodations called the Wagon Wheel Cabins a “home away from home, with cottages far enough removed from the highway to insure quiet rest. An exceptionally fine modern court of 14 stone, insulated cottages...” A matching stone cafe and a tiny gas station were situated close to the highway, the better to catch the motorist’s

Connie stands alongside Route 66.

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Meanwhile...

In the mid-1940s, the Wagon Wheel changed hands, about the same time that, up in Iowa, a young G.I. named George Caspers married 19-year-old Erma Schlotterbeck. George and Erma started their family at Anamosa, Iowa, on a cattle farm.

A daughter, Connie, was their second child of eight. This girlchild learned how to work hard, ride a horse, and make a home pretty and welcoming. But even Connie could not know how interesting her journey would be.

“My father was a hard-working World War II veteran, a SSGT in the U.S. Army and a Purple Heart recipient, who I believe suffered from what they now call PTSD,” Connie explained. “My mother worked at home taking care of everything for the eight of us, which I never fully appreciated until later years.”

One summer, brothers Les and Ray Echols from Cuba, Missouri, arrived in Iowa to work at the mill on the Caspers’ farm. There, they met and eventually married sisters Connie and Riva. At the age of 18, Connie moved to Cuba with her new husband. At that time, the Wagon Wheel was immaculately maintained and still enjoying decent business, with rooms renting for about $17 per night. Connie always loved the look of the quaint stone buildings. Little did she know that 40-plus years later, she would rescue an unkempt older version of the motel.

Life and Work in Cuba Les worked as a farmer and logger, and Connie put her domestic arts to work. Two children, Angela and Greg, were born of the marriage. “I always worked hard for things I wanted and believed in, and the welfare and happiness of my family was always number one on my list,” Connie emphasized. Together, she and Les restored a historic farmhouse, and she learned some construction skills to add to her arsenal of talents.

She first worked outside the house at Cuba Nursing Home, and next at Whistles, a niche shoe company. “My favorite job was [at] the shoe factory in Cuba. I helped with making samples, stitching, and setting piecework prices for fourteen years.

Sewing was also something I always enjoyed. I made shirts, kids’ clothes, and prom dresses, and later my daughter’s wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses for numerous weddings.”

After Whistles closed, she worked at Paramount Cap in Bourbon, eleven

Image by David J. Schwartz – Pics On Route 66.

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eye. Every service and amenity that a tired traveler could want was conveniently waiting at the Wheel.

miles northwest. “After Les died in 1993, from a long illness, I quit the hat factory to open The Wildflower, a florist [shop], in an older building which I remodeled twice over fifteen years. During those years I thought I had learned some about construction. It was nothing like restoring the Wagon Wheel!”

After the last owner of the Wagon Wheel passed away, Connie drove through the grounds, imagining what she could do with the historic gem. “I had always thought the stone buildings were great, but it was so overgrown that you didn’t get a good view of it,” she explained. “I never gave it a thought till I went to see what they were going to do with it.” Then, the idea of a grand restoration took root as she contemplated the motel’s long history.

How the Wheel Got Rolling Scottish-born Robert Martin and his wife Margaret arrived in sleepy Cuba in 1934 for one purpose – to build one of the finest tourist courts on Route 66. The area’s economy had been stagnant since the early 1920s, but Cuba was beginning to come alive with the golden touch of U.S. Highway 66 flowing through its environs. New cafes and stations were opening at “the Fourway,” the main intersection, and the townsfolk were hopeful.

The Martins purchased two parcels of land totaling eleven acres on the east edge of Cuba. The larger parcel gave them a

spacious area for their cabins. On the adjoining small parcel, they would build a gas station and a cafe out in front to lure travelers to fill their gas tanks and stomachs.

Well-known area stonemason Leo Friesenhan was the Martins’ choice for the work. The cabins were constructed of Ozark fieldstone, built parallel with the highway, and joined by covered carports into three buildings, offering ten guest rooms. They opened their doors in 1938. The Martins kept Friesenhan busy for several more years, adding outbuildings and converting the carports into four additional rooms to accommodate increasing demand.

But as they expanded their court’s capacity, the Martins set their sights on a lodging complex in a larger city. With plans to buy and expand the Pierce-Pennant Tavern in Rolla, 24 miles east, the Martins were ready to sell the Wagon Wheel Cabins. They found buyers, Clifton and Beulah Speer, and Edmund and Violet Koebelin, in 1946. The two couples may have purchased the Wagon Wheel as an investment, or discovered that they didn’t care for the business, but they quickly resold the cabins a year later to John and Winifred Mathis for $68,000, a large sum at the time.

The Mathises renamed the lodging the Wagon Wheel Motel, and John designed the iconic neon sign, which still stands, to announce the change. During their tenure, the couple added two new buildings, one of which became four additional rooms, boosting the total to eighteen, and ROUTE Magazine 21

Image by David J. Schwartz – Pics On Route 66.

On the road again after a great stay.

they joined the Best Western Motels referral network, which rated the Wagon Wheel Motel as one of the finest in Missouri.

The ‘40s through the ‘60s were good years for the Wheel, with thriving business and room rates at an economical $17 to $19. With Fort Leonard Wood opening in 1940 just an hour south of Cuba, military traffic moved up and down Missouri 66 until it was replaced by vacationers in the post-war travel boom. Around the Fourway, new businesses opened, while others expanded to accommodate the influx of tourists.

Pauline’s Forty Years In 1963, Pauline and Wayne Roberts of Aurora, Illinois, met the ready-to-retire Mathises and warmed to the idea of buying the Wagon Wheel. Wayne remained in Aurora working two jobs until his retirement, while Pauline moved to Cuba to operate the motel. Wayne made a weekly trip to Cuba for the next six years.

Roy Mudd, a mechanic reeling from a divorce up in Illinois, somehow made his way to Cuba, where Pauline hired him and let him stay at the venue. Roy showed his gratitude by handling the mowing, the maintenance, and any other chores she would assign.

Wayne died of cancer in July 1980, the same week that a tornado took the roof off one of their buildings.

Heartbroken, Pauline soldiered on with her devoted assistant Roy and a female employee, Liz Simpson, who stayed for the next twenty years.

Eventually, Roy got a job at Schwieder Ford in nearby Bourbon, but he continued to take care of the Wagon Wheel. Alderman Jeff Bouse was just a boy who lived across the highway from the motel when he started hanging out there. “My dad and Roy were friends, and I started helping Roy with the yard work,” Jeff remembered.

“He had an old Ford tractor and numerous cars that he enjoyed working on.”

Pauline, at age 73, married Harold Armstrong in 1988.

Soon, changes – and not for the better – were noticeable at the motel. Armstrong didn’t believe in wasting good money on maintenance; Route 66 was suffering from the worst years of its decline, and the City of Cuba had lost industries. Pauline and Harold took in anyone who had a few dollars. Police started making regular visits in response to all the complaints, and respectable guests wouldn’t stay even if they wandered off the interstate. This chapter ended with Pauline’s death in 2003, followed by Roy in 2005 and Harold in 2008.

Connie reflected on Pauline’s forty years of ownership: “I found out how hard she had worked and that she also had the bossy gene, which it takes, and why the place got so run down. I certainly can see why they did weekly-monthly rentals when that is all the calls you get in winter months, and times like these. Pauline was the homeless shelter in Cuba for years.

She said, ‘People need a place to stay and I don’t need any more money.’”

Less than a year after Armstrong died, Connie purchased the complex from his son James, who was still renting rooms at $11 per night. “They were renting it up until the day I bought it. I kept it open but changed who was allowed to stay–only single working guys, no kids or women as it wasn’t safe. It has never closed, ever, in 84 years,” she emphasized.

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Wagon Wheel neighbor Jeff Bouse was a city employee then, and when Connie needed the utilities transferred into her name, news traveled fast. “I was tickled to see Connie take it over, because, for me, it’s a special place,” Jeff said. “And Connie makes everybody feel at home there.”

Connie would indeed make everybody feel at home, and now she owned the whole complex–the historic motel, the old Wagon Wheel Cafe, and the tiny gas station.

The Tangled History of the Cafe and Station Although the Martins built the entire complex, the pair largely focused on opening the cabins by 1938, and put their energy and time into this particular goal. In an effort to divest their time

Image by David J. Schwartz – Pics On Route 66.

The lovely stone cottages are representative of Missouri architecture.

from the other business entities, they signed a five-year lease with Marathon Oil, but recruited refinery worker Joe Slowensky and his wife Clara to operate the station and the cafe. This decision began a complicated litany of operators, owners, and oil leases that might require a Venn diagram to understand.

Flash ahead to 1950, Sadie Mae and Bill Pratt acquired the cafe and made it one of the most popular eateries along Missouri Route 66. But with four-lane construction underway east of town, the Pratts wanted to purchase land there for a new restaurant. In 1956, it was the end of the line for the Wagon Wheel Cafe when the Pratts sold it to a medical office, which was followed by a stream of various tenants. The building never held another eatery.

Connie’s Restoration Connie knew just what to do with that cafe building–she would clean it up to open a new business, Connie’s Shoppe, just in time for Christmas shopping. “Good friends pitched in right away, while seriously doubting my sanity, I found out later. When I told my mother what I’d done, her reply was, ‘What the hell’s the matter with you? Are you crazy?’”

Determined to get the job done, Connie and her crew removed partitions, a dropped ceiling, and layers of flooring, revealing the original beams, hardwood flooring, and stone fireplace. She sold her florist business, keeping the gift inventory for the new shop. It had been a mad rush, but the ROUTE Magazine 23

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Image by David J. Schwartz – Pics On Route 66.

shop was open on schedule.

However, the restoration had only just begun; before tackling the arduous task of restoring the motel, there was just time over the holidays to take a breath.

The motel’s restoration proved challenging, even for Connie’s capabilities and perseverance. The gas tanks needed to be dug up and hauled away, and soil and building materials tested. The basements, attics, and garages were full of “years of hoarded junk.”

Overgrown vegetation needed to be cut. The frame structure surrounding the station was torn off and became bonfire kindling.

As for taking on such a demanding project, Connie explained, “I always enjoyed a challenge and a chance to be creative. Breaking horses Connie arranging the shop as the day begins. and barrel racing in my teens … learning to play a decent game of golf. Then compensate for the historically small rooms. We try our best the florist business.” But the Wagon Wheel project may have to keep all the ‘historic’ things working all day every day!” been more daunting than she expected.

Since opening in June 2010, registrations read like a Who’s New plumbing, wiring, and HVAC were installed, and new Who. Authors, photographers, and musicians; filmmakers beds, modern amenities, and Connie’s decorative touches and documentarians; car and motorcycle clubs; tour groups; readied nineteen rooms for a new generation of guests. She international guests; and the Oak Ridge Boys – four times. followed the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for “We appreciate that many Route 66 enthusiasts traveling the Rehabilitation to preserve historical elements and materials highway make a stay at the Wagon Wheel a must,” said Kim and to maintain the original purpose of the site. Grant Roedemeier, Cuba Tourism Director. “We are lucky to have assistance from the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor such a unique piece of history, such a quaint attraction, to Preservation Program in 2012 also aided the restoration. draw Cuba as a destination.” Cuba’s downtown is compact “One [of my] brothers was my go-to person if I had a and walkable, with other attractions within easy driving building question; another brother was my mechanical distance. “A variety of dining establishments are within advisor. They gave me the confidence to stick to my ideas,” walking distance, as are the historical murals, making this Connie laughed. “I had lots of support from [sister] Riva, charming motel a great central location,” added Roedemeier. including help with every brainy idea that I thought I could Despite facing an uncertain future due to the events of 2020, do myself, from staining windows, laying floor tile, to hanging Connie feels prepared. “It has never been about huge profits, curtains.” and we will do more of the work ourselves, if that’s possible.

As boxes of registration cards and checkbooks were We have good credit and may have to borrow to make it unearthed, the sisters wanted to make sure that the Wagon through, but it will be open with some restrictions. I am Wheel’s history, as well as its renaissance, was properly preparing to pass the Wheel on if the right people come along documented. Riva organized the materials, conducted to purchase it while it is in prime condition. I do feel positive research, and put it all together in a cohesive narrative. Her that Route 66 will always be a major attraction.” book, The Wagon Wheel Motel on Route 66: The History of a For now, the Wagon Wheel Motel is ready to offer you a Route 66 Icon, was published in 2011. step back in time. The intriguing Connie’s Shoppe always Support came from a new source in October 2011 when offers a fresh array of Route 66 souvenirs, antiques, and fun, Connie met lifetime local farmer Charlie Yowell. quirky accessories. On a pleasant summer evening, you can “When Charlie and I got together in 2012, we were cutting view the property from the new deck with a cold beverage in firewood for spending money. The next year things started hand, or just sit back in a comfortable lawn chair as fireflies to turn around, even with another year of construction. I light up the night. Nineteen lovely, spotless rooms with never could have kept up without him. [My family] are all historic touches, modern amenities, and fresh white linens such a big help when I need them,” Connie said. “It’s not the offer rest and renewal for another day on Route 66. And the Marriott, but we have white linens and the cleanest rooms innkeeper is always ready to welcome you to your home away in the area, with beautiful outside areas to relax and help from home.

Elevate your stay monumentally.

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ROUTE Magazine 25

NOW HER E LIK E IT!

By Matthew Wade

26 ROUTE Magazine

rossing into South Carolina from the north, you see it from a distance. A bright yellow cylindrical crowned object, high up in the sky. It must be the top of a quirky water tower, you think. But as you inch closer, the hovering UFO-type object, seemingly coming out of nowhere, and in the middle of nowhere, takes shape.

A two-hundred-foot tower rises high above the trees, topped by a giant sombrero. And there’s more.

A yellow polka-dotted elephant, an oversized red weiner dog, and a massive T-Rex are just some of the giant ostentatious animal statues scattered throughout. There is even a steakhouse that’s also shaped like a sombrero.

A larger-than-life ninety-seven-foot-tall statue, legs spread in a cowboy stance, wide enough for a car to drive through, sports another giant sombrero. At first glance, the Mexicanthemed architecture and the carnival brightness of faded pink, yellow, and lime green colored buildings suggest that you may have arrived in Tijuana rather than South Carolina. But make no mistake, this kitschy roadside stop is as American as apple pie, and quite possibly could only exist here. Welcome to South of the Border.

This sprawling 350-acre complex that the sombrero observation tower calls home is a mixed bag of campy roadside attraction, motel, amusement park, and rest stop, right out of the 1950s. The brains of Alan Schafer, a Jewish-American businessman who saw an opportunity, grabbed it by the horns and turned it into an American roadside legacy. But long before that could happen, this story would have to travel from Oberheim, Germany, to small town America.

A Family Business The Schafer family has a long history and tradition of running businesses in Dillon County, South Carolina.

Abraham Schafer, Alan’s grandfather, is believed to be one of the first Jews to settle in this rural farming area. He first immigrated to Darlington, South Carolina, in 1870, where he worked for Isaac Iseman, a prominent Jewish merchant who had sponsored his emigration from Germany. Abraham ended up marrying Iseman’s daughter, Rebecca, and together, the couple moved to the small neighbouring community of Little Rock. Here, the couple set up a mercantile store called the Schafer Company. The couple had four children, including Alan Schafer’s father, Samuel, who was born in 1888, just as Dillon was on the cusp of becoming a railroad station and town.

Finding success in the dry goods business, the couple later opened stores in the nearby towns of Dillon and Latta, and Abraham handed over the running of the new stores to his eldest children. Samuel stayed to work with his father in the South of the Border. 2017.

From Pints to Pinatas As luck would have it, in 1947, North Carolina passed a local option law which allowed counties to decide whether to have their own prohibition or not. Robeson County, just across the border, voted itself dry, as did many other counties in North Carolina. With his retailers in Robeson County ROUTE Magazine 27

Image courtesy of Carol M. Highsmith.

C

family’s original mercantile store, eventually assuming the management of the Schafer Company.

Later on, Samuel married Baltimore native Wilhelmina Heller Schafer, and had two boys, Charles and Alan. Sadly, Wilhelmina passed away in 1918 from influenza when Alan was just three years old. As was the case with his father before him, Alan, along with his brother, were involved in the family business at an early age, often working odd jobs at the store. At age 11, Alan started his first business, an icecream stand that he opened on Saturdays.

“The train came through there, so [Alan] would go to Rockingham, [North Carolina], where the Maola ice-cream distributor was, and he would get a churn of ice-cream, and he would sell it,” recalled Ryan Schafer, Alan’s grandson and current “commander” of South of the Border. According to Ryan, it was a good way for him to gain experience in the family profession.

And oddly enough, in addition to the ice-cream, Alan sold fish from the general store.

“It was hard to keep fish,” explained Ryan. “He had to ice them, they stunk, and by the end of the day, him and the store across the street would be in a price war to the point that they were giving them away. He hated fish his entire life.”

After graduating from Dillon High School in 1930, Alan enrolled at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, to study journalism. While Alan was away at school, Samuel had started a beer distribution business, in order to earn more cash for the family (since many of the general store’s patrons bought groceries on credit). The family had already had success with Schafer Beverage, which bottled and distributed Asai Cola. They also got wine from a train tanker car and bottled it under the Asai name.

When Abraham, the patriarch of the family, suddenly died in 1933, Alan was urged to come back home and help his father Samuel run the business. Shy of just one semester from graduating, Alan agreed, but on one condition: they would sell the store and enter the beer business on a full-time basis. This was the same year that national prohibition was repealed. Alan had realized that with the nationwide repeal in place, people were inclined to spend money on a bottle of beer, if nothing else. And so, in 1934, taking advantage of an untapped and expanding demand for beer, the Schafer Distributing Company was born. Samuel Schafer started bringing in beer from Baltimore on a regular basis and, according to Ryan, this new business was just as successful.

“I know [Samuel] would drive to Maryland at night. It started with a state bed pickup, and they were selling it as fast as he could get back. So, then they got a bigger truck, and then two trucks, and then they started distributing it to other people in the area.” The Schafer Distributing Company went on to become the largest Miller Brewing Company Distributor in South Carolina.

Samuel Schafer died in 1945 and the company passed on to Alan.

South of the Border. Dillon, SC. 1986.

28 ROUTE Magazine

interstate system’s positioning of two exits in close proximity to his beer stand would not only work to his benefit, but would turn his modest beer stand into a world-famous roadside attraction. But not for beer.

“He realized, as time went on, that more and more of this traffic was actually tourists,” explained Kenneth Smith, Senior Editor and Co-founder of RoadsideAmerica.com. “It wasn’t locals buying beer, it was tourists driving from the northeast down to Florida.”

Alan’s business intuition had impeccable timing. With gas and travel restrictions lifted after World War II, young families were taking to the road more and more, heading south in droves. In order to attract those tourists, and in large part because South Carolina had changed the rules on where one could sell alcohol, Alan built a tenseat grill in 1952 and renamed the establishment South of the Border Drive-In. Customers flocked to his new eatery to chow down on hamburgers and hot dogs, as well as knock back a brew or two. As the years passed, Alan acquired more land as soon as the previous owners were willing to sell it to him. By 1954, he had added twenty hotel rooms and re-named the attraction South of the Border.

Although the Schafer business had settled upon its current name, it had not yet established its current identity. That would change one day, when a Florida salesman stopped by with a case of souvenirs.

He was out of money and trying to get home, so he offered to swap his souvenir case for food. Alan was a shrewd businessman, and happily accepted this offer. By the time the salesman had returned to Florida two days later, Alan had sold all of the souvenirs. Recognizing an opportunity, he called up the salesman for another case, and the ball kept rolling.

“That flicked the neon lightbulb in Alan Schafer’s head, and he realized that this was a real potential money-making operation,” said Smith. “So, he kept expanding and expanding.”

Soon, South of the Border’s souvenir shop was selling t-shirts, flip-flops, shot glasses, mugs, and other miscellaneous items.

Flush with cash, Alan added a gas station and cocktail lounge to the attraction.

But along with conventional goods, the store also sold Mexican-

Image courtesy of John Margolies.

cut off, Alan made a shrewd move: If he couldn’t get to his customers, he could entice them to come to him. He bought land in Hamer, South Carolina, just yards from the North Carolina border, and built a simple 18-by-36-foot cinderblock outlet for Miller Beer. He painted it a bright pink and christened it South of the Border Beer Depot.

All Alan had purposed to do was to enable his North Carolina customers to take advantage of South Carolina’s lax liquor laws. Unbeknownst to him at the time, the country’s

A Complicated Legacy In the early 1950s, riding on the serendipitous opportunity, and ever the astute businessman, Alan embarked on a relentless advertising campaign that rivaled Burma Shave,

South of the Border. 2017.

luring road-weary travelers to make a stop south of the border. The massive billboards, in bold vivid colors, displayed facetious slogans: “Long Time, No Si! Si Pedro Today, Siesta Tomorrow!”, “Pedro’s Weather Report: Chili Today, Hot Tamale”, accompanied by an ever-smiling mascot, Pedro.

At the peak of its success, there were over 200 different billboards, which Alan designed himself, dotting I-95 and other highways from the northeast to Daytona Beach, Florida. The gimmick worked. Travelers, wanting to find out what all the fuss was about, pulled in by the millions.

But as decades passed, and times changed, not all visitors took a shine to either Pedro or South of the Border’s gaudy Mexican aesthetic. Instead of finding it charming, some deemed it to be racially insensitive and out of touch with modern times. The gently mocking slogans like “Ees onlee wan South of the Border, Amigos” and “Too moch Tequila?” did not appeal to the ever-increasingly politically correct times. Gradually, the billboards, which had become as famous as the destination itself, were replaced in the 1980s, reduced in number, and featured amusing “dad jokes” instead.

ROUTE Magazine 29

Image courtesy of Carol M. Highsmith.

themed knickknacks such as sombreros and maracas.

When Alan took a business trip to Mexico in the mid1950s, in an effort to establish import connections that would allow him to bring in more of these items, he met two young men who were interested in going to America to seek employment. “[The two men] spoke a little English, so they helped him go around, and showed him where to buy hats and woven stuff, blankets and jerseys, and when he got ready to leave, they pretty much begged him to bring them back, because they wanted to come to the U.S.,” said Ryan.

Having taken a shine to the pair, Schafer helped them get into the United States, and then hired them on as bellboys for the motel office. Visitors soon began calling them Pedro and Pancho, and then simply Pedro. Thus, in a rather unremarkable fashion, a mascot was born. In short order, Pedro appeared throughout South of the Border—on signs, on merchandise, and in the form of small figures. He later appeared in the form of a 104-foot statue with legs so wide that tourists could drive their cars through them. In all instances, he was a round-faced, mustachioed man with a large sombrero—a cheerful stereotype of the Mexican bandido. Aside from Pedro, Alan populated South of the Border with all types of strange creature creations, such as a blue whale, an orange brontosaurus wearing a sombrero, and a bright-red, hundred-foot-long dachshund. “[Alan] realized that the notion of South of the Border was a little naughty, a little exotic, and that it would appeal to people,” said Smith. “That gave the place an image, it gave it a hook. And obviously, it worked!”

“Mexico was still an exotic place, because a lot of people hadn’t traveled there,” said Jeff Kunkle of Vintage Roadside. “And they didn’t do it as a small roadside stand that sold baskets and pots. This was just a complete, overthe-top, ‘bigger than anyone could have imagined it to be’ attraction. You can spend all day wandering around, just looking at different things, taking a million photos.”

In 1962, Schafer also added fireworks to capitalize on the fact that North Carolina banned the sale of these festive explosives. Eventually, even Alan’s son Richard entered the family business by working for Schafer Distributing Company, where he later worked his way up to become president and CEO. He also filled in for his father at South of the Border for a year in the early 1980s, while Alan was in prison for voter fraud. In October 1981, Alan pled guilty to one count of conspiracy and two counts of mail fraud, as part of a scheme to buy votes in the June 1980 Democratic primary election in Dillon County. He got off easy, as the district court believed his crime to be much more serious. They had originally charged him with 16 counts of conspiracy and mail fraud and one count of obstructing justice by instructing someone to destroy 200 unnumbered absentee ballots. Despite this charitable act on Richard’s part, however, he and Alan never really saw eye to eye.

“Him and his dad butted heads on some ideas on how things should be done,” said Ryan. Laughing, he added, “Obviously, my grandfather won out.”

of the Border claims to be the largest indoor reptile exhibit in the United States. The lagoon is home to over fifteen varieties of crocodile species, as well as snakes, turtles, and other cold-blooded creatures. Educational staff and a veteran reptile handler help oversee the facility, and custom-built pools and walkways allow safe viewing by fascinated guests.

“Everyone that goes in it loves it,” said Ryan. “Now, a lot of people, they think, ‘Oh, there’s one alligator, or two alligators,’ so they’re reluctant at first to pay, but once they come out, I’ve never heard anyone complain about not getting their money’s worth.”

South of the Border sombrero sign. 1986.

Passing the Torch In 2001, Alan Schafer died at the age of 87, and Ryan Schafer, Alan’s grandson, took over South of the Border with his father Richard, who mostly handles real estate issues. Like his grandfather before him, though, Ryan’s first experience in the business was working odd jobs—even one of the same ones.

“I think I was ten, so that would have been ’87,” he said.

“My first job was cleaning video games in the arcade and sweeping the floors. And I think after a year or two of that, I got moved to the Ice-Cream Fiesta. The lady who was my manager [there] is still a manager for me now.”

Now in his early 40s, Ryan Schafer has begun to build upon his grandfather’s legacy.

In 2010, on the site of a former indoor putt-putt course, he opened a 15,000-square-foot Reptile Lagoon, which South 30 ROUTE Magazine

Some visitors and pundits might wonder how an oldfashioned tourist trap can remain relevant in today’s America, when so many other diversions fight for travelers’ attention and dollars. Ryan is aware of the attraction’s age, and he has begun to take steps to add necessary accommodations. He has worked with realtors to bring in some chain restaurants. He is also looking at bringing in one or two chain motels, because the current motel has not aged well and is worn-down. As for keeping the vintage attraction in the family, Ryan’s son, Austin, may be in line to carry on the family tradition, but maybe not. Time will tell.

“There’s always going to be people driving from Point A to Point B,” concluded Smith. “So, there’s always going to be people who want to stop and see what South of the Border is all about. It’s just South of the Border, man. It’s just a goofy roadside tourist trap. And as long as you accept it on that level, you’re going to have a good time there.”

For Ryan, South of the Border’s appeal is timeless, and offers people a needed break from their hectic lives.

“Kids I’ve seen, they’re not as attached to souvenirs and actual objects like we were. Everything’s on their cell phone. They take a picture, it shows where the picture was taken; [they] put it on Instagram, Facebook. So, they really enjoy taking pictures with all the animals, whether it’s in the lagoon, or the fiberglass animals, or in front of the Pedros. And it’s good to just get out of the car for a little while. Everybody who goes on vacation, they rush to wherever they’re going. They’ve got a whole itinerary that they rush and try to fit in, and vacation becomes a job.

When I go somewhere, I go with no plans, none of it, and it’s a lot more enjoyable.”

And who couldn’t use some simple enjoyment in their lives? It’s not hard to find if you know where to look, even if it’s way down south in a small agricultural town in South Carolina.

“The fact that it’s still here is the most important thing,” emphasized Kunkle. “It’s hard for these places to keep going, and the fact that this place has kept going in any way—rather than just selling their property to a big developer—says a lot about how much they appreciate and like the history.”

As America has grown to appreciate the generic and the predictable, and the dotcom age has created multiple generations of people who put a whole new definition to armchair travel, kitschy dated roadside attractions like South of the Border will continue to pull those seeking something different, something unexpected. That is the beauty of classic Americana. You never quite know what you will encounter.

Image courtesy of John Margolies.

The Future of an Icon

GOOD EATIN’ ENJOYED SAFELY. Pulaski County wants to make sure our rolling hills and “can’t miss” cuisine all along Historic Route 66 are safe for all. If you’re headed out to explore our restaurants and outdoor attractions, we kindly ask you to follow all social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines— that means 6 ft. apart, covering your nose and mouth, and honoring the occupancy limits in place at restaurants like Piney River Brewing Co.

Plan your trip at PulaskiCountyUSA.com.

ROUTE Magazine 31

32 ROUTE Magazine

A CONVERSATION WITH

Michael J. Fox

By Brennen Matthews

Photographs courtesy of Mark Seliger

ROUTE Magazine 33

F

amously upbeat and funny, iconic actor Michael J. Fox spends some time with ROUTE and takes us through his journey from Canada to Hollywood, his leap from Family Ties to the Big Screen, and his true passion: his role as a husband and father. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at a young age, Michael has refused to let it define his life, and is authoring his fourth memoir, No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality, due to hit shelves fall 2020. Undeniably, Michael’s journey is both inspiring and an encouragement to us all.

You grew up in a household with four siblings. How early on in your life did you know that you wanted to become an actor?

It’s funny, it’s hard to pinpoint acting per se. My dad was in the Army, so life was pretty straightforward. But I had a [strong] fantasy life. So, as I got older, I drew a lot, I painted, I wrote stories, I played in bands—I was always doing that kind of thing.

In junior high school, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation wanted a kid for a TV show, and I went down on a lark. I went in on a lark because it was kind of silly, but at the same time I totally knew that [I’d] get it. I didn’t tie into the fact that there were 20 other kids reading. I was just so into acting. I was doing theater at night, I was doing a TV series or limited TV series, and guest shots on different shows and commercials.

I left school and went to the [United] States in April of ’79, when I was 17. I got some auditions and got a job, came back on my birthday, which is [in] June, when I turned 18, and I was on my own until I got married.

What was your journey like on an emotional, but also practical level, when you made that big move from the safety of the smaller Canadian industry to competitive Hollywood?

The key thing to me was my parents’ involvement. I went to them and said, “I want to do this.” And I was expecting them to just go nuts, but my father’s a very practical man, and as much as he thought acting was crazy, and it was run by hippies and their subversive plot to destroy the world, he thought that it was great that I had a job and I was making a living, and I had prospects for more work. He could get his head around that.

My mom was, at the end of the day, whatever made me happy. They expressed their reservations but were supportive.

My father actually drove me down in April of ’79 to find an agent, and I went on a couple auditions while I was there. These agents would put me up for auditions as a way of trying to sign me. And I was flattered, because I knew that it was the reverse for most people, that they would go in and have a hard time getting an agent. I was happy when I ended up with Bob Gersh, and my father was really impressed when I told him that he was also Bogie’s [Humphrey Bogart] agent. (Laughs) And so that was it. I had an agent, I came back in January, and then, at that point, my family’s involvement ceased. They didn’t have money to send me, so I was on my own to make a living. There were times when I was eating plain macaroni, mooching from other people, and I was going to parties.

I had some friends who were frat brothers in the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at UCLA. I used to go to their parties and drink 34 ROUTE Magazine

their beer, date their girlfriends. So that was it. It was a really interesting time. I got work right away on a show for CBS with Alex Haley and Norman Lear as producers, and I did a couple of commercials. Things were pretty hard scrabble, but it turned out great.

Things were tough enough that just before Family Ties, you were down to selling pieces of furniture to actually pay your bills.

Before Family Ties, I was destitute. I was really in it. I had this landlord that would come by every day and I’d be playing ‘duck the landlord.’ I didn’t have a phone anymore. I had this furniture and there was an actor named Lance Guest, who did a movie called The Last Starfighter, and he bought my furniture from me. He’d come by my house and … I sold my couch section by section. And he’d come back next week and say, “Can I have the next section?” And I’d say, “Unfortunately, yeah.” (Laughs) The thing about it was that it was a rental sofa. (Laughs) So, I didn’t even own it. But it got really desperate, and I owed the IRS a lot of money. I was just out of prospects and it was really rough. But then I got this audition for Family Ties and I didn’t want to do comedy. Only a 19-year-old could have that audacity; I thought that I’d save myself for film roles and I wouldn’t do a sitcom. My friends said, “You’re eating paper.

You need to get a job.” (Laughs) So, I went and read for it and I liked that. I thought it was really funny. I was the first person they saw. They wanted Matthew Broderick, but he turned them down, so they saw me first. Lloyd Garver, who was one of the writers—I love him, I still talk to him to this day—he told me that his reaction after I read was, “I liked him.” He was done, but Gary [Goldberg] didn’t like me. Judith Weiner, the casting director, liked me a lot and said to Gary, “You should see him again.” Gary said, “I don’t want to see him again. I’m a grown man. I know what I like, I know what I don’t like.

I didn’t like him.” So, after about a month, Judith got me back in. All this time, I’m starving—eating bugs and grubs and stuff. I got back in and I had lost weight by that point, because I truly [was in] poverty, but I looked better and I was leaner, and I got the job.

As far as the network goes, they were really adamant …

Gary, at first, he didn’t like me, as I said, then I went back and read for him and he became my champion. He went to the network and they said, “We don’t want him.” And Gary said, “Why?” They said, “Look at the father. They can’t be from the same family. And besides, can you see this kid’s picture on a lunchbox?” Gary said, “I didn’t know that was the criterion, that he’d be on a lunchbox.” He said, “I just know that I give him three jokes and he gets four laughs.” So, they let me stay.

Did you know at the time that it was going to be such a big hit?

I knew when I did the pilot … we shot the pilot in front of an audience, and it was just really clear that they liked what I was doing. I didn’t internalize that as, “Oh, I’m great.” I was just like, “Wow, this is good. I like this. I like this feeling and this approbation, and this ease with which these other adults deal with me.” I mean, I wasn’t an adult myself, but I was living as an adult. But [to] get this acceptance from these talented people as a coworker, as someone they asked, “What

do you think about this? What do you think about this beat?”

I would say, “Ah, I should actually swing over here in the chair and jump up and get the phone and get orange juice,” and then we would just go. It just was a great feeling to me.

Do you think that you were ready at that time for the fame and success that Family Ties brought you?

There’s no way to be ready for it. Even if there is … I think a Royal is ready for it. Charlie is, or William, or whoever is told at a very young age, this is what you have to grow into.

It’s what you have to take on and you have to handle it in this way, you have to deal with it, and they still f**k it up.

So, as a kid from Canada who liked to drink beer and smoke cigarettes and drive too fast and chase after girls and be an idiot, well, when that opportunity opened up for me, I seized it by the horns and just went for it.

Did the main cast members get on well together?

I’ll tell you the truth, for the first couple of years … Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter were wonderful about it, they were really great about it, but they really felt like “What happened?

This was a show about us and then there’s this kid.”

I got that and I tried not to make their lives miserable because, as much as they liked me, wanted to be kind to me, and wanted to work well with me, I knew that they thought that. So, I could take it one of two ways.

I could go, “Screw you” or I could just go, “I get it. I’m not trying to rub your nose in it. I can’t help that other people are paying me the attention that you may want to get. I can’t control that. And, when they turn on me with pitchforks and come to my house and burn my yard down, I can’t control that either.”

It was really lovely. Justine [Bateman] and I keep in touch to this day, Michael and Meredith and I get in touch every now and then. Something brings us together and we’re really happy to see each other.

I took my 12-year-old son to the drive-in the other night, his first time, and Back to the Future was showing. Even after all these years, it’s still a great movie. Is it true that you turned it down initially?

No, I didn’t turn it down, but it got turned down for me.

Gary Goldberg and Steven Spielberg were really good friends. They started to do the early pre-production for Back to the Future. At that time, Steven had gone to Gary with Bob Zemeckis and he said, “We would like Michael Fox to be in this movie.” And Gary said, “We’re finally a hit, we’re finally getting some ratings, and I can’t let this kid go for the whole season. I’ll lose my show.” They said, “We get it.” So, they cast Eric [Stoltz], great casting, he’s a great actor, and

they didn’t tell me about it. And why should they? It would just break my heart.

They start shooting with Eric and it just wasn’t happening the way they wanted it to. So, they went back to Gary and he said no [again], but we shot for a few weeks and Meredith or Justine was pregnant ... things had been thrown into chaos, and Gary called me into his office. I didn’t know if he was going to fire me. I’d done this werewolf movie and maybe word had gotten back. He called me in, there’s a manila envelope, and he said Bob Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg and Bob Gale were making this movie, and he told me the story of what had happened. He said, “I hope you’re not upset with me.” I said, “No, I get what your thinking was, but now you’re telling me I can to do it, right?” He said, “Yeah, you can do it. Read the script and tell them what you’re thinking.”

He handed me the manila envelope, and I picked it up and went, “Love it. It’s great. Let’s go.” A week later, I was sitting in a parking lot with flames running between my legs.

When you were coming up, were there ever issues of not being tall ‘enough’? I am thinking of the stereotypes in Hollywood around leading men.

When I was a struggling actor, that was a problem. I couldn’t get people to look past how tall I was or whatever perception they had about me being Canadian.

Whatever it was, I had to focus on what I did and what I could do and hope in some way that if I had talent, the talent would come out and then I would just be recognized for what I could do.

Family Ties offered a very unique thing because there was this character that had this set of attributes or this set of personality quirks. And I found a way to absorb those and let them out in as natural a way as possible, to not make it forced and not make it caricature-y, but to have those behaviors inhabit the body of an actual person, a kid too short, too smart, too selfaware, just all of his foibles. And then it clicked.

I kept that going on through my career, saying, “I’m not working with a detriment with these things, being shorter or looking at things differently than other people. Maybe they’re assets, they’re tools that I can use.”

Then with success, the problem becomes the other way, which is that people will let you do anything behaviorally, socially and professionally. They’ll let you do anything. “You wanna do Casualties of War? Great.” Then you find yourself in the jungle—at night, pouring rain, bombs going off near you, Sean Penn yelling at you, and you’re like, “What did I do? Why am I here?” (Laughs) So, you know, life, it gets very out of control. I mean, not out of control, but it’s very heady. I mean, I was 23, I had a Ferrari, a Mercedes, and a Range Rover. And then when I go out in the morning and say, “What car am I gonna drive to Paramount today?” It was an interesting time.

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You guys did a big trip in the 90s that took you to some of Route 66.

It was the second year of Spin City (1997).

It was my son, Sam, and I and a friend of mine and his two kids. I roughly bracketed Sam’s age, one a year younger, one a year older. We set out from Manhattan. We lived in Manhattan on the East Side and I got a Suburban and—this is how old this was—I outfitted it with video screens, but they didn’t exist as an option. It was like a big thing that I had these video screens. There were no snaky cables in it. I had a, it might’ve been tapes, but I think it was a DVD player.

The first night, we made [it] down to Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Stayed there a couple of days, we did the park and saw a reenactment of some Civil War battles. We went down through West Virginia and Ohio. In Ohio, we stopped at the Jack Hanna Zoo, because I knew Jack Hanna from The Tonight Show and David Letterman. He opened his zoo to us and let us see all the animals. There was something every step of the way. I really planned this thing out. I knew that it was one of the last times that I’d ever be able to do this because of the disease’s progression. I knew this was my window.

Then we drove through the Midwest—Wisconsin, Minnesota, along through the Dakotas, Mount Rushmore.

We did the whole package with the Badlands. We got into the Rockies and we went down through Durango, did the train there, whitewater rafting and went up in the mesas, cliff dwellings, and we went to New Mexico, Arizona, and then we went to the Grand Canyon.

One of the stops on the way was in Las Vegas. I made reservations that weekend for the Tyson-Holyfield fight where Tyson bit Holyfield’s ear off. We went there and I had tickets, and we got babysitters for the kids. Sam wanted to go to the fight. I said, “You can’t go to the fight.” But I said, “One of the cool things about this fight is that it’s essentially a good guy against a bad guy.” You don’t always get that in fights, where there’s a real good guy and a real bad guy. Tyson at the time was a bad guy, Holyfield was a minister and a sort of straight guy.

The next day we see the fight, Tyson bites Holyfield’s ear off. I remember that being cool because in the guest room, the guests were all these comics, tons of comics, Kevin Pollock, and Chris Rock and Roseanne Barr. It was an amazing group of people, and they were immediately making jokes and crafting routines minutes after this happened. They were like, “Where’s his ear now? It’s in his colon.” Just flying with this stuff. And it was totally amazing.

So, the next day, Sam asked, “Who won?” I said, “Remember how I said there was a good guy and a bad guy?

It turns out the bad guy was really bad.”

So, we get to L.A. and we’re staying at this house. We were staying at Bruce Willis’ house, actually, in Malibu. We get there and a couple days later I had to do The Tonight Show and Holyfield was on. So, Sam got to see the piece of his ear missing.

But that was the end of [the] trip. Anywhere along the way, there’s a thousand stories. It was a great trip.

What stood out to you when you were on Route 66 in the southwest?

[It’s] just that it is what it is. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, I mean it in a good way. People are straight shooters and it’s just that there’s no guile to anybody. There’s no fast city sh*t. It’s just like, “You want a cake? Want a gelato? Want a 36 ROUTE Magazine

margarita? Want a beer? Want a cool place? Want to sit in this shade?” It’s cool. It’s too hot to be pretentious or to be any other energy. I mean, you can see that’s what it is.

Did you stay at the Hotel Monte Vista when you were shooting in Flagstaff?

Yeah, I stayed at the Monte Vista, and I can’t remember the other place. But I went there a few times, because we had to go back and pick up scenes, and it was great, I loved it.

You knew they named a room after you?

Yeah. There’s a dollar bill tucked underneath the rug in the corner. (Laughs)

It sounds like it was a real father-son bonding trip.

It was so great for that. I think the other thing was that at first it was like, “What kind of souvenir can I get? What kind of book can I buy from the gift shop?” And it just drove me crazy. I was like, “It’s not in here, it’s out there. There’s nothing in the shop you can find that’s as good as what’s out there.” And that kind of sunk in over the course of the trip. It was an amazing time.

On your 35th birthday, Tracy gave you a red ’67 Mustang convertible. What a beautiful car.

I would love to take that down to Route 66! I loved it. If I could take it on a flatbed down to like Missouri and then head west, that’d be awesome. It’s just a cool car. It’s like Springsteen—roll down the windows and let the wind blow back your hair. Imagine that on the road.

When you were 29, things were high flying for you at the time. A lot of great films, a lot of projects … And then you got diagnosed with Parkinson’s. As a young man, did you have any comprehension at that point of what that really meant?

I had no idea what that meant, because Parkinson’s to me was a thing that … I mean, on the young side, Muhammed Ali had it [but he was] in his fifties by then. But otherwise, it was just an old person’s disease. It was a concept more than it was a disease.

So, it took me a while. I was just going by people’s reactions.

And I tell my family and I tell my friends, or I’d tell the very few people that I told, when I talked to doctors about it, the tones that they would speak in, and the attitudes that they would assume told me, oh, this is f**king serious.

Were you scared?

I was scared. I was more confused than scared, but I was scared. I had a sense of free-floating doom, but I had nothing to affix it to because, at that point, the worst thing that was happening was that my brain was gone a little bit, and my arm was sore. I had no idea [what] the extent [of it was].

I knew what the end picture was, but I didn’t know how long it took to get there, or what interventions or remedies I could apply during the process to make it easier. It also had very much to do with Tracy’s response to it, because we were just married.

Tracy seems like a pretty solid, levelheaded person. I suspect that her response must’ve been supportive?

She’s a very organized person. Honestly, it’s because of the school she went to. She tends to center and say, “Okay, this is the situation. This is what we’re gonna do.” But she was at a loss, because she had no idea what it was either.

You’ve long been pegged as being a nice guy and an incurable optimist. How difficult is it to actually be in a crappy mood and in a bad situation where you’re like, “I don’t want to smile, I don’t want to throw a good face on this thing? This sucks.”

I mean, if I felt like I didn’t want to smile, I didn’t want to be in a good mood, I wouldn’t be. It took me a while to get there, but it’s what I live by now. My first instinct tends to be my best instinct. If I need to protect myself at the moment and withdraw myself from the situation or lobby for myself to get what I need, I know that, like I said, my first instinct is my best instinct. So, I don’t question it.

In your new book No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality, you share a story about a flight to Europe that you and Tracy were on. You had the window seat and Tracy had the aisle. Tracy is sleeping and you get up to go to the rest room and to stretch your legs. On coming back, not wanting to disturb her to get to your seat, you instead sit next to her, across the aisle. As you watch her sleep, the plane hits some turbulence and she wakes up, looks to her left and does not see you. You then elaborate, “In an instant, she had her blanket off, her seatbelt unlatched, and was on her feet in search of me, obviously worried … It confirms for me that I’m someone she loves; but I’m also someone that she feels is vulnerable and needs protection.” Men are born with an innate need to feel strong, to protect and to take care of their family. From that excerpt, Parkinson’s, to some degree, seems to have robbed you of some of that opportunity.

That’s part of it. The full part of the story is that you recognize when that’s happening, but then you also recognize the other times. By letting that come in, or saying, “Yeah, I was being looked after there,” that’s happened all throughout my life. I’ve had people, Nina, my assistant, she takes care of me in everything I do, she knows what pills I take, when I went to the bathroom last, she knows stuff that she shouldn’t know. But that’s fine, because it puts relief in the other areas of my life. I mean, this house, you can’t see it, but it’s a nice house. We have a safe place to be during the pandemic, and I know that I’m responsible for a lot of that, [or at least] partially responsible. So, in that way, I protect my family all the time. I talked to my kids about what they want to do in their lives and what they need and all those things. I mean, I’ll fall down on my way to the kitchen, but I’ll get back up and just do what I’m doing, and I don’t say that I don’t deserve to be in the kitchen because I fell down on the way.

It’s just what today’s reality [is].

You and Tracy have been married for over 32 years now? In today’s world, that’s a lifetime!

Yeah, it’s like 99 and done. It’s great.

What do you attribute that to? For you guys, what has been the key to a really sustainable relationship and marriage?

You know, the standard stuff that makes a good marriage.

We just really like each other, and we trust each other. Like Tracy always says, we give each other the benefit of the doubt.

If you think you’ve heard something that you don’t like, or you think you heard something that was mean, chances are it wasn’t meant that way. Just ask a question before you get angry. Life is too long to get involved in stuff like that. You’re going to have that battle over and over and over and over again if you don’t resolve the fact that nobody really intends there to be bad feelings. The person I live with every day of my life, why would I want to hurt them? I don’t. So, beyond having a raging love life or exotic travels or whatever, it’s just being there on a day-to-day basis. Someone’s got your back.

Well, you got married as a young man, at an insane time, and you guys stayed together.

That was a crazy time, too, because, within a period of a couple of years, I finished Family Ties, I did the last two episodes of Back to the Future, my son was born, my father died, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and I quit drinking.

It was all in that period of time. My life was just starting to come back together again, and I started to get a handle on it, I was getting a handle on the disease, I’d quit drinking for a couple of years at that point, four or five years.

I’d kind of reconciled myself with my father’s passing. It was too early, he was 61, just two years older than I am now. Things were coming together, and I thought, “Why am I doing this?”

I love television. I had a great time on Family Ties. I only have so many years left before this disease takes over and I’m at the mercy of it. So, I thought, I’ll get in touch with Gary and do TV again, and that turned out to be a great success.

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think you are and what kind of son you raise and how that reflects on you and all that. But [you’ve got] to get over and get down to them and get caring about what they care about.

There’s certainly a lot of conflict and a lot of mixed emotions and complicated stuff that goes on with fathers and sons.

[For] daughters, it’s just pure love. You just love them.

They’re so mysterious. [In the book], I was talking about when my kids had gone to school and the place was empty.

All of the girls’ shoes were left over to be thrown away. All we could really do was throw them away and think about how much they fought over those shoes and argued about who got to wear which ones, and when they got to wear them. You just keep looking at these shoes saying, “That’s it.” That’s what it comes down to. We’re left with shoes, and then they go away and they live their lives.

With that in mind, if you could go back now as a more enlightened Michael J. Fox and speak to the 19-year-old that was just starting to take off in his life and career, what advice would you give this young dude?

That’s how I kind of dealt with it. You should always just step back and take a breath and look and see where things are, instead of reacting to where you think they are. I think this is happening out here, so I’m just going to forestall it by doing this. Look at the window and see what it is, and then make a committed decision going forward.

You have four children and you’ve been a dad for a long time. I only have one and he’s amazing, but it has taught me a lot about myself and about how to be more humble, and how to take myself a little less seriously. You’ve gone through this now a number of times. What has being a dad to four kids taught you about yourself and how you live life?

It’s been the best part of my life. When you have a baby, you meet this person that you know from the ground up, and you reintroduce them all the way along the line as they develop new aspects of who they are. You can influence that, but they are in charge of that, who they become. So then when you have two kids, three kids, four kids, they become a little community and you see that community grow, those interpersonal relationships growing, and how your relationship with them affects their relationship with their siblings.

And then you see them grow outside of your bubble.

And how they grow in the outside world and how those relationships get formed, what they take from them, and what they do.

Were the lessons different between raising a son and raising daughters?

Oh, yeah.

First of all, a son is really complicated in that—in a good way, but it’s tied up in a lot of your self-image and who you 38 ROUTE Magazine

Every screwup, I learned from it. Every screwup, I got wiser and made a better decision the next time.

I mean, I wouldn’t change anything. I do wish … I know how selfish I was sometimes. I know that I thought that what I was going through was more important than what you were going through, because there’s bigger terms and bigger things.

I consider myself a kind, thoughtful person. But, to me, you can always be kinder and more thoughtful. You can always be more giving and more accepting. And, to the extent that I was those things, I can always find places where I could have been more.

With Parkinson’s, does it help to keep busy and tap into your creativity?

If you don’t keep your mind going, you get lost in what you can’t do, and you don’t see things that open up for you. I’ve felt diminished movement and I wrote a lot about movement because it’s very important to me. But with diminished movement or limited movement or careful movement, it gives you time to think things through and look at things from a different angle. In some ways, my opportunities and my abilities are diminishing to a point, but that point can be very sharp.

You are so much more than Parkinson’s; you’re doing so much more than just fighting and working towards research and the cure for Parkinson’s. Do you ever get tired of being so connected to being sick?

Parkinson’s? I’d give it up in a second. I’d shake it off in a moment. But what you refer to, though, is an amazing thing, being tied to Parkinson’s. I wish I didn’t have it, but given that I do, I’m actually really grateful for the association that people make, because we have been able to raise a billion dollars towards research, and [we’re] really pushing the envelope in terms of that. The things we’re exploring genetically, the things we’re exploring in terms of finding a marker, finding a way to identify the disease before it’s evident, so that we can treat it and halt progression, and halt symptoms before they’re apparent. We’re getting close to those things.

To be put in a position where I can help affect that change, it’s the most humbling thing and the thing that I am most proud of.

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BORN AGA IN

40 ROUTE Magazine

AIN KANSAS

By Theresa Romano Photographs by David J. Schwartz - Pics On Route 66

ROUTE Magazine 41

“G

alena died three times. It died when the mines died, it died when Route 66 died, and it died when the drinking age was raised to 21,” explained Galena, Kansas, resident Melba Rigg.

Those are a lot of deaths for a town that was once considered the most important west of New York City.

Galena, named after the discovery of the mineral form of lead sulfite in 1877, sits on the Southeastern corner of Kansas, right in the middle of what was once considered the Tri-State Mining District, one of the most important zinc and lead mining districts in the United States. Once known as the “Oldest Mining Town in Southeast Kansas,” the town flourished, boasting over thirty mining companies in or near the town and a population of 30,000 at the height of its burgeoning prosperity. To accommodate the mining operations, the road through the area was paved in 1923 and eventually became Route 66 as it crossed the nation on its way from Missouri to Oklahoma. With the commissioning of Highway 66, Galena responded, and businesses opened up to meet the demands of travelers who poured into town, pushing the boom of the town further.

But this affluence was not to last.

After World War II, production in the Tri-State mining district gradually declined. Over time, the mines required less and less labor and employed even fewer workers. In 1970, the last active mine shut down. People moved away, houses were abandoned, and the town’s population dwindled considerably. Then, the Interstate bypassed Galena in 1961, making Kansas the only state that was completely bypassed when the Interstate replaced America’s Main Street. Tourist numbers continued to decline, and one by one, the businesses on Main Street closed. Galena, a shadow of what it once was, struggled to figure out how to survive. Its story is not unique across America.

However, although Galena witnessed its fair share of hard times, the town fought back. One small shop and the unquenchable universal appeal of Route 66 helped put the town back on the map. And oddly enough, it all began with an old unassuming rusty boom truck.

Car Culture They say that it is easy to miss the magic lying in your own backyard, and for many communities that call the Mother Road home, this rings true. They also say that a fire requires only a single spark to blaze bright, and as things are changing on America’s Main Street, often one town at a time, this too resonates.

In small town Galena, things were tough over the years, and the Kansas gem struggled to stay optimistic as businesses closed and tourism dried up. Route 66 had seen better days, and even former mayor Dale Oglesby seemed unattuned to the enormous opportunity that Galena’s location offered them: “Early on, I didn’t even understand the iconic route. I didn’t understand what it meant to the world.” But this all changed in 2006 when four local 42 ROUTE Magazine

women decided to open up a restaurant and souvenir shop called “4 Women on the Route.” Soon thereafter, the world took notice.

Humble Beginnings As motorists make their way west down the Mother Road, they will only experience a mere 13 miles of the fabled highway in the state of Kansas, but that half-marathon distance is undeniably magical. Ripe with a small-town America vibe, the Sunflower State’s portion of Route 66 is filled with quaint little shops, fading vintage wall murals, and iconographic town centers —and Galena is the first town along this section.

Cruising through tranquil countryside, with picturesque Missouri in your rearview, a little shop comes into sight unexpectedly. Once an old gas station that held many names throughout the years, the building has been home to a Coal-

Renee and Melba having some fun.

Tex fueling station, an Apco station, and even an automotive repair shop. Two refurbished yellow Kan-O-Tex gasoline pumps stand in front of the store, harkening back to the shop’s history of selling gas to locals and Route 66 travelers, and the building’s clean white exterior and bright red garage doors offer a welcoming feel. Visitors arrive daily, wide-eyed and delighted to discover the cornerstone of Kansas’s Route 66 community.

But for a very long time, the gas station, owned by former Galena resident Larry Courtney, sat desolate, its future uncertain. That is until his former secretary, Renee Charles, stepped forward with a strategy to turn the station into a farmer’s market. Charles enlisted the help of her artistic older sister, Melba Rigg, known affectionately amongst peers and Route 66 regulars as “Melba the Mouth,” due to her exceptional talent for fast-talking. Also on-board was Larry’s mother, Betty Courtney, and his ex-wife, Judy Howe. Together,

the group of four women established the meaning behind the future shop’s namesake.

The ladies pondered about the best name to give their shared vision. What would resonate with travelers and reflect who they were and what they were offering? And in step with the simplicity of small-town Kansas, a name that was both obvious and charming was born — 4 Women on the Route.

Route 66 Sisters Melba, the elder sibling at 61 years young, and Renee, 55, were born and raised in Joplin, Missouri — a short drive from Galena, where they visited often. Though the sisters weren’t from the Kansas town, they maintained a strong attachment to the community, with Renee even graduating from Galena High School. “[I] moved to Galena my junior year, but always came across the state line to stir a few ROUTE Magazine 43

Tow Tater welcomes visitors.

things up before I moved here,” she remarked, wryly adding that “in Kansas you could drink when you were 18, in Missouri you had to be 21.”

But even with the lower drinking age, back in the day, Galena still struggled: “Well, Galena was a ghost town.

18 was the legal drinking age and if you didn’t play sports or [were] involved in school activities, you worked or you partied, standard teenage stuff in a small town. But everyone was related to everyone in a way, so you couldn’t get into too much trouble,” continued Renee.

Melba and Renee’s love for little Galena also spread to the Mother Road, which played an important role in their lives — even at a young age. “My father divorced my mother when I was two, so we were [often] traveling Route 66, either in a beetle bug or on a Greyhound bus, with my single mom, and sister and brother, to visit my dad and his family in California, [all the way] from Joplin,” recalled Melba of her childhood.

“So, Route 66 was in my blood prior to 4 Women on the Route. But I do remember, you know, going to the Petrified Forest, the Grand Canyon… Our mom made sure that we stopped and seen things, so it was always enjoyable.”

Melba also remembers witnessing the juxtaposition of business along America’s Main Street: “All of these little Ma and Pa shops, and all these little hotels that were barely surviving, and all these tourist traps had something that would catch my mom’s eye. It was cool to see the downfalls 44 ROUTE Magazine

and upcoming business on the route, you know, compare and see if our favorite [was] still there, and meet the people who made it fun and [an] adventure: the truck drivers, the waitress, the local farmers, and, of course, the fellow travelers.”

With all their twists and turns, those road trips along the Mother Road left a lasting impression on both Melba and Renee: “Traveling 66 was some of my fondest memories, because it showed me the adversity of people and places, the strength and curiosity of my single mom, and proved that I could tolerate my siblings for a long period of time, in a small place, without killing them,” expressed Renee.

A Global Fame Despite the fondness associated with their small town roots, Renee and Melba were not content to live a quiet life in Galena; both sisters had bigger plans in mind and eventually decided to venture out into the world, but Galena and Route 66 never strayed too far away from their hearts and minds.

Between 1985 and 1992, Renee spent six years in Karlsruhe and Augsburg, Germany, where her husband was stationed in the Army. Even halfway across the globe, the Mother Road’s notoriety managed to find Renee. “My best friend is from Karlsruhe, Germany, and the first thing she said to me when she found out where I was born is that I

was lucky to live on Route 66.” At the time, this sentiment was news to Renee.

“At first, I thought she was crazy, because it was not a big deal. [I have been] living on it or next to it all my life, but when she spoke so passionately about how members of her family wanted to drive ‘the American Autobahn,’ I must admit that I felt pretty proud, and started to tell her how far I had traveled on it, where I had been, what I’d seen, and the history of it that I knew from my hometown. I still do that today.”

Melba also realized the influence of the Mother Road during her own travels overseas. While abroad, she felt the love of Route 66 in countries like Spain, Germany, Denmark, and the Philippines. “They’d ask, ‘Where are you from?’ and I’d say, ‘Joplin, Missouri,’ and automatically they would say, ‘Ah, Route 66,’” Melba explained. “It was kind of surprising that they even knew about it. But when I was asked about the route, I always shared my stories and they ate it up.”

Finding Tow Mater Fast forward to 2005, and the beginning of Renee’s dream for the old station was starting to take shape, but in ways that the four women could not have imagined.

They say things work out for the best, and that more often than not, they do so in the most unexpected ways. Michael Wallis, author of Route 66: The Mother Road and voice of the Sheriff in the 2006 movie Cars, was approached by Pixar and famed director John Lasseter in 2001, to be an advisor for an animated film that they were developing about a flamboyant race car who gets lost in small-town America. Lasseter had recently been on the Mother Road with his family and had a profound experience, which he envisioned being translated onto the big screen.

Along with a Pixar team that included co-director, the late Joe Ranft, Lasseter and Wallis embarked on an exploratory road trip down Route 66. While on a pitstop in Galena, a dilapidated boom truck, parked next to an old gas station, caught the team’s eye. The rust-filled, beat-up truck became the template for the character of Tow Mater in the film, voiced by Larry the Cable Guy. Galena had no idea what this decision had in store for their little heartland community.

When Larry and Renee got word that the automotive muse for Tow Mater practically sat in their backyard, they immediately set out to make the boom truck a highlight feature of their soon-to-be-open shop. In a truly strategic endeavor, Larry traced the whereabouts of the truck to a farm field and struck a deal with its owner. “When I found out that it was the inspiration for Tow Mater, I bought it for $1,000 bucks, ‘cause I knew it would have some value,” he explained. Ever since that purchase, the now iconic Tow Mater, outfitted with big cartoon eyes, has been proudly parked outside the historic station.

However, people in the community know the inspirational automobile as “Tow Tater,” after a local girl won a contest to rename the beloved vehicle — an initiative generated to avoid any copyright issues with Disney.

Cleaning Up Shop Getting 4 Women on the Route cleaned up and open for business was no easy feat. “First of all, it didn’t have no windows. All the windows had to be replaced. The roof had to be redone. It took us six months just to clean the place, which

was pretty bad. We had to set up all new electricity,” recalled Melba. “My husband lost his motorcycle ‘cause we put a lot of money into that place. It was a lot of work.”

In October 2006, roughly six months after the conception of 4 Women on the Route, the store finally opened its doors to the public as a souvenir shop, selling Route 66 and Cars memorabilia — along with handmade crafts by local artists.

A few months later, the restaurant section of the shop opened for business, selling hamburgers and soft drinks. In classic Middle American fashion, building the business was a family affair.

“My daughter Stephanie, Melba’s daughter Shelby, and our niece Abby, all worked at the counter and [talked] to [guests]. My son Billy would send items home from all over (both of my sons are in the military) to sell,” said Renee.

“Melba’s son T.J. did the restoration of the station and cooked occasionally. Robbie, my brother, was cook, dishwasher, and flirt to the foreign female travelers. My husband did IT stuff and Melba’s husband was our shopper for items to sell.” With such encouraging support from their family members, the arrival of additional outside help only corroborated the shop’s impressive standing on the Mother Road. “[Renee] got everything rolling, and we had locals that helped us and family members that came in. We got a lot of help from Route 66ers,” said Melba. “We started getting local merchants [and] a bunch of people in the Chamber got behind us. At first, they thought we were crazy. [But] when they started seeing big buses come down their Main Street to stop and see Tow Tater and 4 Women on the Route, they got on-board.”

And with that, the tourism floodgates were open.

Cars and Route 66 Exert their Influence “The main thing is to have a hook,” said Melba. “There are so many businesses on Route 66 that you have to stand out.”

While the initial hook for 4 Women on the Route was their Tow Tater truck, it quickly occurred to the four ladies just how popular Route 66 was. Tourists from all around the world arrived on tour buses, in cars and RVs, motorcycles, and trucks, which created a positive ripple locally and turned 4 Women on the Route into a must-see destination on the Mother Road itinerary. “Our biggest groups of people [at the time] were Norwegians, Australians, and Austrians,” said Melba. “Don’t try to guess their accent. I did that once or twice and I almost caused a war.”

“People from overseas… this is their dream, to do Route 66, and they say that Cars is the number one stop in their book, it’s a must-stop,” said Linda Watkins, who currently helps manage the attraction and coordinates volunteering at the shop. “I even had one couple that stopped at the store [as] they were heading west. They said that they were going to get married on Route 66, and they were from overseas. That was their dream and that was what they planned their honeymoon around.”

Nevertheless, the undeniable lure of Route 66 wasn’t the only thing that compelled people to venture off the road and into 4 Women on the Route; part of the shop’s appeal stemmed from the stories that Melba had to tell. She became well-known for flagging people down off the street in an attempt to get them to come inside and hear what she had to say about Cars, Galena, and Route 66. “She was very, very good. She would go out on the road and they’d come in,” said ROUTE Magazine 45

Melba and Renee getting the shop ready, but still having fun.

Larry. “She would come in and tell them the story about Tow Tater, about the route, other places to go to around this area.

She was very good at promoting Route 66.”

Big Changes In 2010, Betty passed away from a heart attack at 79 years of age, leaving a hole in the spirits of Galena residents and her fellow partners behind 4 Women on the Route. “Betty [was the] heart of the company,” Melba said. It wasn’t long after Betty’s passing that the venue was forced to turn over a new leaf. The store had not been faring well financially, and there was concern over whether or not it would be able to remain in business. “When the shop was struggling and I was about to shut the doors because Ms. Betty Courtney – ‘our inspiration’ – passed, and there were not enough funds to keep the place open, a good friend of mine offered to help us out, like a knight on a white horse. [They are] still doing so to this very day,” said Renee.

Renee’s good friend is one of two silent partners who came to the rescue to keep the shop afloat. Their support included the installation of a second bathroom and the additional classic cars out front, including a buck-toothed ‘Tow Mater - Radiator Springs’ replica truck, next to the original. Along with these additions, as well as a change in ownership, the venue’s name changed to “Cars on the Route” to better emphasize the connection between the movie Cars and the kitschy shop. Once again, the tiny station’s name and identity changed.

Eventually, the shop started to operate by utilizing volunteers like Linda, who offered up her time to prepare food, coordinate the other volunteers, and ensure that everything ran smoothly. Former Galena mayor Dale Oglesby also chipped in, lending a hand with the business side of the venue when needed.

Larry and Judy sold off their shares and moved on, as did Melba, who is currently focusing on her mobile Rockabilly shop, where she intends to sell her own artwork and clothing 46 ROUTE Magazine

that pay homage to Rockabilly culture. Melba, however, still pops in from time to time when requested, to greet visiting groups. Of the original four women, Renee is still a partner and visits when she can.

Amidst her busy roles as President of the Kansas Route 66 Association, partner on Cars on the Route, and City Clerk of Galena, Renee has also established a tourist center located on Galena’s strip of Route 66. “I started a welcome center on the original route as you are coming in from Missouri (right next to the Galena Viaduct). Local artists painted murals on the building. We will also be setting a Lightning McQueen there,” said Renee. “Frecks,” a 19-foot-tall, Galena style muffler man, dressed as a miner and named after Renee and Melba’s grandfather, who went by Freckles, is also on display. Melba’s future Rockabilly mobile shop will sit on the property, adding to the colorful vibrancy of the center.

While the original shop and its owners underwent a litany of changes since the inception of 4 Women on the Route, there is still no shortage of love being spread in Galena and its special slice of the Mother Road.

Galena’s Strip of Route 66 Year after year, Cars on the Route continues to impress thousands of tourists with its unassuming charm and flamboyant array of vehicles displayed out front. While Route 66 enthusiasts appreciate the shop, so do the people of Galena. They feel greatly attuned to what it has done for their town. “We went from one stop light to two stoplights. When the ball started going, it didn’t stop. It’s still going. We got our museum going up there, [and] now it’s going like crazy,” said Melba. “Since we did [4 Women on the Route,] it seems like Galena got a little bit better.”

While the name and focus of the shop now solely revolves around Route 66 and all things Cars, the story of 4 Women on the Route has forever etched itself into Kansas’s rich Route 66 narrative. “It was the most enlightening job I have ever had; it was the most exciting business I ever ran,” said Melba.

“Every day, I learned something new. I miss it a lot. I miss the people. I miss the stories. I miss the wonderment of the 9-yearold to the 99-year-old. Would I do it again? Oh yeah. [But] you got to really love history, you got to really love people.”

Melba, Renee, and the other dreamers behind Cars on the Route may only comprise a small slice in the grand scheme of history, but they helped revive a town’s long and proud legacy.

They helped bring Galena back from the dead, and their influence will likely resonate throughout the decades to come.

But just as integral to this story is that serendipitous truck; the one with so much magic rusted into its metal bones; the one that four women gave a home and in return it helped them realize their dreams. And from the look of things, Tow Tater is happier ‘n a tornado in a trailer park.

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ROUTE Magazine 47

C

atoosa, Oklahoma, and Route 66 seem to fit together like root beer and ice cream; you can’t mention one without thinking of the other. There’s a deep association between the Mother Road and this small Okie town of barely 7,000, which sits a mere twenty minutes east of Tulsa, and that’s due in large part to an even larger, internationally famous Blue Whale who overlooks historic 66 with a languid grin.

But on the opposite side of the iconic road, right across from this gargantuan piece of American kitsch rests a flat, concrete building with the words “Arrowood Trading Post” broadcasted in faded, sunset-colored letters and plastered above a wood awning straight from an old Western film. Its walls are muraled in worn paintings of teepees, figures in ceremonial apparel, and other imagery related to Native American culture. In terms of status, this trading post may not be as renowned or as lively as other locations out west, but its extensive history speaks to the ebbs and flows of Route 66’s winding narrative as well as any other monument along the Mother Road.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Arrowood and its whale cousin share the same roots. Hugh Davis, the mastermind behind Catoosa’s Blue Whale, purchased the forty-acre property that would later house the Arrowood back in 1952. According to Blaine Davis, Hugh’s son and current caretaker of the Whale, the original building was constructed by the Anderson brothers, two locals aspiring to cash in on the wave of automobiles flooding the Route. “Their intentions were to have a garage, a two-pump gas station, and a small café— things you’d find on 66 back in ’52,” he explained.

However, after one of the brothers passed away unexpectedly, the remaining Anderson was left overwhelmed and shorthanded, causing him to sell the place to Hugh Davis and his family. “At the time, my dad’s brother-in-law, who was a full-blood Acoma Indian, had an establishment at 11th and Harvard in Tulsa, but he wanted to go somewhere else. So, he and my dad took that building, and the first name that went up was Catoosa Indian Trading Post,” recalled Davis.

This uncle wasn’t your typical businessman looking to profit off the gimmicks of Indian-themed tourist traps—quite the contrary. He was Wolf Robe Hunt, an acclaimed silversmith and jeweler who spent a lifetime mastering his craft since his days on the Acoma Pueblo near Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“He was a grand champion winner of [craftsman contests] for 48 ROUTE Magazine

many years when he went to the Indian ceremonies in Gallup, New Mexico. If you were into that type of jewelry, his was a piece of work that you had to add to your collection.”

With Wolf Robe’s reputation attached to its name, the trading post became a premiere stop on Route 66 for handmade, authentic jewelry. “He operated the silversmithing while my mom ran the small, roadside café in the same building. And in the summertime when I wasn’t in school, even though I was only 12 years old at the time, it was my job to operate the gas station,” he chuckled. Wolf Robe eventually bought out Hugh and renamed the place Wolf Robe’s Indian Trading Post, which he ran successfully, along with help from the family, until his death in 1977.

After his passing, Wolf Robe’s lone daughter fell into possession of the trading post, but had neither experience in silversmithing nor any sort of “Indian” craftmanship, so she closed up shop and moved to Texas. Her father’s workshop stood idle for 13 years before Dave Jennings, a man claiming to have talents rivaling the late Wolf Robe, bought it and promised to resurrect the attraction to its former glory. “My mother was pretty perceptive of people; she could figure them out within five minutes of meeting them,” mused Davis. “After their first meeting—he’d told her all these great things [about himself]—he went back to the shop from our house, and when he walked out the door, she turned around and looked at the rest of us and said, ‘That guy’s full of crap!’ She had him nailed.”

In accordance with Mrs. Hugh’s evaluation, the newly renamed Arrowood Trading Post didn’t last long with Jennings at the helm; the property was repurposed and auctioned off by the county to a car repairman in the late 1990s. Today, the Arrowood continues on as an auto repair shop; the gas pumps and café are long gone, but the colorful facelifts that Jennings added to the exterior remain slightly visible. Its last-of-its-kind style still captures the curiosities of those passing by, but offers little more than a unique photo-op and a cool anecdote.

“That’s the way it is. It’s a historic part of 66, which is always changing,” lamented Davis. “That’s one thing about Route 66, it is not static. It is not as it has always been. It has always been in transition. And we’re still changing.” Who knows what’s in store for relics like the Arrowood; for now, the only concrete things we have are the building’s walls.

Nevertheless, the stories painted within them can last longer than any brick or mortar in existence.

Image courtesy of Mark Payler.

CLOSED FOR BUSINESS

ROUTE Magazine 49

Lake Havasu’s

I

f you are fortunate enough to walk along the shores of Lake Havasu, Arizona, you will come across a rather unusual sight—eight miniature lighthouses, each a replica of a more famous lighthouse on this country’s East Coast. Squat, colorful, and detailed, they look just like the real McCoys.

At first glance, they may appear to be charming tourist attractions, but they also serve a particularly important purpose for boaters who approach the coastline of this popular waterfront. And it’s all due to the foresight of a small group of local citizens.

In January of 2000, a group of concerned Lake Havasu City businessmen—led by Bob Keller and his colleague John Walker—decided that they had to do something to improve nighttime navigation for boaters and anglers in Lake Havasu.

Too many people had died, suffered injury, or damaged their watercrafts in nighttime boating accidents on the lake, due to its deceptive bends and curves. Therefore, they decided to form the Lake Havasu Lighthouse Club. Initially, they proposed setting up a series of generic lights around the lake, to safely guide boaters’ travels. However, county officials promptly shot them down, and they had to go back to the drawing board.

Fortunately, Keller was working with the Lake Havasu Marina, which operated a lighthouse. That set off a lightbulb in his own mind, and he went back to his colleagues with an idea. After much discussion, they decided to propose creating miniature replicas of famous lighthouses from across the country. This time, they got the okay, and were off and running.

Of course, getting general approval was one thing, but it was another matter entirely to get permission to build at specific sites. Some of the lighthouses were to be built on Chemehuevi Indian Reservation land, and to obtain the tribe’s approval, the Club had to attend the tribal council’s monthly meetings until they got the lighthouses on the agenda. When it came to getting the structures built on territory controlled by the Bureau of Land Management, Keller took an entirely different approach.

“Bob kind of followed the old adage of, ‘It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission,’” recalled Bruce Howe, master builder for the Lake Havasu Lighthouse Club. “There were four or five of them on BLM land that truthfully, I’m surprised [were not] eventually taken down.”

Luckily, the Bureau allowed those lighthouses to remain, and the Club was finally in business. Their first replica 50 ROUTE Magazine

lighthouse was the West Quoddy Lighthouse, which replaced a state navigational aid called the North West Bridgewater Channel Entrance Light.

The replica West Quoddy was formally dedicated on June 30, 2002. That was followed four months later by the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, which was dedicated on October 27 of that year (though due to a long official approval process, the Mohave County Board of Supervisors did not grant funding or sponsorship until 2005).

Undeniably, it is broad community support that has kept the Club and the lighthouses going over the last twenty years. According to surveys conducted by the Lake Havasu Tourism Bureau, 28% of visitors travel to the area just to see the lighthouses.

The structures have even attracted organized groups from the East Coast, such as the New England Lighthouse Lovers and New Jersey Lighthouse Lovers. And because the structures serve such a valuable purpose, tourists and locals value them for much more than just their aesthetics. Lyndia Le Cours, the Club’s treasurer, recalls one instance when a gentleman was engrossed in a football game when traveling downriver, and it got very dark. To arrive home safely, he had to rely on illumination from the lighthouses to guide him to the sandy shore, and he genuinely felt that they saved his life.

“Another thing about it, is our police dispatchers, if you call and have an emergency of any kind, and you’re on the water, they ask if you can see a lighthouse. If you can tell them what the lighthouse looks like, they know exactly where you are,” noted Le Cours. “So, it’s been an awesome thing.”

Today, the Lake Havasu Lighthouse Club owns 28 of these magical lighthouses, each placed strategically around the lake.

The ones on the California side represent replicas of West Coast lighthouses, the ones on the Arizona side represent East Coast lighthouses, and the ones on the lake’s island center represent those from the Great Lakes. And through their efforts, the Club hopes that tourists and residents alike can enjoy the lighthouses for generations to come.

“We’re very, very hopeful that with us making these out of [the] sturdy materials that we do, that the Lighthouse Club will be handed down over and over and over again,” stated Le Cours. “We look forward to new people coming in and doing just that.”

Image courtesy of Go Lake Havasu.

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ROUTE Magazine 51

A

rt, like many things, often gets reduced to what is good and what is bad. While nearly impossible to define in its entirety, there are components of art that can help inform whether an individual work is effective or not. One example of such a component is what critics call “a sense of place,” which refers to a piece’s ability to connect with the setting it depicts or finds itself located in.

Sense of place can define or weaken works across all artistic mediums, from painting to sculpting to writing, but its weight is perhaps most present in the realm of architecture—more specifically, landscape architecture.

We tend to think of landscape architecture as a fancy way of placing plants together. Sure, flora certainly serves as a key part in the craft, but “good” landscape architecture involves a keen appreciation for design, artistry, and sense of place.

“I think landscape architects think of themselves as artists,” explained George Radnovich, founder of the Albuquerquebased firm Sites Southwest. “A lot of people think landscape architects are plant people, and we are, but we’re very creative as well. There’s a lot of landscape architects that turn to art as a way of expressing something.”

Landscape architects play a significant role in attaching meaning to the outdoor spaces we interact with every day. Commonly excluded from these artistic spaces are roads, which often find themselves viewed as utilitarian or strictly functional. However, as constantly demonstrated by the magic of Route 66, roads offer a means to bond with the world around us. It may not seem so at first glance, but roads act like canvases; they’re deeply attuned to a sense of place and can help us learn about our surroundings and our impact on them. Landscape architects like Radnovich see the potential lying within roads, which is why, in 2007, his firm took on a project that resulted in a one-of-a-kind, authentically New Mexican, roadside spectacle dubbed the “Rattlesnake Median.”

In the mid-aughts, the city of Albuquerque partnered with the University of New Mexico to develop an environmentally sustainable community near the southeastern side of this Route 66 metropolis. The development would later be named Mesa del Sol, and the site chosen for its construction stood in a desert area ten miles outside of downtown. The city felt that in order to generate an appeal around the isolated development, they would need to invest in a scenic roadway. Having successfully completed many public works in the past, Radnovich’s firm were the ideal candidates to accomplish this goal.

52 ROUTE Magazine

“When we first started doing the project, there was nothing out there,” he remarked. “Mesa del Sol wanted to be a sustainable community, so we thought we would emphasize nature in the [project’s] themes. The landscape was intended to be purely natural, but they didn’t have any water out there.

We stirred over it, schemed, and talked about it, and ended up with the idea of using wildlife and its interaction with nature as the premise for that part of the project.”

In conceiving a way to foster nature while paying homage to the Mesa del Sol’s ecosystem, Radnovich’s team settled on pursuing an ambitious design that would remain poetically true to the area. “Snakes are a big part of New Mexico’s folklore. They have a significance in our part of the world that may be unrivaled in other parts of the country. There are so many rattlesnakes by Mesa del Sol, and we thought it would be cool to just create a giant snake as a real statement and signpost [leading] into the community,” he expounded.

The finished product arrived as a pair of massive Rio Grande rattlers, each weaved into the dry soil of the road’s meridian and stretching over the length of a football field. Immersed in shrubs and yucca plants, the snakes’ winding bodies are elegantly patterned by hundreds of smooth, desert-toned “scales” made entirely of cobblestone. The eye-catching design pulls viewers into the remote yet enchanting atmosphere of Mesa del Sol and sets the tone for the natural, openair ambiance that radiates throughout the community.

“We wanted to make a statement about our place, about Albuquerque—about who we are and where we are,” stated Radnovich. “Plants can come and go, but statements like an art piece, if they’re built correctly and [are] wellconceived, can last a very long time. We looked at that as a way for landscape and art to be merged. [We strive to] give back to the place we live—the place we exist. It’s a way to improve the community—to make it a more beautiful, more environmentally responsible, more sustainable place.”

Within the Rattlesnakes’ story lies a lesson about how community-minded projects can transform the ordinary elements of society into artistic expressions of place. It also shows how a road is much more than a convenient means of transportation; it is an access point, a public theater for people to truly experience the amazing landscapes and cultures we inhabit. Moreover, the roads we travel carry as much inspiration as an art gallery or museum. All we have to do is get out there and follow the horizon.

Image courtesy of Julie Journeys.

ALBUQUERQUE’S LARGEST RATTLESNAKES

GallupRealTrue.com ROUTE Magazine 53

A SMA LL EXPE

54 ROUTE Magazine

TOWN ERIENCE

By Cheryl Eichar Jett Photographs by David J. Schwartz - Pics On Route 66 ROUTE Magazine 55

O

nce upon a time in America, there were small towns where citizens didn’t lock their doors, and neighbors brought newcomers a homemade chocolate cake. Diners awaited both locals and travelers with Blue Plate Specials, fried chicken, and a huge slice of pie. Outside, a bus stop sign might have hung over the door, and inside, the savory smells of comfort food sent a clear message – this is the right place to stop, eat, warm up with some coffee, and maybe hash over grain prices with local farmers or ask directions to another little town.

In our lightning-paced contemporary world of highspeed internet, rail, and interstate, that small town with its welcoming diner seems to be an almost extinct species.

But here and there across the country, dotted along historic highways with numbers like 20, 30, or 66, if we’re lucky, we’ll run into one. Atlanta, Illinois, is one of these towns, and it was community leader Bill Thomas who figured out just how to resurrect it.

“The family vacation in 1965 to Disneyland was the first vacation I ever remembered taking, so that left a huge impression,” said Thomas. “The more I got involved in Atlanta, the more it became clear that the real benefit that I could offer was to help develop the local economy, and that begged the question of, ‘how do you do that?’ That’s why all of a sudden, I looked out and saw that road. That’s what could help this community – Route 66.”

An Ideal Childhood Bill Thomas lived the first five years of his life with his parents and two older siblings in the tiny village of Liverpool, Illinois, population about 150. Within a couple of blocks lived his grandparents, great-grandparents, and greataunt and uncle. Every morning, he waved to his brother and sister as they left to spend their day in a one-room schoolhouse. Each dawn, his great-grandfather packed up his nets to seine fish from the Illinois River along the south edge of town, and his father would go to the docks to load coal barges.

“I have tons of memories of Liverpool, because I don’t think it ever changed. It was like living back in the 1930s.

And if I had only lived there one more year, I would have gone to a one-room schoolhouse. I really regret the fact that I didn’t have that experience,” said Thomas.

When he was five, his parents moved the family eighteen miles away to Cuba, Illinois, for better schools and a bigger community. Every day, his mom was waiting for the three kids when they got home from school. He went through public school there and graduated in 1972 from Cuba High School. “I knew that I wanted to teach when I was in fourth grade. I remember them handing out the social studies books, and on the cover was a picture of Hernando Cortez, one of the Spanish conquistadors. I loved the helmet.

56 ROUTE Magazine

Cortez was on a horse, riding somewhere in the Southwest, discovering, and I loved this. That’s what hooked me on history!

It was the quintessential small town [with a] tight sense of community. One of my favorite memories was, and this was just such a small town thing, we had a square with a bandstand, and there would be programs every Saturday night with local talent. Everybody would come, and the businessmen created this promotional scheme called Cuba Dollars. You’d put your name in the drawing, they would hold the drawing at eight o’clock, and if you won Cuba Dollars you could spend them at any participating business.”

Bill’s stroll to work takes him past the Arcade Museum and a historic mural.

Learning to Teach Thomas’ first foray into higher education was at Spoon River Junior College in Canton, just ten miles away from home. “I was so naive and inexperienced. I can remember my first day on the campus, I did not know that if it said Room 212 that it meant it was on the second floor,” he laughs.

After a year and a half at Spoon River, he followed friends who had transferred to Eureka College. There, he graduated with a major in history and minors in political science and theatre.

What followed was a move farther afield, to the University of Chicago, for a master’s degree in education. Thomas was introduced to the Experiential Education theories of John Dewey, early 20th Century educational philosopher.

“Dewey believed that we don’t learn from professors. Just think about the word itself. The word includes the base ‘profess.’ What happens when you ‘profess’? You simply talk at someone. So, Dewey suggested that the best way to help people learn knowledge is to put them in experiences where they have problems that they want to solve, and they [will] learn as a result.”

ROUTE Magazine 57

Atlanta’s amazing Paul Bunyan giant.

Fired up with Dewey’s theory, Thomas knew what he wanted—a small, rural school where he could help kids learn by solving problems for themselves. After sending out about 300 letters of interest to schools, he heard from the school district in Stockton, up in the northwestern part of the state.

It was just two weeks before the start of the school year, and he was hired. Over the next five years, he gave kids problems to solve and tried to refrain from ‘professing,’ and between a couple of those years, sandwiched in a year of post-grad work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Around this time, an old friend from Eureka College was hired as their Director of Admissions and wanted to know if Thomas would be his associate director. He said yes and spent his next five years in that position.

A Clock Tower and a Newspaper Article In 1984, Thomas was working at Eureka College, and newly married. His wife Christine worked in Springfield. They were living in Mt. Pulaski but agreed that they needed to move to a more equitable halfway point between their jobs. Nothing had seemed just right, when they read a feature story in the Bloomington Pantagraph about the new clock tower in Atlanta, which had been built in 1983 but was just becoming operational. “I said, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s really cool. Let’s go check out that town.’ I’d never known about Atlanta, never heard of it. And that’s why we’re here.”

They moved in June 1984, and in under a week, they had what he called a “quintessential small town experience.”

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One day, Thomas answered a persistent banging on the front door to find an older woman holding a pair of shoes.

“Will you take these to my daughter at Eureka College?” she asked. Word had spread about the new couple in town.

The next week, the woman was back to thank him with a chocolate cake.

After five years at Eureka College, Thomas put his Educational Administrative Certificate to work and became a school principal for the next five. Then his old friend from the Eureka Admissions office called again. He had left the college and established a cross-cultural education foundation, and wanted to know if Thomas wanted to help him with the project. He did, and spent the next two decades, first in the foundation, and then in the for-profit company, Teleologic Learning Company, that spun out of it, with a list of clients that included AT&T, Bristol Meyers, the U.S. Air Force, and the Naval Postgraduate School.

And during that time, Bill Thomas was getting more and more involved in Atlanta’s community life and, as in small communities all across the country, pondering what could be done to save his town.

What about this Road?

Thomas served on the town’s planning commission, historical preservation council, and library board, so he had some good ideas about the realities on the ground.

“I remember sitting on the planning commission fifteen years ago, and just offhandedly – because we were trying

to figure out, how do we attract light industry? How do we attract more retail? How do we attract more housing? – and I remember at one meeting, saying in a joking fashion, ‘Let’s create a tourism industry!’ And we all just laughed.”

The preservation group had restored and opened the J. H. Hawes Grain Elevator Museum in 1999, so there was some agri-tourism. “Well, okay, we have that, but what about this road?” he explained. “It’s not that the elevator isn’t a good thing, but the potential was so much greater with Route 66.”

The pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. Or rather, Thomas, described by daughter Rachel Neisler as “determined,” began to seek out the puzzle pieces. One piece became available in 2002, and Thomas went after it.

Bunyon’s Hot Dog Stand in Cicero was closing for good, and its iconic Hot Dog Man, made of fiberglass in the 1960s, was going to be sold separately. Bill Thomas approached Atlanta’s then-mayor Bill Martin and asked him what he would think about bringing a sixteen-foot-tall statue of a man holding a hot dog to town? Mayor Martin thought it was a great idea, and Atlanta put in the winning bid. The next year, “Tall Paul” was loaded up in Cicero and arrived on Arch Street – Route 66 – in Atlanta.

Then, the Downey Building, across the street from where the Hot Dog Giant now stood in his own tiny park, was donated to the library board. Back in 1934, James Robert Adams had opened the Palms Grill Cafe in the north half of the 1860s-era Downey Building. Adams had chosen the name as a tribute to his adopted state of California. The eatery thrived, providing food, coffee, and a place to gather for locals, plus a Greyhound bus stop. But after its closure in the 1960s, the building stood empty. In 1982, Johnny Hawkins purchased and gutted it, partitioning it for use as his apartment and mechanics workshop. Two decades later, after Hawkins died, his family donated the building.

Thomas conducted interviews, researched the history, and wrote a National Register of Historic Places application in 2004. And the fundraising began, in order to restore the cafe, whose original elements had been unceremoniously yanked out by Mr. Hawkins.

“When I brought the idea to restore the cafe to the library board, their first reaction was, ‘Oh no, we don’t want an actual operating cafe. Let’s just put some tables in, put some chairs in, put some dishes on the table, and let people look in the window and see what it used to look like,’” Thomas explained. “I said, ‘That won’t attract people to the degree that an actual operating cafe-museum will.’ And you know, I can get bull-headed once in a while, and I just said, ‘That’s what I’m going to do.’”

A little serendipity also helped. One day, while Thomas was out walking his dog, a woman called to him to stop while she caught up to him. She thrust an old photo into his hand – it was a picture of the interior of the original Palms Grill Cafe. “I heard that you’re going to restore the Grill. This might help,” she told him. And help it did. It is the only known photograph of the original interior, which, along with former employee interviews, guided the accurate restoration. The re-created Palms Grill Cafe opened in 2009 with such meticulous detail that visitors swore it had to be all original. “Just like stepping back in time,” diners wrote in the guest book.

After a decade, the Grill still has that effect. The neon sign and striped awning let you know there is something special waiting inside. As you enter, the green-and-black patterned tile floor and two rows of Art Deco-style ceiling lights draw your

eye along the length of the space, with a counter and vinylseat stools along the right side. Eight or ten tables set on the diagonal form a line on the left. The narrow space feels bigger than it is, thanks to a mirrored wall behind the tables. The menu features Blue Plate Specials and other era-appropriate offerings. “We still have Spam sandwiches and fried boloney on the menu, because they were on there back then,” Kitchen Manager Amanda Smith says. “I was surprised by how many people order those, and hot dogs, too.”

The next project was to move the Atlanta Museum from the basement of the library to the second floor of the Downey Building, over the Grill. Next came the nowpopular Arcade Museum, shops, a golf course, a series of advertising signs painted on the town’s brick buildings, and the re-opening of the Colaw Rooming House. “We have a large punch for such a small community,” says Museum Director Rachel Neisler. “We have three museums within a one-block radius, a full-service restaurant, a beautiful and comfortable library with free wi-fi, and then just half a block down there’s another museum, and within three blocks, a bed and breakfast.”

Bumps in the Road Several years after the Grill opened, management problems temporarily closed it. The library board went through nine managers in six years. Finally, the trio of Bill Thomas, Rachel Neisler, and Amanda Smith agreed to manage the operation themselves. Dinner programs, catering, and other special events began to fill in lower tourism numbers during the winters.

In 2017, a self-appointed muckraking duo known as the Edgar County Watchdogs kicked up a ruckus over the details of the Atlanta library’s use of space in the former Union Hall, Thomas’ business building. The brouhaha spread to the Illinois Secretary of State’s office, who then requested that the Atlanta Library Board pay back their $25,000 grant to transform the building into a visitor center and art space.

Thomas produced the library board attorney’s opinion that there was no conflict of interest. After a “complete waste of time,” the Secretary of State’s office cancelled their request for repayment, and Bill and Christine Thomas donated their building to the library board.

This meant that the library board now owns three historic structures within 200 feet of each other – the 1908 library building, the Union Hall catty-corner from the library across the intersection of Arch and Race Streets, and the Downey building next door to the Union Hall, just across the street from “Tall Paul.” The former Union Hall now houses a visitor center, arts education area, and performance space.

Today, at age 65, Bill Thomas has retired from his Teleologic Learning Company and serves as Logan County’s Economic Development Director. For a decade, he has been active on the board of the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway, and also serves as Chairman of the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership. Everything in Atlanta seems to be ticking along just fine, but for Thomas, there is always more to do, “I’m never as effective as I want to be. I’m never satisfied. And maybe that’s a good thing ultimately, but no, I always think more can be done.”

Thomas is quick to point out that many others, including mayors, city councilmen, planning commission and library board members, and other interested persons also worked ROUTE Magazine 59

Bill engaging with a visiting family inside Palms Grill Cafe.

hard to turn Atlanta into a tourist destination. People saw his vision and he saw their places in it. One of these was Catherine Maciariello, a former Atlanta native who had spent years as a nonprofit executive and had lived in St. Louis, New York City, and Italy before returning to Atlanta to become Library Director. Another was Rachel Neisler, who learned the restaurant business working her way through college for a history degree at the University of Illinois before realizing her unique set of skills perfectly qualified her as Atlanta Museum Director and management partner of the Grill. Then Amanda Smith came along, who had spent ten years of her childhood traveling across the country with her sales rep mother before learning computer programming, then cooking, and then discovering the Palms Grill Cafe. Thomas’ wife Christine, a talented artist with a long career in graphic design, donated her talents to produce logos and advertising designs.

Sometimes, Thomas enjoys putting his hosting training to work when there are bus tours in town. “One of my favorite gags that I’ve developed over the years with [visitors] is that they pull up, and while I’m still on the bus, I tell them, ‘We’re going to eat over here in the cafe, and when you walk in, we’ve restored it so that it’s just like it was back in 1934 when it opened. Everything in there is old except the food.

We bought new food just for you guys.’” He also tries to be available when the cafe is busy with tours or events. Head 60 ROUTE Magazine

server Sarah Howard remembered a funny incident on a busy day. “Bill had a broom and was sweeping, and a college student referred to him as the janitor! Seriously, he’s always a big help, busing tables, greeting customers, or sweeping up.”

Often described as the best compact streetscape on Route 66, it’s easy to feel like you’ve stepped back in time, not only in the diner, but all along Atlanta’s tiny downtown.

That Seth Thomas clock tower that sealed the deal for Bill and Christine Thomas anchors the downtown on the library grounds. On a sunny summer day, visitors from another state or country squint up at Tall Paul or pose in front of him for photos, while children climb on his big boots. Quaint shops with picturesque brick storefronts beckon visitors to enter.

With the gentle breeze, they smell food, and it reminds them that they’re hungry. And just like it used to be in Atlanta, they gravitate to the Grill for a good meal and some warm hospitality, there to be served by a cheerful waitress in a classic uniform.

Thomas sums it all up: “It’s a joy when you hear the international visitors say, ‘I’m interested in Route 66 because I wanted to experience the real America, and this is it.’ Now the domestic ones, the highest compliment they can pay us is when they say, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s just like being in Mayberry [the fictional Andy Griffith Show town].’”

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STAYING

By Heide Brandes Photographs by David J. Schwartz - Pics On Route 66 62 ROUTE Magazine

GOLD

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F

or anyone who grew up in the 1980s, the house with its wooden porch and chain link front yard fence seems vaguely familiar.

Its faded white and brick facade, tucked on the corner of St. Louis Avenue and Independence Street in north Tulsa, tugs at the memory. You’ve spent time in this house and visited its residents. You felt the desperation in the yellow taped-up cracks in the kitchen walls. You watched Ponyboy and Darryl quarrel in the kitchen. You sat beneath the avocado-green curtains that kept the socially charged night of this Tulsa, Oklahoma, neighborhood at bay.

You wept alongside the Greasers when Johnny and Dallas died.

The house, located at 731 N. St. Louis Ave. in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was used as the Curtis brothers’ home in the 1983 movie The Outsiders, a film based on the coming-of-age book of the same name written by S.E. Hinton. The movie, which follows the trials and tribulations of “Socs” and “Greasers” set in the late 1960s, also launched the careers of then-unknown young actors like Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, and Patrick Swayze.

Filmed in Tulsa, The Outsiders was an anthem of sorts that snuggled along Route 66 through Tulsa, and the house was as much a part of the story as the characters who fought, struggled, and died alongside it.

The house itself nearly died. In the decades following its starring role, it fell to ruin. Vermin gorged its walls, roaches left rancid dotted waste on every surface, and years of bad tenants and even worse remodeling left it unrecognizable as a movie icon.

That is until one man set out to change that. An “outsider” himself, Danny “Danny Boy” O’Connor, of the successful hip-hop band House of Pain, not only found an obsession in saving and restoring the structure, but a sort of salvation and a new life in it as well.

From young gang member to hip hop millionaire to a researcher of notable locations nationwide, O’Connor has transformed the derelict home into a nearly exact replica of The Outsiders house as it looked in 1982. He’s also created The Outsider House Museum that honors the history, the impact, and the memory of the iconic young adult novel, and in turn, reinvented himself as well.

The Outsiders House Museum is dedicated to the preservation of the home and memorabilia used in The Outsiders, filmed by Francis Ford Coppola in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1982. The Museum, which opened in 2019, unveils a behind-the-scenes layer of trivia, the untold yarns and the story behind the story. From Dallas Winston’s leather jacket to never-before-seen photos, movie artifacts, and more, The Outsider House Museum houses the most extensive collection of the movie’s memorabilia available, but also serves as a reminder that old can become new again and lives can be turned around.

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The Movie That Defined a Decade When S.E. Hinton wrote her 1967 debut novel The Outsiders at age 15, the young adult book market didn’t exist. She was a teenager herself when she started writing the story, and although she earned a D in Creative Writing, she wanted to tell a tale that she didn’t think was being told.

The few books that did feature teenagers were sappy tales of girls swooning over the football star, and Hinton noted that she didn’t see anything that reflected the life around her.

“I’d wanted to read books that showed teenagers outside the life of ‘Mary Jane went to the prom,’” Hinton said in a 1981 interview with Seventeen. “When I couldn’t find any, I decided to write one myself. I created a world with no adult authority figures, where kids lived by their own rules.”

Her publishers believed being female also didn’t help her chances, and “Susan Eloise” was encouraged to only use her initials as the author.

The book resonated with teenagers and adults alike.

Since its first publishing, The Outsiders has sold more than 10 million copies and has been translated into dozens of languages. Hinton went on to write other books like That Was Then, This Is Now, Rumble Fish, Tex, and Taming the Star Runner.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, fans of The Outsiders petitioned director Francis Ford Coppola to create the film adaptation, naming him as the perfect director to adapt their favorite novel.

“The Outsiders first and foremost is a classic and popular YA novel, one that I read in middle school myself,” said Ralph Macchio, who played the soft-hearted Johnny Cade in the film.

“We were all very aware of that going into filming, so the hopes were very high that it would resonate as a film and have a long-lasting impact. The fact that our cast became so well-known and [that it] launched so many big careers only adds to that legacy. To this day, it remains one of my favorite roles and experiences of my career.”

S.E. Hinton helped write the screenplay for the movie with Coppola and even scouted out locations in Tulsa to film. One of those locations was a house built in the 1920s on Tulsa’s “greaser” northside of town.

By the time that Hinton wrote her novel and when Coppola filmed the movie, Route 66 was already a forgotten route. The Mother Road ran along Tulsa’s northside until 1953, when Oklahoma completed the Turner Turnpike between Oklahoma City and Tulsa and the Will Rogers Turnpike between Tulsa and the Missouri line in 1957.

Many of the young actors in the movie, who would go on to become household name movie stars were not

even aware of the historic importance of Route 66 while they shot the picture.

“When I was filming in Tulsa, I did not specifically know of the significance of it being a Route 66 town,” said Macchio.

“However, I do recall overhearing a conversation between the great Tom Waits (who played Buck Merrill in the film) and Francis Coppola about Route 66 and its influence on musicians.”

The ‘Outsider’ Behind it All A long-time fan and collector of The Outsiders movie, Danny O’Connor purchased the house featured in the movie without ever stepping foot on the property. After performing a gig at Tulsa’s iconic Cain’s Ballroom in 2009, he asked a cab driver to take him on a tour of the city. That tour set O’Connor on a quest to find the house, and once discovered, he knew that he had to own it. In 2015, he paid a humble sum of $15,000.

Himself a product of a broken family, O’Connor lived in two worlds that collided into a young life of extremes: gang

affiliation, crime, and music. In a way, O’Connor has always been an outsider, too.

Born on December 2, 1968, in Brooklyn, New York, to Gayle and Danny O’Connor, the performer came from a broken family. O’Connor’s father was in prison for the majority of his life, and his mother moved her son to the Los Angeles area when he was about 6 years old.

“I grew up in L.A. but went back to the east coast to stay with aunts and cousins during the summers until I was about 14 or 15,” he said. “Every summer, my aunts would take us on road trips. That solidified my love for travel and different music and different cities and different everything.”

O’Connor had a tumultuous relationship with his mother, who worked as a punch card operator in the burgeoning computer industry in California. He never felt connected to her, and her heavy drinking meant that the young man was often on his own and running with a bad crowd.

“I was always up to no good. I was 17, and I was arrested for attempted murder,” O’Connor said. “I came from a broken home. My father went to prison when I was 2 months old, and was never around, and my mother worked nights.

Danny O’Connor in front of the house.

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She never really wanted kids, I don’t think. By the time I was 10, 11, 12, I was out running around the neighborhood.”

O’Connor discovered a taste for the extreme as well. He started going to punk rock shows in the early 1980s of Hollywood, with other kids from his neighborhood. Because all the kids came from the same area, they became a gang of sorts themselves.

“There was comradery in that, because we were from a certain neighborhood. And if we went into Hollywood, you could get your ass handed to you in punk rock. There was a big element of Nazi skinheads back then and it was a rougher crowd. That was part of the fun. But we would go in there and it would be a couple of black dudes, a couple of Mexican dudes, and a couple of white dudes from the Valley. Everyone was looking at us like we were supposed to be preppy suburbanites. How dare we come to Hollywood?”

Despite his gang, O’Connor never quite felt like he belonged. He felt “less than and separated” with no father figure and nobody to relate to.

“So, when I saw The Outsiders, it made a huge impact on me. I was 13 at the time that the movie came out. That movie changed my life. At that age, I thought, ‘OK, you don’t need to have all the outside stuff. You just need to be cool. And you need to find cool friends that care about you in that way.’”

The character of Dallas especially appealed to him. He was the epitome of the strong, cool outlaw type that O’Connor wanted to emulate. He also identified with Johnny and Ponyboy, who came from broken homes or bad family situations. He wanted the tightness and loyalty he thought gangs could provide him.

“I actually took my mom to see the movie. I thought it could finally be something that we could share together,” he said. “After the movie, I asked her what she thought. She said, ‘I don’t know how they do it in Tulsa, but that’s not how they do it in Brooklyn.’ The only takeaway that she got from the movie was some snide comment. And I was like, ‘Alright, cool,’ but that was really crushing.”

Instead, O’Connor became involved more and more with the Valley gangs that were up and coming in the L.A. scene.

He also discovered hip hop, and it was a genre that spoke to him in much the same way that The Outsiders did.

In addition to fighting other rival gangs and creating mayhem, he also threw himself into the hip-hop lifestyle and music. While attending William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills, O’Connor met Erik Schrody, known by his stage name Everlast, and urged him to join his hip-hop group.

“Everyone knew who I was. I was a street kid, and everyone knew me,” said O’Connor. “I knew Everlast. He is incredibly talented. He wrote “Jump Around.” At the time, all the punk gangs had their punk bands. Suicidal Tendencies had Suicidal Tendencies. TSOL had their gang. House of Pain was going to be our band for The Mickey Mouse Club, which was the name of our gang.”

O’Connor went by his stage name Danny Boy. He and Everlast acted as emcees on stage, but Danny Boy was also the face and the hype man for the band. Almost overnight, the song “Jump Around” by House of Pain became a huge hit.

“We also had our association with Cypress Hill, which nobody knew who that was at the time. They had a certain energy that was also in that vein. So, it did very well for all of us, but it arrested my development. I was already stunted.

When you get a million dollars overnight and your records are 66 ROUTE Magazine

on MTV every hour on the hour, any of the character defects become assets. That’s very dangerous for dudes like me. I was only 21, 22, and everybody else (in House of Pain) was younger than me. It got crazy.”

The breakout hit propelled the young gang member into stardom. Like many other young wild stars, O’Connor abused drugs and alcohol and lived the party life. Success, however, is like a high, and while the band put out three more albums, each was less successful than the last.

After House of Pain disbanded, Danny Boy started other projects like the group Xsupermodels. Eventually, he became part of the hip-hop group La Coka Nostra and became the executive producer of the documentary film Just for Kicks (2005).

He also got sober. Losing a fortune and becoming bankrupt more than once will do that to you.

He also still toured, and in 2009, O’Connor found himself in Tulsa for the first time.

“We were playing Cain’s Ballroom. We had three days off and I said, ‘What are we going to do here for three days?’

I called down to the lobby and asked to get a car service,” he said.

“It took an hour and a half to get a van to pick us up. He was like, ‘Where do you want to go?’

And we’re like, ‘We’re hoping you could tell us.’ Keep in mind, the only thing downtown that was open at the time was a Spaghetti Warehouse. We weren’t in the mood for spaghetti. So, he took us to the Woodland Hills Mall.

And I don’t know about you, but at 40 something, the last thing that I want to do is go to a mall.”

Then a memory of his mother tickled O’Connor’s memory. He remembered the snide comment his mother made when he took her to see The Outsiders: “I don’t know how they do it in Tulsa, but that’s not how they do it in Brooklyn.”

“I asked the driver if he knew The Outsiders and where it was filmed. He slammed on the brakes and said, ‘Oh, yeah.’

Earlier that day, I had gone from the Hyatt and walked over the bridge. As I was on top of the bridge, the train was coming through. The sound of that freight train as the sun was setting in the distance with dogs barking in the distance… I was like, ‘Damn, this is so tranquil.’ I turned around and looked at the city lighten up. And I was like, ‘Man, this is a beautiful city.’ It was all shuttered up, though, and it was like an abandoned movie set. At that moment, I felt at home and I felt a connection.

I had been around the planet 10 times over, if not a hundred times over, but that was the first time I thought, ‘Oh man, I could live here.’”

However, it turned out that the driver didn’t exactly know the house where

the movie was filmed, what he did know was where the Admiral Twin Drive-In, where the Greasers snuck in, was located. O’Connor discovered an internet site called Tulsa TV Memories, but the site didn’t have the address of the house.

What the site did have was the location of Crutchfield Park at 1345 E. Independence Street, which was the setting for the scene where the Socs went after Ponyboy as he was walking home from the movies, and where Johnny killed Rob. “I knew if I could find the park, then I could probably find the house,” O’Connor said. He had found a picture of the house while exploring a Flickr site, so he knew what it looked like.

Finding the House and a Journey When O’Connor found Crutchfield Park, he knew what he was looking for. He walked a bit, and suddenly, he was there.

“When I found this house, my mind was completely blown.

I could not believe that there was THE house. Again, the train was going by and dogs were barking in the distance.

It was that witching hour, that magic hour where the sun was setting on this house, and my heart just skipped a beat.

It was unreal. Here is the house from The Outsiders. I took a picture.”

Two things happened that day that changed O’Connor’s life: besides taking a picture of The Outsiders House, he also took a photo of a framed piece of damaged wall from Cain’s Ballroom that Sex Pistols’ front man Sid Vicious allegedly punched.

Facebook was new in 2009, and he put both photos up on the social media platform.

“My phone vibrated for hours uninterrupted from the amount of likes that I had got from those two pictures. Why do I think it resonated with so many people? I mean, that’s the million dollar question, because this is the story’s legacy. This movie, this book, this author, this town—there’s something special about it. It’s the never-ending saga of haves and havenots. Every girl wants to be with an outsider and every guy wants to be one.”

Every year after that, O’Connor returned to the house in Tulsa. Every year, it called to him.

“I started to fall in love with the idea of getting the house. I was sober by then and the house was for sale. That first time I saw it, I went to the hotel and I looked it up. They wanted $42,000 in 2009. That was not out of my reach, but I was sober

A look in the kitchen. Ponyboy stares out.

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The cast of The Outsiders.

enough, meaning I had four years and change to know that it could be problematic. Doing silly things like buying a fort for Greasers or friends who don’t exist in your world in Tulsa when you live in Beverly Hills, California, was not a great idea.”

But each year, O’Connor returned, and each time, the house was in worse and worse shape. Renters had abused it, and it was in severe disrepair. Then O’Connor learned that Habitat for Humanity was going to buy the property and tear it down to make new homes.

Working through a friend, O’Connor found the owner of the home, who lived in Florida, and convinced her to sell.

He had to enter in through a window after buying it to get inside.

“It was disgusting,” he said. “We had to gut the entire house.

It was a hoarder house, so we had to get rid of all this crap.”

Word leaked out that a famous hip-hop rapper had purchased the property. Soon, the mayor of Tulsa and other officials stopped by. Residents and fans of the movie also showed up, and soon O’Connor had a small army of Oklahomans to help with removing walls, redoing ceilings, and cleaning up vermin droppings.

O’Connor didn’t just want to save the house, he wanted it to look exactly like it did in the movie.

“We hand-painted that wall to look like the wallpaper from the movie. That taped-up part of the kitchen that looks all yellowed? We had an artist create that,” said O’Connor.

Instead of his original plan to make it a “Greaser fort” for his own enjoyment, O’Connor instead opened the house as a museum with tours and a vast collection of Outsiders memorabilia. The tour isn’t just of the home, however; it’s an ode to Tulsa and the legacy of S.E. Hinton.

After three years of renovations, the Museum finally opened on August 9, 2019. Oklahoma Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum, and other community figures helped cut the ribbon alongside S.E. Hinton herself and Ponyboy actor C. Thomas Howell.

“Tulsa is so awesome. True story. I think about Susie [Hinton] about five times a day. I am called Ponyboy at least 50 times a day. People ask me sometimes if I ever get tired of that. Hell, no,” Howell said during the ribbon cutting.

Anyone who was in the movie as side actor or extra also signed their signature on the wall inside of the Museum, and musician Jack White of The White Stripes fame donated an additional $30,000 to the museum. From the now-grown kids who were caught in the fire that ultimately killed Johnny to other extras, O’Connor makes each feel welcome.

For O’Connor, the Museum and The Outsiders has created new life for him as well.

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“My whole life, I’ve been a brand, so I know how to celebrate and champion the brand, but it gets tiring when you’re your own brand. I love this whole little weird little movie. I love that Matt Dillon’s in it, that Francis Ford Coppola directed it. I love that it was filmed in this town that I fell in love with.

“What we are clear about is that we are looking to educate kids on the wonders of not only reading, but writing, set building, collecting, wardrobe, acting, all of it. All of this is all part and parcel to this little girl who wrote this book.

And the bigger dream now is to continue to champion S.E. Hinton’s stuff.”

As part of that effort, The Outsider House Museum offers weekend tours that can be booked online at www.theoutsiderhouse.com. A bus picks up fans at The Hyatt in downtown Tulsa to explore the city that was home to the “Socs” and the “Greasers.”

“The bus takes you through Tulsa and it takes you to about eight to 10 different locations, like the movie theater and the park, the rumble field and Johnny’s house. And then you end up here in the back of the museum, and you get some time at the museum and can check out the gift store,” O’Connor said.

“It’s also a Tulsa tour because we throw in a few Rumble Fish [another book by Hinton that was filmed in Tulsa] locations. We throw in the Greenwood ‘Black Wall Street’ area and we could go to Leon Russell’s studio. So, it’s like a huge discovery of this side of Tulsa.”

A Tulsa Revival of Route 66 The Outsider House Museum isn’t the only new attraction along Route 66 in Tulsa. In 2016, then-Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett created the citywide Tulsa Route 66 Commission, to support and continue efforts for promotion and development along historic Route 66 in Tulsa.

“Route 66 is a worldwide destination and is an important part of Tulsa’s history,” Mayor Bartlett said at the signing.

“We have a great opportunity with the Route 66 commission to help concentrate and leverage our resources to enhance the Route 66 experience in Tulsa.”

The Commission supports and assists all ongoing efforts locally and statewide with both public and private entities involved in Route 66 matters. Members also create and help implement specific strategies and plans to encourage economic development and promotion for Route 66.

“We are working to do things on the 26 miles of Route 66 that run through Tulsa,” said Commission Chair and Route 66 Alliance Director Ken Busby. “Wherever you travel on Route 66, the cities you travel to are part of that history.”

New attractions like The Outsider House Museum only add to the allure of what the commission is hoping to accomplish.

“The Gathering Place is just a mile and a half off of Route 66. The Outsider House is not far from Route 66 either. They are all part of the setting of Tulsa’s Route 66,” Busby said.

“It’s another reason to come to Tulsa.”

As for O’Connor, he’s not going anywhere. Now a resident of Tulsa, he looks forward to what the Museum can accomplish to not only preserve the legacy of S.E. Hinton but promote the town he has fallen in love with.

“Stay gold,” he said, quoting Johnny’s dying line in the movie. “Stay gold.”

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he lure of Route 66 calls to modern-day adventurers with its quirky attractions, historic sites, breathtaking landscapes, and the promise of 85 percent of its original 2,448 miles, available to drive. Oklahoma boasts the most original Mother Road miles – over 400 – of the eight Route 66 states, cutting through large swaths of windswept landscape. Picturesque drives take the traveler over rolling hills on old narrow two-lane curbed pavement. If you get a case of white knuckles just thinking of oncoming traffic while trying to stay in your own lane, there is another unique section – with only a single lane – that’s truly not to be missed.

Quietly tucked away between Miami (pronounced “My-am-uh”) and Afton in the northeast corner of Oklahoma are a half-dozen miles of tenacious original pavement dubbed the Ribbon Road, aka the Sidewalk Highway. Cutting through sparsely populated farmland, this ninefoot-wide road zigzags through six 90-degree turns. Although only about six miles remain, travelers can still drive both segments of it, which lie separated by a few miles of modern pavement. The singlelane construction undoubtedly caused early motorists grief, but it allows modern travelers to savor the thrills as they imagine two directions of historic Route 66 traffic attempting to safely pass.

“The Ribbon Road is an experience that every traveler needs to take,” said Amanda Davis, Executive Director of the Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau/Visit Miami, OK. “The special feel of the original Ozark Trail added with Historic Route 66 makes it a traveler’s dream.

I love to walk on the old road and take in the years of historical value it possesses. Visitors always find their way to the road. It’s something we see all over social media. The pictures and experiences are what keep that stretch of road alive in Oklahoma.”

Almost a hundred years ago, construction began, divided into two stages. The first linked Miami and Narcissa and was finished in March 1921. The second, completed a year later, connected Narcissa to Afton. This route, originally State Highway 7, was absorbed into the spiderweb of roads known as the Ozark Trail Highway, but with the advent of the federal numbered highway system in 1926, it became part of Route 66.

How, in the age of 12-foot lanes, did a nine-foot highway come to be? The road’s engineers only had enough funding for one lane, so they paved the entire distance between Miami and Afton, rather than half the distance with a regular-width road.

So, there it was – a nine-foot asphalt-over-cement road, not

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much more than the width of an average sidewalk, with white concrete curbs.

The reality of driving the Ribbon Road almost a century ago meant that oncoming motorists both had to give way as necessary, with their right wheels running slightly off the road to provide enough space for safe passage. Lane-sharing was the unspoken code of conduct.

This section only lasted until 1937 as part of Route 66, when the road was finally realigned. For those in the know, though, its unique legacy has prompted many visits over the years.

“We know that people often stop and get out of their cars to walk and snap photos, and that bicycle tour groups pedal these memorable miles rather than sticking to the modern road. Even tour buses have gingerly ventured out to drive it, just to say they could offer their passengers such a distinctive experience,” said Davis.

However, over the course of those 80 years of local travel, the Ribbon Road has suffered a lot of wear and tear and is now at risk of being ground into powder.

Loads of rough gravel dumped on it a few years ago offered the road itself some protection but made it even more treacherous to navigate.

Thankfully, there have been plenty of concerned citizens who want to preserve the Ribbon Road for future generations. The historic pavement was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, and guidance from the National Park Service has continued. A grassroots preservation effort a few years ago was picked up in early 2020

by Ottawa County officials considering several options for restoring the iconic stretch of narrow road.

“You know, Route 66 in itself is the trip and the experience, but then when you get to see special roads, special things that date back as far as [the road] dates back, it’s definitely a huge draw. Miami is the welcome mat for Route 66 travelers coming into the state from the Northeast corner. We truly are the gateway to Route 66 in Oklahoma.

Miami is unique in its history and is home to nine Native American tribes, more than anywhere in the nation. We pride ourselves on the hospitality and friendliness that travelers say they love about our city.”

This “huge tourism attraction” is just a tiny stretch of road compared to all the historic highway found in picturesque Oklahoma, but while cruising the state's long ribbon of Mother Road, tourists shouldn't miss this single-lane gem. Thanks to preservation efforts, travelers can continue to enjoy a big experience on that narrow highway.

Image by David J. Schwartz - Pics On Route 66

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O BEAUTIFUL FOR SPACIOUS SKIES, FOR AMBER WAVES OF GRAIN, FOR PURPLE MOUNTAIN MAJESTIES ABOVE THE FRUITED PLAIN! AMERICA! AMERICA! GOD SHED HIS GRACE ON THEE. AND CROWN THY GOOD WITH BROTHERHOOD. FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA!

T

he romance of Route 66 often lies in the quirky marvels that lie almost hidden to the casual observer. Just east of Albuquerque, Route 66 winds through the small but charming village of Tijeras (meaning “scissors”), New Mexico. At the crossroads of Route 66’s 1937 alignment and the Turquoise Trail Scenic Byway, its mountains and canyons offer breathtaking views. Leading west, Tijeras Canyon divides the Sandia and Manzano mountain ranges, whose forested peaks loom between 6,000 and 10,000 feet. Heading south, Cedro Canyon runs through the Manzano Mountains. Nearby, you can explore the crumbled remains of the Pueblos’ adobe buildings or enjoy recreational opportunities at Cedro Peak.

But if you find yourself driving eastbound on Route 66/HWY 333, tucked up into Tijeras Canyon between mile markers 4 and 5 lies one of those special surprises unique to the Mother Road. On either side of this stretch of highway, the rocky, sandy hills are sparsely dotted with short grasses, trees, and the occasional yellow wildflowers. Coyotes traipse across this terrain looking for food, while owls soar overhead. And if you’re not careful, you might strike a leaping pronghorn antelope that tries to dart across your path. But if you’re lucky, you might still hear one of the last fading notes from the Musical Highway aka the Singing Road.

In 2014, the National Geographic Channel series “Crowd Control” designed a social experiment that would encourage drivers to obey the speed limit—and to bring some excitement to this pretty but quiet stretch of New Mexico road. In collaboration with the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT), they contracted the San Bar Construction company to place special rumble strips just inside the line that marked the road’s edge, with grooved metal plates hidden below the pavement. Because the strips were placed at precise distances from one another, if a car drove over them at exactly 45 miles per hour (the posted speed limit), the resulting vibrations would clearly play the notes to “America the Beautiful.”

To ensure that drivers would find the musical highway, NMDOT placed blue roadside signage to alert them when they were approaching this unusual Route 66 experience.

When the highway opened to traffic on October 1st of that year, motorists found that the song sounded slightly different depending on the make of the vehicle and the size of its tires.

But it always rang out clear as a bell.

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Over the years, many dedicated roadies have posted YouTube videos of their trips to the singing road, in celebration of their cars driving over the rumble strips and playing such a beloved patriotic anthem. Many have even doubled back for a second try at making the pavement sing.

“We do not keep track of the number of people that have driven this stretch, but we are sure that most have enjoyed it,” said Kimberly Gallegos, the Public Information Officer of NMDOT District Three.

Unfortunately, in 2015, the NMDOT decided not to maintain the highway, due to the exceedingly high cost involved. Additionally, because the highway had deteriorated to such a large degree, the NMDOT decided to permanently remove the roadside signage that had previously guided drivers to the experience. Understandably, however, many people were not willing to see the road disappear so easily.

This past winter, Bernalillo County expressed interest in maintaining the highway, though no actions have resulted from that interest—nor from the efforts of a Route 66 advocacy group called RETRO Relive the Route.

In March of 2020, State Highway 333 underwent a $114,264 Fog Seal project between Mile Marker 0—at the mouth of Tijeras Canyon—and Mile Marker 16 at Barton, New Mexico. As part of this project, the highway department applied an asphalt emulsion to the Musical Highway, which significantly dulled its tune. Bernalillo County officials are still meeting with NMDOT representatives, but no plan is currently in place to either re-do or relocate the unique feature.

“We do not have the funding to cover what it would take to re-do the roadway,” explained Gallegos. “In order to rehabilitate the road, it would have to be completely redone.”

And so, the only sounds that will ring out in Tijeras Canyon will be those of nature—the whistling winds, accompanied by the natural noises of wildlife. In the United States, other musical roads can only be found in California and Alabama, and international travelers can seek out a half-dozen in Europe and Asia. But now, the New Mexico musical highway's tune is fading away. However, according to Gallegos, NMDOT is still willing to work with the village and county to rebuild the musical highway elsewhere in Tijeras.

Perhaps one day, then, a tiny stretch of iconic highway will play once more.

Image courtesy of B. Hammond.

W HEN T HE HIGH WAY GOE S SIL EN T

SO MUCH TO SEE IN OKC Occupying the historic Ford Motor Company assembly plant, 21c Oklahoma City is a multi-venue contemporary art museum and boutique hotel. The perfect Mother Road destination for the curious traveler.

Best hotel in the Midwest – CondÊ Nast Traveler Readers Choice Awards 2019

#thisis21c 21cOklahomaCity.com Matthew Geller, Woozy Blossom (Platanus nebulosus), 2010-2015.

Steel, water, copper, pump.

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PARTING SHOT

Jim HINCKLEY What is the most memorable place you’ve visited on Route 66? Red Oak II in Carthage, Missouri. Most famous or noteworthy person you have ever met? Jay Leno, an interview at his garage. What characteristic do you respect the most in others? Integrity, honesty. Dislike in others? Pretense, dishonesty. What characteristic do you dislike in yourself?

I get distracted easily. Talent that you WISH you had?

Discipline needed for better focus. Best part about getting older? Learning not to sweat the small stuff. What is your greatest extravagance?

Travel. What is the weirdest roadside attraction you’ve ever seen? World’s smallest museum. Best state to see giant objects? Minnesota. If you had to pick, who is your favorite muffler man? Dude Man, John’s Used Cars, Gallup. What was the strangest thing you discovered about Route 66 crime while researching for your newest book, Murder and Mayhem? The number of serial killers. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Nearly 40 years of marriage. Most memorable hotel/motel that you have stayed at?

Reichenstein Castle, Germany.

Funniest person on Route 66? Just one? Most memorable person on Route 66? Bob Waldmire.

Last book you’ve read?

Motoring West: Automobile Pioneers 1900 – 1909. What breaks your heart? Graffiti 76 ROUTE Magazine

and vandalism. What movie title best describes your life?

The Misfits. What does a perfect day look like to you? Road trip shared with friends. What is your favorite place on Route 66?

Pecos National Historical Park. Strangest stop on Route 66?

Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Which historical figure — alive or dead — would you most like to meet? Abraham Lincoln.

If you won the lottery, what is the first item you would buy?

Crozier Canyon Ranch in Truxton Canyon, Arizona. What food item can you not live without? Beans and green chiles. Bizarre talent that you have that most people don’t know about? Near photographic memory, except for names. What surprises you most about people? Prejudices. What makes you laugh? Dark humor. Most unknown (but shouldn’t be) stop on Route 66? Valenzuela’s Café, Needles, California. What do you think is the most important life lesson for someone to learn? Learn to adapt. What is one thing you have always wanted to try, but have been too afraid to? Learn to speak Australian. What do you want to be remembered for? Encouraging people to develop their talents. What key things have you learned from your wife Judy? Patience and power of unconditional encouragement.

Most romantic thing you’ve ever done for her? With help from friends, anniversary in a German castle.

Best time of the year to visit Arizona?

October through May.

Illustration: Jenny Mallon.

Jim Hinckley is undeniably one of the most recognizable names connected to Route 66.

With over �� books to his credit, the writer/historian is a passionate, committed promoter of the Mother Road and has been working hard to educate people on Route 66 for decades.

In this issue, we get to know Jim Hinckley a bit better, and are lucky to get some valuable ideas for our next visit down America’s Mainstreet.

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With more than 300 days of sunshine a year – and a unique mix of tranquil waters, rugged mountains, and tons of fun – it’s hard to stay inside. Discover Lake Havasu City – just a short drive from Route 66 – and play like you mean it.Ž

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