Selfies

(which by definition means I’m in them . . . though you might have to look for me)

Time for another round of “Logo-Rubbing” – my version of “rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous.” But these logo selfies have an added element of story: each has a significant part in the ongoing story of Route 66.

Early on automobiles were rare and in the category of hand crafted luxury for the upper middle class and above. Henry Ford’s assembly line product, the Model T, changed all that. The common man had a car and a place on an assembly line somewhere to help pay for it. Factories adorned with names of auto innovators were three to a city block in the early 1900s: Cadillac, Ford, Buick, Chevrolet, Moon, Chrysler, Durant, Nash, Rickenbacker, Dodge, Olds, Packard, Dorris, Gardner, to name just a few. But it was Ford that launched the revolution that demanded road development programs to accommodate the new world of motorized transportation. In 1926, the most extensive of these was given the name Route 66.

It wasn’t just quality roads that were needed for the booming age of automobiles. Regardless of the factory they came from, all cars were thirsty for gasoline. In 1925 Philips Petroleum Company was the largest producer of natural gas liquids in the US. A test of the company’s gasoline took place on Route 66 and the speed of the car in which the test was conducted topped out at a very fast 66 miles per hour. The new fuel was given the name Phillips 66. Adoption of the Route 66 shield for branding was a bit of marketing brilliance linking the gasoline product to the new interstate roadway system. Shared branding was aided by friendship between the Phillips brothers and another man with a nose for marketing, Cyrus Avery, “father” of Route 66.

Many roadside motels along Route 66 became thriving businesses as travel boomed during the years following World War II. Ironically, their success was their demise, signaling patronage worthy of a new industry: national hotel chains.

MEETING THE NEWS on the roadways of America, first-hand, real time, real world news—going out and discovering the news . . .

NEWS OF CHRISTENINGS: On various occasions and depending on who was lauding the achievement of the cross country paved roadway system, Route 66 was officially heralded by several names: “The Main Street of America,” “The Mother Road,” “The Way West,” and “Will Rogers Highway.”

NEWS OF PROPOSITIONS: It wasn’t just automobiles that moved along The Main Street of America, but tourism and commerce. Across the eight states and three time zones it spanned, state and national roadway developers met to plan (or later to reassess) the route. The meetings would inspire an all-time high in civic unity for towns vying for inclusion along the route. Business representatives, local developers, politicians, and celebrities showed up at the meetings accompanied by high school marching bands in an effort to persuade officials to direct Route 66 their way.

PHILOSOPHICAL NEWS: In the 1960s Route 66 had its own coveted place in a different kind of network: it became a TV show. The show, which primarily took place on the East Coast, demonstrated that the name of the famous Chicago to LA highway had taken on broader meaning, symbolically representing all who were going somewhere. Long after being bypassed by larger highway systems, it retains that symbolism.