Advertisement
Editorial: Drive down memory lane
Op-Ed · February 09, 2017


Speed on down to the new exhibit at the Hoover Library-Museum, “America’s Road: The Journey of Route 66,” a delightful display that will take many visitors for a ride down memory lane.


The most famous highway in the world, the exhibit, by NRG! Exhibits, covers the road’s origins in the early 1920s, its opening in 1926, and how it rose to popularity until the Interstate Highway Act came along in 1956.

As the song goes, Route 66 takes one “From Chicago to L.A.” You probably know that Nat King Cole and the King Cole Trio’s song, “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” has been remade several times. But did you know one of those remakes was by the Rolling Stones? A kiosk lets you listed to five different versions of the famous song.

A four-minute video projected on a back wall takes one on a speedy trip down from the city off Lake Michigan to the city off the Pacific Ocean.

While one can still drive long stretches of U.S. Route 66, the decommissioned highway has been rerouted in places and no longer connects the Upper Midwest to California. Yet, the exhibit highlights many areas where cities and states have deemed sections of the road historic and endeavored to preserve the road and certain sites along it.

What struck us most was not necessarily what the exhibit included, but how it made people react. Many visitors pointed and commented, remarking how a photograph or a line of text reminded them of something from their own childhoods.

Indeed, Route 66 is like Main Street for America, taking travelers to the weird and wonderful, the unique and surprising, and, of course, the historic in so many big and small towns in eight states covered by its 2,448 miles.

There are many then-and-now photos of the sites along the road, and this is where visitors stand close, read the description accompanying the photographs and get pulled into the depths of their own family memories. Names of businesses, small towns and tourist spots seem to act as triggers to many who take the time to read. One then will read further to see if what is in the picture has been preserved … or fallen into decay.

Also on display is a 1965 Ford Mustang that made the trip along the Mother Road so its passengers could take numerous photographs which appear in the exhibit.

We encourage everyone, especially those who have lived within the vicinity of Route 66, to check out America’s Road before the exhibit drives off on March 26.