A few days ago, the C-SPAN network announced it put all of its video archives online, dating back more than 20 years. The archive, which contains more than 160,000 hours of video, will be a boon for muckrakers. But considering that C-SPAN also gave plenty of air time to historians, I thought maybe some Route … Continue reading Footage from the past
Category: People
A visit to the Grants Cafe
The Cibola County Beacon published an interesting feature about the Grants Cafe in Grants, N.M., which has been serving customers along Route 66 since 1949. And get this: The restaurant has had the same cook for more than 50 years, and the owner has been there more than 30. Alice Rose Johnson, a cook for … Continue reading A visit to the Grants Cafe
Quite a milestone
According a Reuters article, Ray Benson's Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel is making its 40th year this month. During a four-decade career, the band has earned nine Grammy Awards, launched a critically acclaimed theatrical production, performed with everyone from Willie Nelson to President Obama to the Fort Worth Symphony, released more than 25 … Continue reading Quite a milestone
Memories of a previous Route 66 festival
In recent days, RQV Outdoor Movies has posted video shot during the 2003 International Mother Road Festival in Springfield, Ill. It includes interviews with "Route 66: The Mother Road" author Michael Wallis and "Route 66" TV show co-star Martin Milner, a few years before he became too ill to make public appearances. According to a … Continue reading Memories of a previous Route 66 festival
Illinois Route 66 advocate Lenore Weiss dies
Lenore Weiss, a co-winner of the prestigious Steinbeck Award and other preservation honors for work that she and her husband John Weiss did for Route 66 in Illinois, died today after a battle with cancer. She was 63. Lenore had told me some months ago that she had been diagnosed with a serious form of … Continue reading Illinois Route 66 advocate Lenore Weiss dies
An interview with Joe Sonderman
Longtime St. Louis-area roadie Joe Sonderman is interviewed by phone regarding his new book from Arcadia Publishing, "Route 66 in New Mexico," and talks about the Mother Road in general. Sonderman's comments about New Mexico itself are especially knowledgeable ... spoken like a person who's been there many times. Sonderman's 66 Postcards site is here, … Continue reading An interview with Joe Sonderman
Here’s your sign
A few months ago, we tracked down who had painted hundreds, perhaps thousands of distinctive signs along the Route 66 corridor from the western Texas Panhandle to eastern New Mexico. It was Rudolph Gonzales, who has crafted his work along the Mother Road since the mid-1950s and is one of the last to do so … Continue reading Here’s your sign
Bringing help to Haiti
Two high-school seniors from Memphis, Tenn., will be bicycling on portions of Route 66 starting next month to raise infrastructure funds for earthquake-stricken Haiti, according to WPTY-TV in Memphis. Eighteen-year-old Christian Kauffman and his friend Cort Gatliff have been training to bike across 10 states hoping to raise money to help people in Haiti get … Continue reading Bringing help to Haiti
From one toke to one take
Jim Motavalli, a columnist for The Daily Green alternative-energy magazine, tells about the fascinating background of Tom Shipley. Shipley works as a video producer at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla. According to the article, among Shipley's favorite work is documenting students' efforts at building vehicles for the North American Solar Car … Continue reading From one toke to one take
Notes from the road
It looks like planning on the proposed Route 66 bicycle trail in Logan County, Ill., is proceeding again after a hiatus. The county board this week discussed the possibility of leasing a gravel road parallel to the railroad tracks from AmerenCILCO to use as part of Logan County’s portion in the statewide, north-south bike route, … Continue reading Notes from the road