Occasionally, I run into someone who says he was “born on Route 66.” This isn’t meant to be literal; it means the house or hospital where he first breathed life was adjacent to the Mother Road.
But now, there’s now one child in New Mexico who can truly make that “born on 66” claim.
KOB-TV in Albuquerque reports that a pregnant woman in Edgewood, a small Route 66 town east of the Duke City, went into labor. A sister-in-law was driving her to an Albuquerque hospital when the contractions started to get serious in Tijeras Canyon.
A 911 operator on the driver’s cell phone instructed her to pull off the road. She did — at Tramway and Central Avenue, aka Route 66. A few minutes later, paramedics showed up to help deliver the baby right there in the car.
It turned out well. The mother and baby reportedly are resting and healthy at an Albuquerque hospital. And they’re both going to have one cool story to tell.
My name is Eric, And I was born on route 66 August 18, 1960 coming from the town of Helendale California. My grandmother told me the whole story as I passed the Mojave River coming to Victorville California I was born.
I was born in the back seat of a 1958 Chevy on 66. According to my father, “I had been driving for three days without sleep, with a nine month pregnant wife, and it was three a.m., it happened somewhere between Flagstaff AZ, and Oklahoma…you tell me where!” My parents waited until they made it to Syracuse NY to check me into a hospital so, like my older brothers, I would receive a birth certificate from the same place.
The unit I served with in the military recorded my hometown as Route 66.