Lonestar101 has posted on YouTube a report from 1984 by KPRC-TV in Houston about Route 66 in the Texas Panhandle.
(Embedding isn’t allowed, but you can watch the video by clicking here.)
The video, which is two segments totaling about eight minutes, gives us a fascinating look of Route 66 before Michael Wallis’ seminal book, “Route 66: The Mother Road,” was published and before the road’s subsequent revival.
You get to see the U-Drop Inn of Shamrock, Texas, in a red, white and blue Fina paint job (screen capture is above). The video contains brief interviews with longtime Route 66 advocate Gladys Cutberth and former Route 66 business owners Cecil and Zelma Walker of Conway, Texas.
It also was a time before the Interstate 40 bypassed McLean, Texas, when cross-country travelers still had to go through the center of town. But the bypass was about to open, and the locals were none too happy about it.
A McLean banker said:
“Route 66 is a thing of the past now, and we all have to accept that.”
Reporter Charles Hadlock also said:
“… It will mean the end of Route 66. The town of McLean may wind up like many of the other ghost towns along the old Main Street of America. … The day of Route 66 is nearly over.”
Fortunately, both were wrong.