I stumbled upon this story about former “Dukes of Hazzard” television star John Schneider’s upcoming show at the Five Star Dive Bar in downtown Elkhart, Indiana.
Anyone alive from 1979 to 1985 probably remembers Schneider’s Dixie-fried comedy farce on CBS-TV with co-stars Tom Wopat and Catherine Bach. But Schneider also had a successful career as a country-music artist, with eight singles that made the top 40, including a No. 1, “A Memory Like You.”
A phone interview with a reporter from the Elkhart Truth newspaper has this exchange with Schneider about the upcoming concert there:
Although he has no ties to the area, Schneider said he’s visited Elkhart many times since his career launched in the late 1970s.
“I’m a U.S. Route 66 guy, and have been coming through Elkhart since I started ‘Dukes,’” he said during a phone interview Thursday.
“I love the area and I love the name of the ‘Five Star Dive Bar.’ My band’s name is ‘Stars & Bars,’ so I think we’re going to fit right in.” […]
“I bet if you go 2 miles from the ‘Five Star Dive Bar’ that it looks like an episode off of ‘The Dukes of Hazzard.’ It’s still mailboxes at the end of the gravel driveway, there are still dirt roads off the paved roads and it’s an area where communities realize that they depend upon people to get through life.”
Schneider commenting about Elkhart and Route 66 is curious. Route 66 never was in Indiana. Elkhart isn’t close to it, either. It’s at least 120 miles from the nearest alignment of the Mother Road.
And Schneider’s supposition he could find gravel roads two miles from that Elkhart bar also seems unlikely. Elkhart contains more than 50,000 people, and plenty of sizable towns surround it — Goshen, South Bend and Mishawaka. It’s part of a urban region that contains more than 850,000 people.
Then it occurred to me Schneider probably was thinking of Elkhart, Illinois.
Elkhart in Illinois definitely sits on Route 66 in the middle of the state. It contains only about 400 residents, and it’s surrounded by farmland for miles around. It’s not a stretch to think there might be gravel roads a short drive out of the village.
Schneider’s apparent confusion between the two Elkharts serves as a small cautionary tale about the nomadic life of a musician. You’ve got a gig at the big Elkhart, but you mentally go the the charming village off Route 66 in another state.
Schneider’s comment about his fond memories of Route 66 probably isn’t just talk. I found a reference two years ago to Route 66 and Oatman, Arizona, on his blog, but that part is behind a paywall.
In a saga I’d reported but long forgotten about, Schneider also was supposed to make an appearance at the Cruisin’ Route 66 Classic Car Show in Litchfield, Illinois, in 2007. But he backed out of his contract when he found an apparently more lucrative movie role.
(Image of John Schneider, right, and Tom Wopat in an episode of “Smallville” by Paolo Pace via Flickr)
The duplication – even triplication or quadriplication – of village/town/city names in single countries is common. Newton (new town) being a common one. I lived in a village called Staverton, in Devon, England. There are two other Stavertons in England.
His possible mistake is no different than how many people get to St. Louis and see a sign for Springfield. They go to Springfield, find a motel, settle in for the night, and the next morning are shocked to find out they are in Illinois when they thought they were going to Missouri or vice versa. When I was working at the Rail Have in Springfield, Missouri, we had this happen at least once a week. You’d think if a person had traveled 200 miles, give or take, from St. Louis somewhere in there they’d seen something to make them realize what state they were in. But some people are either oblivious or if they are traveling at night, tired and just not observant.
Any town named Springfield has another hurdle. One of the top questions I received from visitors was always “Is this the Springfield where Homer Simpson lives?” Honestly, I heard that so much I made it a part of the talk I would give about the motel. There are 38 Springfields across the USA. So there are a lot of options for the answer. And the answer from The Simpsons producers has changed over time. So while it was said in jest most of the time, I never minded answering it.
Perhaps he confused Route 66 with the Lincoln Highway, as Elkhart Indiana is very much part of the Lincoln. I have come across a few folks over the years that do not know there is a difference between 66 and the Lincoln.