Check your calendar and put fresh batteries in your camera. The historic sign that stands in front of the 66 Bowl in Oklahoma is scheduled to be removed next week.
The JTD Team, based in Oklahoma City, is set to remove the sign about 1 p.m. Oct. 13, according to a news release. JYD partners Chuck Clowers and Cameron Eagle will oversee the historic moment:
A crane and flatbed trailer will carry it to its temporary home awaiting restoration. “We feel like we are saving an important bit of Oklahoma history as well as a classic piece of art,” said Eagle.
It has been spoken of as the most photographed sign on Route 66 in Oklahoma, being known for its depiction of a ball knocking over pins. “It was amazing how many people were cheering for us to get the sign so it could stay in Oklahoma longer,” said Clowers.
JYD Team is a commercial design firm that has specialized in creating custom environments for businesses, churches, museums, retail stores and entertainment venues often using recycled items. “This sign will fit in well with JYD Team’s use of reclaimed material.” said Eagle. The 66 Bowl sign will temporarily become part of a collection of outdoor signage and art JYD Team has amassed. […]
Discussion as to what will happen to the sign is still evolving. The two partners utilize discarded elements in their design process taking the pieces to restoration or revamping them in a process they call re-clamation art. Anyone interested in the sign can contact Clowers or Eagle at www.jydteam.com or405-621-5717.
66 Bowl was sold to the Spices of India grocery store a few weeks ago. The bowling alley’s longtime owners were forced to sell after an investment went bad. 66 Bowl had operated on Route 66 since 1959.
The bowling alley’s contents were auctioned a few days ago. Spices of India will move into the building sometime early next year.
Back in the vicinity of the very-late 80s, my brother and I were aimlessly cruising his homeport of OKC on a steaming summer day when we happened upon one of the newly planted “Historic 66” road markers.
Say what?
And so we followed and as we gently swerved off the freeway onto NW 39th, we immediately gazed upon that “66 Bowl” sign that seemed to hang boldly over the edge of the highway and upon the sight of which I instantly “got it.”
Not long after we hit the cool curbed stretch out Bridgeport way, met up with Lucille in Hydro, and subsequently bore down on the marvelous Sayre-Texola vestiges: There we were, Theta-minding our own business while contemplating the true meaning of the term “See the USA in your Chevrolet.”
Trip’s end found us chowing in the U Drop Inn and by the time we finished I couldn’t have felt any more fuzzy-warm if I’d eaten a Wooly Mammoth Burger.
Thus, in an otherwise-unsettled time in my life, this particular day stood out as an noble exception—all because of that “lousy” bowling sign.