Claudia Heller - Life On Route 66

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2012 by Claudia and Alan Heller

All rights reserved

Cover images: girl with dog in black-and-white courtesy of Sue Ellen Willis; photo with three boys in hotrod courtesy of Fred Johnson; center photo of road courtesy of Ronan Murray, 2011; all other images by Alan Heller.

Images by Alan Heller unless otherwise indicated.

First published 2012

e-book edition 2012

ISBN 978.1.61423.478.4

Library of Congress CIP data applied for.

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews

For our children:

Holiday Jean

Beau Garrett

Jenner Alan

Contents

Foreword

Being involved in the Route 66 community, we all monitor the media, checking on articles that highlight the people, places and events. A few years ago, there was a very nice article with good photosClaudia wrote and Alan took the photos, yes a wife/husband team. It was obvious that they had done their homework and caught the true meaning of the road. Over the next few years, I not only got to read more of their journeys on the road but also came to respect their work.

Watching them grow into real roadies and get more involved in the road was a real treat for me. There is a magical magnet that draws people and holds them that is hard to explain but easy to understand once you accept that you, too, are caught in the grip of the road. As they progressed on their search of just what this old road is all about, by visiting the places and meeting the people that make up the culture of this national/international icon, they became not only fans but also promoters of the road.

So here is another book on the road with photos of Route 66. But wait, I did not know that fact or that person, and is that photo of someplace on the road I havent seen? Each one of us who travels the road sees it in a different way, and sometimes we capture it in our words and photos that could only happen right at that time and place. Then, being able to share those moments where we created a lasting memory is a talent that not everyone has. Claudia and Alan have it. And you will see it with every word you read and photo you look at in this book.

The road is a better place because we gain folks like this into our family. I am pleased to know them and honored to call them my friends and fellow roadies.

Jim Conkle

Publisher, Editor

Route 66 Pulse

Mother Road Enterprises

Acknowledgements

A multitude of thanks go out to those who encouraged and assisted us in this project.

Pia Orense, my editor at the Highlander newspaper, for assigning us to a project that enriched our lives.

Alex and Mirna de Lira Lopez, of DLL Business Solutions in Duarte, California, for their technical help.

Jim Conkle, editor of the Route 66 Pulse newspaper, for his encouragement and kindness in writing the foreword to this book.

Authors David G. Clark, Jim Hinckley, Joe de Kehoe, Michael Patris, Elizabeth Pomeroy, Dave Emerson, Scott Piotrowski and Diane Wilson for their words of wisdom.

The staffs at the Route 66 museums in Victorville and Barstow, California.

The many readers of the newspapers distributed by the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group who selflessly shared their memories of the Mother Road and/or family journals depicting the joys and hardships encountered on the road.

My father, Lewis Garrett, whose research was helpful and who passed down to me the gene that instilled a passion for travel and writing!

My sister, Karen Garrett, who graciously donated her proofreading skills.

And finally, Sheri Uhlig, who handcrafted a quilt out of Route 66 material to keep us cozy on our travels.

Introduction

When my editor asked me to write a series of articles on Route 66 for publication in the Highlander newspaper, I immediately said yes. Living near the route in Duarte, I was somewhat familiar with the roads history and throughout the years had poked around many of the Mother Road towns in the Mojave Desert, communities that had blossomed and withered over the years. I had no idea at the time that this project would provide an outlet for readers eager to share personal memories of their experiences on the road.

Following the logical westward migration on the route, the series began with an article about Needles, the routes California-Arizona border town. My husband, Alan, and I had visited the town many times, photographing the historical Route 66 landmarks. We were fortunate to take a tour of the withering El Garces Hotel. Time and again, we returned to the border community to gather current information and photos, following which the article practically wrote itself. Shortly after it was published, the unforeseen occurred. A series of events emerged, sparking renewed enthusiasm for me and the readers.

Readers who were bursting with memories of their experiences along the road during its early days began contacting me. Many, now seniors, recalled backseat adventures as they traveled Route 66 with their parents. Others relayed stories handed down by family members, and one reader had long coveted a detailed journal penned by her great uncle detailing his trip west in 1927. She longed to share its contents with those who would appreciate it.

These heartfelt and often thrilling stories continued arriving and are described in detail in this book. The examples are many. There is the son who recalled that his father hitchhiked west from Kansas only to be turned around at the California border by the authorities because there were already too many unemployed men in California. And another boy, now a senior living in La Verne, vividly remembered fearing an attack by Indians as he, then six years old, and his sister rode a Greyhound bus across Arizona.

I heard from Manny Avila of Hacienda Heights, who has throughout the years kept in contact with his old buddy, Dick Sproul, often reminiscing about their adventures along the road in 1946. Fresh home from World War II, these boys took a merchant marine ship from Los Angeles to New York, and after hearing Nat King Cole sing Route 66, they bought a rag top and drove home on the Mother Road, a trip rife with memorable events. A father-son bond was renewed when Frank Ayala of Huntington Park drove his son, Xavy, along Route 66 en route to Michigan, where Xavy was to start college. As they crossed the California-Arizona border at Needles, the young man asked his father a question that proved to be prophetic in the context of the Mother Road.

Research into the place names of the San Bernardino County towns along the route, many of which have disappeared, revealed why my own father would often leave our Hollywood Hills home and vanish into the desert for days at a time. A contact from Sue Ellen Willis of Covina relayed her happy childhood memories of the familys life in several desert communities as they followed her father, a railway worker, along the tracks. Kenneth Pitzer recalled that as a child the family toted a shovel on their Route 66 treks to dig the car out of holes along the way. Lonell Spencer of Arcadia recalled fond memories of carrying his bride, Marguerite, over the threshold of their honeymoon room teepee at the Wigwam Motel in Rialto.