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John Steinbeck called it the \u201cMother Road.\u201d Songwriter Bobby Troup described it as the route to get your kicks on. And Mickey Mantle said, \u201cIf it hadn\u2019t been for Highway 66 I never would have been a Yankee.\u201d For the Dust Bowl refugees of the 1930s, for the thousands who migrated after World War II, and for the generations of tourists and vacationers,\xa0Route\xa066 was \u201cthe Way West.\u201d

Route\xa066, the first continuously paved highway linking east and west was the most traveled and well known road in America for almost fifty years. From Chicago, it ran through the Ozarks of Missouri, across Oklahoma and\xa0the Texas Panhandle, up the mesas of New Mexico and Arizona, and down into California\xa0to the Pacific Ocean. The first road of its kind, it came to represent America\u2019s mobility and freedom\u2014inspiring countless stories, songs, and even a TV show.

Songwriter Bobby Troup tells the story of his 1946 hit Get Your Kicks on Route 66; Gladys Cutberth, aka Mrs. 66 and members of the old \u201c66 Association\u201d talk about the early years of the road. Mickey Mantle explains \u201cIf it hadn\u2019t been for US 66 I wouldn\u2019t have been a Yankee.\u201d Stirling Silliphant, creator of the TV series \u201cRoute 66\u201d talks about the program and its place in American folklore of the 60s.

Studs Terkel reads from \u201cThe Grapes of Wrath\u201d and comments on the great 1930s migration along Highway 66. We hear from Black and white musicians including Clarence Love, head of Clarence Love and his Orchestra, Woody Guthrie, and Eldin Shamblin, guitar player for Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys\u2014who remember life on the road for musicians during the 1930s. We travel the history of the road from its beginnings as\xa0\u201cThe Main Street of America,\u201d through\xa0the \u201cRoad of Flight\u201d in the 1930s,\xa0to the \u201cGhost Road\u201d of the 1980s, as the interstates bypass the businesses and road side attractions of another era.

Produced by The Kitchen Sisters and narrated by actor David Selby.