Route 66 and the Big Chain Restaurant

There's this general consensus among Route 66 devotees that chain restaurants, motels, and stores where part of what killed Route 66. The basic theory behind that thought is that Route 66 equals Mom & Pop joints, and "chain joints" equal the interstates and super slabs. 

In a way that thought process isn't all that wrong. Chain business's are near many interstate exits, and passers by are more inclined to stop at one of these places, like Walmart, McDonalds, or Comfort Inns, then they are to head deeper into town for that Mom & Pop place. In many circumstances the Mom & Pop places, places that fronted on Route 66, have succumbed to these chain influences. 

What I think a lot of old time Route 66er's don't think about is that one of those chain monsters is actually a Route 66 child. That's right McDonalds was originally founded by the McDonald Brothers in San Bernadino, CA. The original restaurant at North E St, and West 14th stands only about a mile or so East of Route 66. One could only imagine that Route 66 travelers would probably take the side trip down 14th to visit the unusual burger joint locals guided them to.

But that's not the whole story. It was a Chicago businessman (that's right Chicago another Route 66 town) Ray Kroc who saw the potential of the burger joint and encouraged the McDonald Brothers to expand, while investing his own money to make it happen and becoming the first franchisee. 

In 1955 Kroc opened the first of the franchise stores in Des Plains, IL. The town of Des Plains, is a suburb of Chicago in Northwestern Cook County, the same county as Chicago. Des Plains itself is not on Route 66 but it's less then 20 miles from it, making it still relatively close. 

Both the first McDonalds Brothers, and Ray Kroc stores are museums now. You can visit them on either end of Route 66 to see how far the restaurant has come since being a little burger joint in San Bernardino, CA. 

The thing is though that "McDonalds" is probably considered to be the king of franchise/chain restaurants. That's right McD's is suppose to be this faceless corporation dishing out homogenous food coast to coast along interstates, and killing Mom & Pop diners. Yet this faceless corporation has its roots in Route 66, and started as a Mom & Pop, or should I say Brother & Brother itself in San Bernardino, CA. 

So the next time you read or hear someone criticizing "Big Chains" on Route 66, don't forget to think that Route 66 itself gave birth to one of them. That says something about 66 itself helping the US grow in the post-war 1940's. 

Defending the Interstates in Route 66 Culture

If you where to have a transparent overlay of the modern interstates, and laid it over an old map of Route 66 you could see what replaced what quickly. If you could get a more in depth view, you could also see what sections of 66 are now interstate. You'd see I-40, 55, 44, and 15 all take a cut, and there is a really great reason. 

You see study Route 66 long enough and immerse yourself in the culture and you will eventually begin to hear about the "evil interstates". You'll here the old adage about "driving from one end of the country to the other on the interstate and never seeing a thing", that's one the old timers like to tell. Or the accusations that "the homogeny of the interstate begat homogenous fast food, hotels, and gas stations so no matter where your at your always in the same place !". Trust me the list goes on, and I do see what they are getting at. The flat four lanes, and lots of McDonalds, BPs, and Comfort Inn's do add some homogeny, but to me not enough to get where there at. There are also those little intimations that that the interstates killed Route 66, and the death of Route 66 meant the death of a kinder gentler America. All I have to say is really?

 You see it in the magazines, and you'll read it in books, on the subject. Some of the best authors will mention it either directly or in passing. But what I think they forget is this one simple fact "Route 66 killed Route 66". The road had just carried to much of a burden on it, and may of its sister routes did, and many still do. Sure the road went from town to town, and flowed with the land, but that was also its undoing. As I mentioned in a previous article "Bloody 66 - A Harsh Reality" the Route 66 had become a route noted for terrible car accidents, due to its flowing roads, and town to town hoping. 

The interstates love them or hate them where needed. Sure they are flat, and the bypassed towns, but they where safer and unencumbered by side roads, stop lights, and two lane hilly, curvy stretches. They had in fact become an absolute necessity, in a two lane world. 

Besides the aspect of safety which to me seems to be the number one benefit, there of course is commerce. Trucks where able to become bigger and carry more, and without stopping at every dot on the map for a stop sign or light, could in fact deliver goods faster and with greater fuel efficiency, not to mention cheaper. Which also must make you ask, if the interstates had not existed widely by the 1970's, specifically 1973 and 1974 during the oil crisis could things have been far worse. 

Now as a proponent of Route 66, and a firm green believer in interstate rail transport over truck, its hard for me to stand by the Interstates. Yet at the same time we must admit that they have made life safer, and have helped to keep the costs of products down. Even if your not a fan of the marginal economic gain, you have to ask yourself about the value in human life of the highway. 

So as you read on and the interstate's become evil, stop and ask yourself about their true value.