There is a small white filling station in Dwight, Illinois, with two red pumps out front and a green roof, that quietly holds one of the road’s best records: it pumped gas for sixty-six straight years on Route 66.
Ambler’s Texaco was built in 1933, a neat cottage-style station with flower boxes in the windows — because in those days a filling station was meant to look reassuring, like somewhere you’d trust with your car and your family. It takes its name from Basil “Tubby” Ambler, who ran it from 1938 to 1966 and was as known for his hospitality as his wrench: he kept a couch inside so tired travelers could sit a while. In the early 1940s, following the national trend, he bolted a concrete service bay onto the side, and the station became a full garage.
That building tells the whole story of the roadside mechanic — a figure the highway couldn’t do without. When your radiator blew in the desert or your fan belt snapped at midnight, it was a small-town garage hand who got you moving again, and often the difference between an adventure and a disaster. A teenager named Phil Becker started hanging around Ambler’s after school in 1964, bought it in 1970, and kept it going until the pumps finally went dry in 1999.
The glamour of Route 66 was always the driving. The reason so many made it to the end was the man in the grease-stained coveralls.
We are offering licences for ROUTE 66® Beer in specific territories. An invitation to others to become part of this story. To carry a piece of the road with them and to contribute to the story. We will share a percentage of royalties with Route 66 associations to keep the story alive.
The journey continues. This story is brought to you by ROUTE 66® BEER. Find us at ROUTE66BEER.COM
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