By the late 1960s, America was building interstates as fast as it could pour concrete, and the small towns of roads like Route 66 were beginning to empty out. Just as that was happening, a CBS reporter named Charles Kuralt climbed into a motorhome and went looking for everything the new highways were bypassing.
His segments were called “On the Road,” and they began in 1967. While the rest of the news chased war and politics, Kuralt and a tiny crew wandered the back highways in search of the opposite: a man who built a violin from a single piece of wood, a town that still held a spelling bee, the last ferry across some forgotten river. He had a warm, unhurried voice and an unfashionable belief that ordinary lives were worth a national broadcast.
Over more than a decade he wore out several motorhomes and drove something close to a million miles, collecting armfuls of Emmys along the way. What he was really documenting was the same America Route 66 ran through — the diners and the courthouses and the two-lane towns — captured just as the interstate was pulling the traffic, and the attention, away.
Kuralt understood something the highway engineers didn’t. The fast road gets you there. The slow road is where the country actually lives.
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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