Billy Connolly's Route 66_ The Big Yin on the Ultimate American Road Trip - Billy Connolly [106]
The really sad fact about Route 66 is that so many towns have been unable to put up a similar fight. For instance, the journey from Williams to Seligman took me past at least ten derelict gas stations and umpteen shutdown motels, with the wind blowing through their vandalised remains. I was often told that Route 66 was dying, but in the most derelict parts it was already dead. Many people obviously gave up the struggle a long time ago.
And yet, amid the decline, the decay, the death and destruction, little pockets along Route 66 are still thriving. This is something anyone travelling the length of the road has to get used to. You can’t expect it to be like the famous song – one long, glorious highway all the way to California. It’s now in bits and pieces. One place will be doing just great, with big statues in the streets, bustling businesses, everything alive and healthy. Then, just ten miles down the road, there’ll be nothing but derelict houses in a ghost town.
When I visited, Seligman was certainly one of the thriving, lively places. There was a lot of tourist tat, but it was keeping the small town alive. And that survival – not to mention much of the survival along the whole length of the road – is largely due to one extraordinary man: the owner of Seligman’s barber shop, Angel Delgadillo.
Born in 1927 in a house directly on Route 66, Angel has witnessed the rise and fall of the road. When the interstate bypassed the town, Seligman started to die. To make matters worse, the authorities even removed the signpost that pointed to the town, so it became a secret destination. Businesses closed, people left, buildings decayed. In desperation, Angel and fifteen others called a town meeting. The result was the founding of the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona. Elected president, Angel successfully appealed to the Arizona State Legislature to reinstate the sign. He then went on to fight in a thousand different ways to bring the town back to life. And lo and behold, his campaign worked. Next he lobbied other states to follow Arizona’s lead and form their own Route 66 associations. Now, all eight states along the route have recognised the historical and social significance of the Mother Road. Eight international associations have also been formed.
Now in his eighties, Angel is Route 66’s guardian angel – a role he was clearly still relishing when I visited him in his barber shop. He rarely cuts hair these days, but he continues to spend much of his time in the shop, watching the world go by on his beloved Route 66. He is a wonderfully warm, positive man, with a wicked sense of humour and a wisdom that comes from years of experience. I asked what it had been like to spend his entire life at the side of Route 66.
‘I saw the dust bowl when the Okies came travelling through on Route 66, when the road was still dirt and they were going west for a better life. Then I saw all the service boys pass through during World War Two. And I saw the children of the same boys when they grew up, travelling to go see Grandma back in Oklahoma or Texas. I saw the automobile get better – from no heater and no refrigeration to heat and refrigeration. Then I saw the day that this town died for ten long years.’
‘Was that when the interstate came?’ I said.
‘September 22, 1978, at about 3 p.m., the business community died. Just like that. The world forgot about us for ten long years. The travelling public took to I-40 like ducks take to water. They got their wish to just zoom. But after ten years I got angry.’
I laughed. ‘Good on you.’
‘When I found out that we didn’t have any signing between here and Flagstaff, I got angry. I fought the state to get those signs up and I called a meeting in Seligman to tell everyone how I thought we could get the economy back. We formed the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona. We had a big three-day celebration