After the shortages and hardships caused by World War II, Dormont resident and Kaufmann’s department store employee Anthony Gaetano had a special treat in store for his family — a cross-country trip to California in their brand new 1948 Dodge, much of it driving on Route 66.
For his 12-year-old son Richard, the trip was the boyhood adventure of a lifetime, filled with cherished memories. Gaetano has taken those memories and woven them into an engaging travelogue about Route 66, sharing with audiences the story of his family vacation while also exploring the fascinating history of an American highway as chronicled in literature, music, and a popular 1960s TV show.
“A cross country road trip was a big deal in those days,” said Gaetano, now a retired history teacher. “We had suffered so much from the war. There was strict rationing for each person when it came to items like coffee, sugar and gasoline. I still have some of those ration coupons.”
But the strictest form of rationing involved automobiles. From 1942 until the end of the war, you could not buy a new car in the United States as all of the automobile plants had shifted over to war production.
“After the war, you had to order cars early and then wait,” Gaetano said. When his dad took ownership of the ’48 Dodge, it was time for the family to hit the open road.
Route 66 stretches for 2,448 miles, a two-lane blacktop highway stretching from the Great Lakes to sunny California. The road passed through small towns, rolling hills, farmland, deserts and mountains.
Route 66 entered the national consciousness through John Steinbeck’s novel, “The Grapes of Wrath.” His book told the story of farmers from Oklahoma and Arkansas who had fled the Dust Bowl, a devastating series of drought and dust storms during the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Farmers were left with ruined land and no way to support their families. In search of a new life, many traveled to California on Route 66, which Steinbeck in his novel called “The Mother Road.”
Gaetano, a Baldwin Borough resident, noted that the highway became part of American musical history in 1946, when singer/songwriter Bobby Troup and his wife drove on the highway to Los Angeles in search of work. Along the way, he penned the lyrics to the classic song, (“Get Your Kicks on) Route 66.”
When Nate King Cole recorded the song in 1946, it became an instant hit that’s been recorded by countless artists since.
Though the Eagles’ 1972 song “Take It Easy” isn’t about Route 66, the famous highway passes through a particular Southwestern town mentioned in the song: “Well, I'm a-standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona...”
But what etched the allure of Route 66 as the highway of freedom in the minds of many Americans was a popular TV series that ran from 1960-1964, starring Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and George Maharis as Buz Murdock. They were two young men who found adventure and romance as they drove along the highways of America in a flashy Corvette convertible, earning money from various temporary jobs.
Although the real Route 66 never encompassed Pittsburgh, Gaetano, a big fan of the TV show, remembers two episodes featuring the city and the Golden Triangle. One episode involved Tod and Buz rescuing a French female cabaret singer who was waterskiing on the Ohio River, proving realism wasn’t a prime requirement of 1960s TV shows.
In the other Pittsburgh episode, “Good Night, Sweet Blues,” Ethel Waters made history by becoming the first African American woman nominated for an Emmy. She played jazz singer Jennie Henderson, who is nearing the end of her life. She asks Tod and Buz to find the six jazz musicians from her old band, the Memphis Naturals, and bring them to Pittsburgh before she dies.
The musicians return to Pittsburgh to sing and perform for Ethel Waters’ character one last time. Real-life trumpeter Roy Eldridge, who was born on the North Side, plays one of the musicians in her band.
Gaetano’s own adventures on the real Route 66 were a little more prosaic.
While driving across the Arizona desert in the middle of the summer, his father employed an interesting Army surplus item to prevent the car from overheating – a Lyster bag.
“It was common for people to hang Lyster bags on the bumpers of their cars while crossing the desert in the summer when it was so hot,” Gaetano said.
Developed by Army Maj. W.L. Lyster in 1910, the bags made of heavy-duty duck canvass could hold 36 gallons of water. By adding a few drops of calcium hypochlorite or chlorine to the water to kill any bacteria, soldiers had a source of potable water they could drink.
Enterprising soldiers, and later civilians, came up with another use for the canvas bags.
“If the radiator boiled over, you could stop the car and fill up the radiator with fresh water,” Gaetano said.
Things went from hot to cold very fast when the Gaetano family vacation took them into the mountains of Arizona.
“I remember making a snowball on the Fourth of July when in the mountains. I thought that was neat,” he said
After the family made it to California, they returned to Pittsburgh via the Rocky Mountains. For a young boy who loved cowboy movies, seeing wigwams was a special treat, and near Yellowstone Park he bought an arrow made by local Native Americans.
“I still have the arrow hanging in my room,” he said.
Gaetano’s presentations about Route 66, which he has given seven times so far, give him a chance to do again what he did as a high school world history teacher in the Elizabeth Forward and Bethel Park school districts.
“The presentations are a continuation of my teaching days. I can continue talking history and having fun,” he said.
Since his retirement in 1993, Gaetano has kept a busy schedule. He is a member of 42 clubs and organizations ranging from historical societies to groups dedicated to collecting coins and postcards.
“My advice to retirees is to find a hobby and go with it. That’s what keeps me going every day, going somewhere,” Gaetano said.
Most of the original Route 66 is now gone, replaced by four-lane modern interstate highways, and only exists in small remnants of the former road.
But for one retired high school teacher, it will always exist in the colorful memories of a 12-year-old boy, who found his kicks on Route 66 — along with a snowball in the middle of summer, and a hand-made Native American arrow.
Bob Podurgiel is a freelance writer from Carnegie.
First Published: June 27, 2024, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: June 28, 2024, 5:17 p.m.
