The Route 66 Centennial Kicks Off

PART 2
SURREAL SCENE in predawn downtown Springfield, Missouri, April 30 is really nothing more than the Southwest Missouri State flag corps proceeding to their lineup point for the filming of an NBC-TV“Today Show Third Hour Live”segment on the birthplace of Route 66.
SURREAL SCENE in predawn downtown Springfield, Missouri, April 30 is really nothing more than the Southwest Missouri State flag corps proceeding to their lineup point for the filming of an NBC-TV“Today Show Third Hour Live”segment on the birthplace of Route 66.

It probably took longer for the army of NBC-TV producers and grips and camera operators to capture the Today Show’s 20-second “Third Hour Live” opener that morning than it did for Cyrus Avery and his fellow highway promoters to debate the relative merits of “66” versus “62” a century earlier.

Kay and I watched with interest from the rail of the crowd barrier as a straw-hatted Al Roker stepped into …