The Mother Road

There is no other road with so many dreams on it... Most of them probably broken, but that isn't what it counts in the land of hopes. When I first drove along it, I felt something special that will stay with me for the rest of my life, so I guess that's why everything related to the road itself (music, pictures...)means so much to me:
In the year 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act which initiated the construction of 41,000 miles of interstate highways across America. As a result, many small towns that had once thrived along the famed east-west Route 66 were bypassed by the new high-speed Interstate 40. Faced with financial ruin, these small towns struggled to survive.

It's been the same with so many little towns all over the world, it's the price we have to pay to go faster. Joseph Conrad sketched it back in 1896 in his short story "An Outpost of Progress": progress is often one step forward and two steps back, don't you think so?
This true fact about forgotten towns along the road is recalled in the 2006 movie "Cars". I personally love the way Cars showed this bit of American history in an all-around fun movie suitable for all ages. As a matter of fact, it is a good ELT tool that students usually enjoy working with. Aside from history, they learn personal values and a couple of valuable lessons: life is a journey, not a destination... and GET YOUR KICKS ON ROUTE 66.