December 9, 2024 • 55 mins
Rhys Martin joins the show and talks about his work with both the Oklahoma Route 66 Association and the National Trust for Route 66 Preservation. We get into topics about Oklahoma's stretch of Route 66, the Linear Neighborhood of the Route and much more!
Check him out at:
https://www.instagram.com/rhysfunk
http://preserveroute66.org/
http://oklahomaroute66.com/
http://rhysfunk.com/
Check him out at:
https://www.instagram.com/rhysfunk
http://preserveroute66.org/
http://oklahomaroute66.com/
http://rhysfunk.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome everybody to another episode of International Sign Finders. We're
glad you're back with us. I'm your host, you Rabernathy,
And you know last week we talked with I'm blanking
out now. Uh sorry, I'll edit this a little bit.
I'm trying to remember who I talked with last week
has been such a long Oh Todd Baits, Oh my gosh, Todd,
(00:34):
I'm so sorry. Yeah, we talked with Todd Bates last week,
and especially about the is trying to document all the
dying signs or all the old signs in Florida. I
don't want to say dying because it's well yeah, yes
and no, So we'll just keep that as dying signs
(00:55):
sad emoji right there across Florida is especially after like
the disnification of Florida. And also we talked about, you know,
the the signs that survived Hurricane Milton and Helene, especially
the sand Ban Motel. I don't know what they built
that sign out of, but for it to come away
(01:17):
with as little damage as it did says something about
the people who built that son of a gun. So
if you're if you love neon, especially Florida Neon, and
want to get into it. One great resources Todd Bates
there a vintage Neon project. But this week we're heading
from the Sunshine State up to what's the nickname of Oklahoma?
(01:39):
Because the one that I know of might be politically
incorrect because my mom, you know, grew up in the
fifties and sixties and seventies in Oklahoma.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
We are the Sooner State.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
There we go, Sooner State. I was going to say
the home of the uh Yeah, which is I don't
think they say that anymore. To the Sooner State. I
should know that. I'm so sorry, but we have on
tonight Reese Funk. You can follow him on Instagram at
Reese Funk. He works with the Oklahoma Route sixty six Foundation,
(02:11):
I believe, and also he is working with the whole
Route sixty six foundation from Chicago to Santa Monica. He
is the headman in charge. Welcome to the show, Reese Funk.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Thank you so much, Dree. It's pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, glad to have you here. And for those listening,
Oklahoma should be another bucketless place for you. And I'm
not just talking about Oklahoma City. I'm talking about Tulsa.
And I've talked about you know, like Chickashek. I've talked
before about chickashe Oklahoma. There is so much going on
(02:48):
in that town that I was able to kind of get,
you know, peak over some of the buildings and I
saw nothing but mid century signage all the way down.
And you're out of Tulsa, right, So introducer. Yeah, I've
jumped the shark already, So introduce yourself to the sign
finding community and let's let's go into you know, Tulsa
(03:10):
and points beyond. Sure.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
So, yeah, my name is Reese Martin and that first
name is r h Ys, So if you're looking for
my handle, it's r h ys f u n K.
It's a little different. As a kid, I hated it because,
you know, if you if you're different, kids usually cope
funded it. But as it's unarrere so people remember it.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
So.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I am currently president of the Oklahoma Route sixty six Association,
which is a state wide nonprofit concerned with preserving and
promoting Route sixty six within Oklahoma, which Oklahoma has more
drivable miles than any of the other seven states of
Route sixty six over four hundred and recently, I was
also hired on at the National Trust for Historic Preservation
(03:50):
as their National Preserve Root sixty six manager.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
But I have a lot of hats.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I'm involved in a lot of different Route sixty six initiatives.
I'm very fortunate that with the centennial Route sixty six
coming up just twenty twenty six, all eight states kind
of have their own little organizations and we're all talking
together regularly and doing what we can to make sure
we're not stepping on each other and helping celebrate this
amazing milestone for the road. But you know, it's it's
(04:16):
funny reaching out to me about Neon first, because photography
is how I got into Route sixty six in the
first case.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Now, when you've got when you were photographing Route sixty six,
what were you mainly concerned with Regent's you know, you
know all the different little roadside attractions kind of the
kitchen of Ral sixty six that's still available. Like when
it comes to my mind, is the blue whale of Watusa?
Is that right? Tusa? Yeah? Why do I want to
(04:43):
say what twos? I'm sorry the Tusa. You're here and
there's like little things like that all along ROULD sixty six.
So what was the thing about sixty six that got
you into photography? Well, it is so.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
The The short version is that in two thousand and
nine I left the country. I sold everything and left
and backpack for ten months through Southeast Asia and Europe.
Oh well, and that was very transformative, as you might imagine,
and I fell in love with writing and photography and
history during that time. So I came home and be
born and raised in the Tulsa area and realized I
not really paid attention to anything around here and started
(05:19):
looking around, and honestly, the thing about Route sixty six
the first drew me in was abandoned stuff, you know,
the old diners, the old motels, the old signs that
had been and that were in disrepair and just weren't
in great shape. But quickly I realized that Route sixty
six was more than just like a piece of history.
It was a living, evolving thing with you know, restaurants
(05:42):
and quirky roadside attractions like the Blue Whale, and that
the journey itself was still very much worth taking. It
took me about two years to drive the whole thing
a piecemeal style and quickly realized there was a need
for advocacy to help save some of these places and
celebrate what's here, because much like you mentioned at the
top of the program, Oklahoma gets skipped a lot when
(06:04):
people are thinking about traveling because people, yeah, I just think,
why would I go to Oklahoma?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
But we have a lot of.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Cool stuff to see here, and I love sharing, you know,
Tulsa's my hometown, sharing what we have here, whether it's
Art deco architecture or cool neon signage or things like
the Woody Guthrie Center that tell an amazing story. And
you know, it's a good jumping off point for so
many other things. And of course Route sixty six, being
arguably the most famous highway in the world, goes right
(06:33):
through town. So it all just works together pretty nicely.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, when you talk about you know, Oklahoma isn't on people's, like,
you know, to top of their list of places to visit.
You know, I grew up in eastern North Carolina. My
mom's from Norman, Oklahoma, so there was somebody in our
little town. Our little town had now only has two
hundred and fifty people, but at the times about four
hundred and so one of my mom's best friends would
(06:58):
always teases, Okaho, why are you going to Oklahoma. What's
there to do in Oklahoma? And you know, like there
in Norman, you know, for a while you had the
Rose Rocks. You had I remember the old ANW Roopier
drive in which we didn't have in eastern North Carolina
at all. But when you talk about Root sixty six,
(07:20):
I mean just just my little experience in Oklahoma City,
Like was at Northwest sixteenth Street and we're talking about
Northwest thirty ninth Street. I believe that brand News sign
had just went up and you got to see it.
Maybe we'll put it in the promo. But Oklahoma has
(07:41):
so much history that I don't know much of it.
But what little I do know, like Tinker Air Force
Base and the first Bee fifty two is being worked
on out there. My grandfather worked on them. And like
there's a there's an old town in East Oklahoma which
was like the is the home of the Black Cowboy
(08:03):
Rodeo if I remember right. And you know, one of
the greatest rangers of all time, you know, Us Marshalls
comes from Oklahoma as well. That's for use. Yeah, yeah,
So I just took up that last bit of the segment.
And so when we come back, we'll get into Oklahoma
Route sixty six a little more, get into Tulsa, Oklahoma city.
(08:26):
Points in between, you're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome
back to International sign Finders. Glad you's deal with us.
(08:48):
We have Reese Martin Reese Funk. Go over to Instagram
and follow him there. Man, he's got such a treasure
trove of pictures, not just Neon, but one of the
first you'll see when you get to his Instagram feed
is a little Mama Pop food market right there in Riverton, Kansas.
I mean, that reminds me of stuff that I grew
(09:10):
up with there in eastern North Carolina. Like you go
into the old gas station just I don't know if
it's this way there, but I just remember the few
that we had near where I lived. They had like
old wooden boards that you walked on. They creaked, it
smelled like no dust and nostalgia in the air. And
you get like an old glass bottle of soft drink
(09:35):
and take it with you and hopefully you had one
to trade in so you didn't have to pay the
full price. But right, yeah, but we're just kind of
getting into like a taste of Oklahoma, you know, nostalgia
with Rus sixty six and all the other stuff that
goes on around the Sooner State. So kind of give
(09:56):
us the breakdown about Oklahoma Route sixty six. I mean,
we talked about Chicago, Roukou carry Is. I mean, it's
a small little town that's got a lot of a
lot going on for especially with you know, the restore
of Neon and the old Round sixty six Main Street
and things like that in town, even Santa Rosa and
places like that, Oklaholma, not just Oklahoma City and Tulsa,
(10:20):
but all the little towns. What's the appeal of why
should people care about it? Well?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Route sixty six has a lot of nicknames, but the
very first one I ever got was the main street
of America. And Root sixty six still is main street.
And so many of these towns and people from all
over the world come to America and they don't go
to New York City, they don't go to Disney World,
I mean, no lot do. But you know they come
to Root sixty six because they don't just want the
big cities or the tourist attractions. They want the experience
(10:50):
of seeing the grandeur of this country. Yeah, and you know,
you start in Illinois, you have these nice rolling hills
and some prairie land. You get into Missouri, you get
the ozar and a lot more trees, and the landscape
starts to change a little bit. Then in Oklahoma starts
to flatten out. And of course as you give west,
you get like the maces and the deserts and the
beauty and then eventually the Pacific Ocean. But Oklahoma really
(11:12):
is the part where the West kind of starts. And
Oklahoma's have a little bit of a you know, our
hair stands up on the back of our neck. What
someone says, well, are you the South, you the Midwest?
You the Great Plains? Because we're kind of a little
bit of all of those things. We're in this place
where we have just these pieces of all these other regions.
And so people come through Oklahoma, especially if you're using
(11:32):
Route sixty six as that come to it, and you
get a little bit of all of that, and so
that opens you up to so many of these experiences.
And like you said, all of these small towns have
their charm, they have their little places that aren't changed
that you can only go to this place in this
one town, and that's it. You have a lot of
things left from when Route sixty six had its so
called glory days with the great Neon and the service
(11:54):
stations and the quirky attractions, and so.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
You just get this really great quilt.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Of American culture, and it appeals to people that you
know will come from the other side of the world
just just to just to go through it.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I think I've I follow some folks from Germany and
England that you know, there's sole Instagram focus is Route
sixty six and sharing that with the rest of the world.
And you know how many movies are set on Route
secy six? How many? I mean, like the great writers
there in the fifties and sixties, got Carawhac and Hunter
(12:36):
Hunter Thompson, you is that, yeah, one hundred Thompson. You know,
the gonzo writers, the ones that write about experiences and
may not have the best structure to their sentences, but
you get what they're talking about when they write about it.
And just seeing you know, the little bit I've seen
of all, you know, the restored Root sixty six. I mean,
(12:58):
when you're coming up Northwest sixties Street, there no Columbus City.
I've talked about this quite a bit the off factor.
I mean, that was your original Instagram, that was your
original social media. That was the billboard of the day
saying come watch a movie here, come eat here, maybe
do some business. Get your transmission changed because it blew
(13:19):
while you're trying to go across country. So what else
about like the little tales, like those little attractions? You know,
Richard Gutman talks about the diners, especially the diner scenes
of the Northeast and across country, those little you know,
Mama pops shops that you know, they they focus on.
(13:39):
Like the one that comes to mind is Amarillo. I
know that's Texas, but you know the it is on
Roe sixty six. Yeah, but the seventy two out steak
and they have the big Texity you've got. They have
a video and you can watch people, you know, you know,
destroy their digestive system. Well they do that. What are
(14:02):
some cool little places that you found that you know
you want to share with everybody else here on the podcast? Boy?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
You know, I mean it really all comes down to authenticity.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah. You know.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
The author Michael Wallace, who's also from Tulsa, wrote a
book in nineteen ninety called Route sixty six to the Mother Road,
which is credited as one of the kind of embers
that started the fire of this revitalization of Route sixty six. Basically,
it's this book that told folks the road is still
worth traveling, and they're these people that you meet and
he in that book he calls Route sixty six a
(14:36):
linear community. You know, Route sixty six is over twenty
four hundred miles long. Yeah, but you can talk to
somebody in a Route sixty six town, Illinois and they'll say, hey,
you know what, when you get to Texas, you got
to stop in Texas. You got to stop in Amarillo
on sixth Street and talk to log Crocodile Lyle and
check out his jewelry. Or you got to stop at
the Jack Rabbit Trading Post in Arizona. You know, these
(14:56):
folks are connected by this highway. And so in Oklaho
Homa again, like I mentioned, we have we have a
lot of miles of it in this state. And you
have these amazing Mufflerman statues with these giant eyberglass guys
holding various things that are just like amazing summer custom made, summer,
actual vintage, authentic. You have amazing Neon like you said,
(15:17):
I mean here in Tulsa, we have one of the
largest neon signs on.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Route sixty six.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
It's called the metal Gold sign because it advertised medical
dairy products. It's about thirty by thirty feet. It's gigantic,
and that sign was saved from demolition in the mid
two thousands and really served as a catalyst forward the
City of Tulsa to develop some programs for Route sixty
six with grants and some other assistance programs to really
(15:43):
revitalize the corridor which had just really kind of gotten
to where it was a bunch of motels that were
run down car lots, and you know, just there wasn't
much activity. But you go down Route sixty six today
and there's all kinds of stuff going on, all kinds
of shops and restaurants and activities. And it caused the
city to create this Neon Sign Grant, which has been
(16:03):
around since twenty nineteen. Cool and so any business on
Reach sixty six in Tulsa can apply for this grant,
which is a ten thousand dollars max matching grant that
for new neon or restoring old neon signs, And to date,
sixty two signs have been installed because of this program.
It has been wildly successful. Albuquerque has a neon program.
(16:27):
You have all these different towns along sixty six that
are trying to find ways to inject a little bit
of life in it because, as always as it had
been the case since ROTE sixty six was established, you
give it a little bit of energy and the community
rallies around it. Oklahoma also has one of the oldest
we'll say roadside attractions in the Round Barn. It's this
perfectly round barn in Arcadia that's been around to eighteen
(16:50):
ninety eight. You know, Oklahoma City has a lot going
on there. I love the Milk Bottle grocery building there.
It's this tiny, like four hundred and fifty square foot
triangular building with a giant milk all on top of it.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Cool that again, you.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Just got to pull over and take a picture of it.
Where else are you going to find that? But even
as you get out into western Oklahoma, as the town's
get a little further apart, you've got museums al Reno, Oklahoma.
We just went out there earlier this week and helped
unveil a historic marker that talks about the onion Burger
which was invented out there.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yeah, I've heard about those. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So like back during the depression, you know, meat was
getting really expensive, and to help the dollar stretch farther,
there was a guy that had a little burger stand
that took literally half an onion, shredded it as thin
as he could and put it with the meat when
he grilled it, so it wasn't added afterwards. It was
all cooked together. And so when you get the burger,
it's this mish mash of like black and onion cooked
(17:46):
on the grill with the meat and the flavors, unlike
anything else. You know, other people say, here, have an
onion burger, and I tell him that's that's not that's
not an onion burger thing. It's just different. And yeah,
you know, it put them on the map. You know,
there have been New York Times articles written about this now,
which is crazy to think about the little town of
all Reno showing up there in New York Times. But
you know, each of these little towns have their own
(18:07):
little claimed fame. And you know they say that traveling
Reach sixty six is more about the journey than the destination.
And that's because you never know what's around the corner exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
That's a great place to end this segment of International
Sign Finders. When we come back, we'll get more into
you know, I love the whole linear community thing because
you know, sometimes we get so isolating our communities that
you know, people travel around they're like, oh, that's up
in Dallas. You know this is Houston, that's Dallas or
(18:41):
you know, aust or whatever. You know, people will say, hey,
go try this, try this, try this. But you know,
sometimes we want to stay isolated. But the fact that
there's that linear community going all the way from Chicago
to Santa Monica, that that says something about just the past,
but present and even the future of helping keep Round
(19:05):
sixty six going. And when we get back we'll get
more into that. Hopefully my brain stays focused with this.
Has been a long day of work and stuff like that,
but well those are excuses we're gonna keep going. You're
listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International Sign Finders.
(19:37):
Glad you're with us and we have ree smartening. You
can follow him on Instagram Reese funk I. Really I
actually knew a guy with the last him of funk
in Idaho. And it doesn't surprise me that the you know,
if that was your actual real last name, that's awesome
because you don't meet a whole lot of funks except
(19:58):
for you know, like a wrestling dory funk tear, you know,
to your craziest social Yeah he just passed away. Yeah,
he just passed away not too long ago. That that's
son of a gun.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
He's one of those guys that you would have expected
who were gone long ago. But he just held on,
like Keith richards Man, like some of some of these
folks just just rolled the genetic lottery and got lucky.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah. Uh, good on him for all that. But you know,
we've been talking about the linear uh the linear community
of Route sixty six. You know, you got people who
in Illinois telling you about you know, stop. You know,
let's just say Santa Rosa. It's the first town that
comes to mind. New Mexico. They have like the old
Club Cafe, which the sign is gone that gummt uh
(20:44):
I was talking with a vintage Neon project Odd and
I think Todd said that he got blocked by the
owner of the guy who who now has the Club
Cafe sign in Albertquerque, because he may have harassed him
a little too much. But we talked about like the
(21:04):
Oklahoma stops and like El Reno. One of my favorite
signs that is a buckets sign is the Old Ranger
Motel in El Reno. The script is amazing, the the
upside down like atomic Star is really cool and all
those things. Like one thing that they kind of intrigued
me is the neon sign initiative. I know. I believe Pocatello,
(21:28):
Idaho has one as well, like the Knights of Pocatello.
Going through there during the days amazing. I need to
get there and go through there at night. But with
the restoration in Tulsa, are they allowed to take the
signs down, restore them and put them back up or
do they have to work on them on site like
(21:49):
places like in Denver and San Francisco when Chicago.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Have to do so that's a great question. But first
I have to apologize for miss speaking. Terry Funk was
the Texas Bronco, not that six And I do not
want any of my friends in Texas to get onto memo.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
All right, Well, I mean he tumbled like a tumble weed.
Let's just put it that way. Yeh.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah. So part of what the City of Tulsa did
when they put this grant in place is the first
thing they did was they created a zoning overlay for
Route sixty six.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Okay, where there's.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
This essential footprint around both alignments of Root sixty six
in Tulsa that we've been able to use for multiple purposes,
the first being to relax some of the sign restrictions
that were put in place during the beautification era, so
to speak, in the nineteen seventies. So it didn't remove
all of the requirements. So it depends on the size
of the sign and you know how close they are
to power line, spiders stuff. However, there have been some
(22:42):
signs on Route sixty six that we were able to
take down, restore and put back that if this overlay
had not been in place, they would have just had
to fix that in place.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Well.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Wow, there's a Mexican restaurant that moved to Root sixty
six in the early nineteen fifties called the El Rancho Grande.
Interestingly enough, I have a friend in the Texas Panhana
that wrote a book about diner culture on Route sixty six,
and his name is doctor T.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Lindsey.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Baker, fantastic guy, and from his research, he pointed to
that restaurant as one of the very first places that,
if not the very first place that westbound travelers during
route sixty six is Golden Age would encounter tex Mechs
food here.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Oh really, you know, they might.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Have had some roadside stands or things like that, but
an actual tex Mex restaurant that popped up in like
nineteen fifty three, I think it is before that. He
could find no evidence of other tex Mex restaurants on
Route sixty six, which was the only way to go
west at the time. Really, so that has this interesting,
again little claim to fame. But they have a vintage
Neon sign, and that one has to be repaired in
(23:44):
place because over the years now it's up real close
to some power lines and things, and it would require
some city intervention. However, other signs have been able to
come down, get repaired put back up. But I would
say the majority, gosh, probably near ninety percent of the
signs funded by that grant program have been brand new Neon,
maybe a new business that's built, or maybe a business
has taken over an old filling station or some old business,
(24:07):
And said you know what, I want a neon sign.
I want to be a part of this story that
continues to grow and evolve. And so now you can
drive down Eleventh Street and Tulsa, which is the main
alignment of Route sixty six. Yeah, and you have all
this beautiful neon both new and old, that light the
way for you.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah, you know, just going through your feed real fast.
But the one new neon sign that that just strikes
my fancy is the Tunsorial Barbershop. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
And that that tea with the old razor on It
is so clever how they integrated those two pieces together
to create this really cool little neon you know experience
and the barber pool next to it. They really you know,
(25:02):
embrace the barber You know, there's it's kind of a
barber culture coming back, you know, guys going to barber shops,
like upscale barbershops. I know there's a few here in
uh in Houston, there's one over in what is it
a Washington Avenue and there's and that one has another
(25:23):
one over in the Heights and of this probably places
that not many people are familiar with, but you know,
they have cut throats and stuff like that. And not
only have they embraced the barber culture, I don't know
if that's the right term for it, but they've also
embraced the neon culture as well, you know long Route
(25:46):
sixty six. That that's really neat that they did that.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
It's a wonderful realization of again, a new business. They
took over an old convenience store that had been kind
of run down, renovated it and that sign for years
held one of those old, you know, plastic box signs
for the little you know, convenience store that was there, Okay,
and now you look at it. It's this beautiful artistic
expression of their business. And we're just happy that Tulsa
(26:13):
was able to help make that possible.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Yeah, and so what are some other really cool stories
that I kind of liked that about, you know, a
restoration or even new coming on there in Tulsa because
Luke Lecau.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
One of the newest ones and it's I think the
it's early in my feed now because they just lit
it was the Saratoga Center. This sign is gargantuan is
it is sixty six feet tall? Imagine that. And it's
a recreation of a lost sign for the Saratoga Motor
Hotel that stood at that exact spot. A local church
(26:49):
purchased this old hotel renovated it it. It had been
closed for a while. I renovated it. It's now a
facility for folks that are in recovery or coming out
of justice involved situation or escaping domestic abuse. So it's
kind of a safe space. And they got a grant
from the state of Oklahoma related to the centennial because
(27:10):
that sign was over one hundred thousand dollars to rebuild
and rebte, and they replicated the old motel sign for
the Saratoga, changed what some of the letters were because
their organization is called Wings of Freedom. So now there's
this amazing beacon on the east side of Root sixty
six in Tulsa, which that area is still developing and
(27:32):
kind of coming back from the doldrooms days of sixty six,
and this now serves as what we're hoping will be
a real catalyst for development on that side of town.
But you know, you can see it from the interstate.
It is just you can't describe the feeling of seeing
that in person. It's so gigantic. But I did my
best with a little with Instagram, Like, I know you
(27:52):
can post pictures that aren't square anymore, but I refuse
to break out of that because I like the restriction
of only being able to post square pictures. I'm a
little bit of a of a grouchy old guy when
it comes to stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
I guess for me, I've never really fallen into that
in a way because I don't know, I'm kind of
weird like that. I kind of like breaking out of
the boundaries. But I love that you're sticking with the
old square. That good audio for that. And I remember
when you shared this photo and it came across my feed.
(28:26):
I know I'm not there a person. I get that,
but there's a breath taking factor to this sign, even
in the photos of it, because and now knowing the
backstory of it and that they're they're using it as
a beacon of hope, Melly for like the old you know,
sixty six coming, you know, coming back to life and
(28:51):
things like that. But they're beacon a hope for people
trying to get their lives back on track. And that's amazing.
So I guess we'll end this segment of International sign Finders.
Holy cow, there's so much unwrap here, and when we
get back, we will talk about Reese's involvement with not
(29:15):
just the Oklahoma chapter, but the whole, but the whole
sixty sixth chapter. You're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome
(29:40):
back to International sign Finders. Glad you stole with us.
We have Reese, Martin Reese Funk, the president of the
Oklahoma Rout sixty six found Ancient Is that right association association?
I always want to get foundation association mixed up. I'm
so sorry, Reese, but but man, we just on such
a high note there with the Saratoga wings. At first
(30:03):
I was thinking maybe they have some great wings there,
but you know, sorry, I thought that I should have
looked into the place a little more. But you know
them having that amazing like mid century shape at the top,
and you know that wrap azoid down the side and
the atomic star and just everything is so Route sixty
Route Cecy six, Rout sixty six, however you say it.
(30:26):
And to know that that's such a beacon for people
when they come into town or they're looking for a
way to get back on track or find help. It's
such an amazing story. For some reason, I'm reminded of
the Brute the Spruce Motel in Idaho Falls, which I
felt so weird taking a picture of because it was
(30:48):
a safe haven for abused women and I felt such
like a creeper just taking a picture, even though it
was there for like two minutes. I was like, I'm
taking a picture of getting now great, you know the
folks that are doing the Lord's work. I just hope
that I didn't come across as weird when I did that.
But you know that that's just me and my insecurities
(31:09):
and I let's talk about that's and we've kind of
touched on this about you know, the neon initiatives across
around sixty six, Like you know, Tulsa's got this amazing
one there, and God blushell for what you're doing Albertquerque.
It doesn't surprise you with Albuquerque for some reason, especially
with you know, breaking bad coming out of you know,
New Mexico and things like that, and them crying to
(31:31):
you build up different parts to kind of you know,
I want to see where this is filmed, the better
call Saul and things like that. But your involvement with
ROUT sixty six as a whole, what is that what
has that done for you? And you're we talked about
your appreciation of around sixty six, but now that you're
(31:52):
in an administrator position, what does that do for you?
In rauh sixty six? I mean, you're not just as
a salesperson. You're you know, you're the one trying to
well you are the salesperson. Well yeah, let's just go
with that. You're trying to get people to come to
ROU sixty six. And also are you coordinating the differing
(32:15):
events of round sixty sixt especially with the centennial or
what have you.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Well, so my position with the association as president is
completely volunteer.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Ok.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
I joined their board back in twenty seventeen and then
got promoted to president or elected to president in twenty
nineteen and been in that role ever since. Heck yeah,
through that, you know, that's promotion, that's preservation, talking to
like Lions clubs, and eventually that got me involved with
several centennial groups since the road turns one hundred and
twenty twenty six, and everyone's like, hey, you know Route
(32:48):
sixty six, You've been involved in the community, so come
here and be our kind of history.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Guy dose.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I tend to be the guy that talks forever about
the little idio secrecies of Route sixty six history and development.
I'm like, well, now, you see, in nineteen twenty seven,
this thing happened, and you know, I can see people's
eyes glaze over, but I can't help.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
It ad the crispy effect. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
And then you know, so I got to meet people
all over from all over the country involved in Root
sixty six advocacy and so then but I still, you know,
that's still all volunteer work. And then a few months ago,
the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is a national
nonprofit that does a lot of preservation work all across
the country. They've had a preserve Root sixty six initiative
(33:30):
for a couple of years, where, for example, they're working
to get Root sixty six at it as a national
Historic trail federally. They are trying to help guide folks
creating grant programs. They have their own grant programs that
they're putting out there for preservation and research and things
like that. Interpretation. To help prepare Root sixty six for
(33:54):
the centennial, well, they posted a position, a normal hired
position to help ordinate all of their little efforts to
do you in and I'm, you know, very humbled and
proud that they selected me to be that person. So
now basically I've taken the last five years of volunteer work,
five plus years of volunteer work I've done and taken
(34:15):
all that experience, and now I get to represent the
National Trust in these communities when I go out there
and say, well, I see you're you know you're you
need a new roof. Well, Trust has a grant that
could help you with that. Or oh, give me on
sign you know is broken. You know we have a
grant that I help with that. Or you know, you
have this building that should be on the National Register
and you need to hire somebody to do all the
research to make that happen. Maybe we can help with that,
(34:37):
you know. But even something as simple as like in Texas,
Texas Route sixty six only has a single bridge left
and it's one of those to drive over and don't
even realize it's historic. It's a lot of timber like
understructure bridge. Yeah, and so their organization hasn't ever had
to lead an effort to save a bridge. Well, the
very first thing that got me into Roote sixty six
as an advocate was going up to Missouri to a
(34:59):
rally to save an old bridge that was going to
get torn down. So because we now kind of have
all these connections, we get to bring people together and say, hey, Texas,
you're having an issue with this bridge.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Well let's get.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Oklahoma and Missouri on the line. Here's what we did,
here's who we engage these organizations and basically help each other.
So you know, tomorrow I'm hopping on a plane early
in the morning. I'm playing out to King in Arizona
and talk to some folks. I'm talking to some people
in Seligman, which is where Angel Delgado is from, the
known as the Angel of Route sixty six or his
(35:29):
affcacy efforts. And I imagine over the next two years,
I'll be doing a lot of little hop, skip and
jump along Route sixty six just to let people know
what resources are out there and to you know, keep
everyone communicating and talking to each other.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
My gosh, do you have a lot of h do
you go on to like radio shows? And I know
you're here at the podcast, and I'm glad to help
you know, Like for like eight listeners to the podcast,
I'm glad to sh that with them, But is there
(36:03):
like a media outreach besides just Instagram and social media,
like with television stations and radio stations and such like.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
That everybody kind of has their own little arm of that,
like the Trust has its own group that does their
own thing. And so I'm more boots on the ground.
I might share what I can via social media just
as my own personal journey and as the things I'm
working on. I have talked to the news, I have
talked to radio. I have popped up in a newspaper
now and again. But my job is less public relations
(36:34):
and more just that community outreach and engagement, and sometimes
they cross over a little bit. But like yourself, you know,
I'm always happy to talk about Read sixty six, whether
it's personal or professional. As you can tell from the
way I talk about it and the things I'm involved in,
It's become quite a passion for me.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yeah, most definitely. And you know, talking to Nick Nick
Girlic who's out at you know, West Texas a and
m there yourself.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
His photography is amazing and the dude is.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
A ball of energy. And also I love sharing this.
He broke Google maps. She found that you know, you
can max out your pins at ten thousand. So he
has an he showed you, let me see you his
Google maps. Now he's on the east coast, he's the
west coast, and they're full and it's amazing what he's doing.
(37:28):
And you know he talks about you know, sometimes people
get a little apprehensive about going out and taking pictures,
more pictures because you know how many pictures can people
take of the blue swallow in to come carry seriously,
but he kind of gives encourishment by saying, and hopefully
this isn't too much of a tangent from what you're
(37:48):
talking about. You know, your picture of that you know
roadside attraction, your picture of that diner of you know
like Adrian the cafe, they're an Adrienne, Texas, I believe,
you know, places like that you're adding to the historical record.
(38:10):
Are there many other ways that folks can you know,
help maybe help you out, get the word out, maybe
share their little bit of Route sixty six to kind
of you know, encourage people, say, hey, this is my
little bit of Americana right here. And if you want
to find out more about what's going on with Route
(38:33):
sixty six, go to Reese is Is there like a
network that way as well, so there is you know.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
I had the pleasure of taking doctor Gerlic on a
little in the on tour and Tulsa some years ago
we met their Root sixty six.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Oh cool, spending.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
An evening in the car with him, just hopping out
and taking pictures of science. So not much better than that.
You know, when when people talk about helping and everything
and like how can they be engaged? The National Trust
has a Share Your Story initiative right now that for
the centennial, which is in twenty twenty six, they're hoping
to gather twenty twenty six stories from Route sixty six.
(39:09):
And I've told people before photography is a form of preservation.
You look at some of these old signs that have
been miraculously restored, which is wonderful. We want that to happen,
but you do lose something when that happens. You lose
kind of the story of that sign up until the
planet is restored. But if you have a picture of it,
at least it exists in that form somewhere. So I
tell folks, even if there's nothing else you can do,
we'll overtake that picture because you are capturing it. In
(39:32):
that moment, one hundred percent agree with with net and so,
But if people go to preserve Root six six dot org,
that goes to the National Trust's landing page and there's
a sharer story link there where we ask folks, hey,
have you been on sixty six? Do you have a
story about it?
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Do you have a picture?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Share a picture, give us a little blurb about it,
And we're collecting those as kind of like an oral
history project, and so we encourage people to do that.
I would also encourage folks to go out to Oklahoma
roots six si dot com here in Oklahoma. I I
helped manage that and that page. I've I've really worked
hard to try to make it a clearing house of
(40:08):
information for Route sixty six generally, and so it's got
links out to all kinds of other grant programs and
other association pages and national initiatives and centennial stuff. So
you've just spent a lot of time on there. But
if you only do one thing, I would say that
Preserved Root six six dot org story site is just
a great way to contribute a little bit of your
(40:28):
personal story to the tapestry that is Root sixty six.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
God bless you, and amen, I gotta say amen to
all of you've said. You know, growing up, you know
eastern North Carolina, you'd hear about Ruth sixty six. You
know there's always a song get your kicks of Rut
sixty six. You hear that all the time. And but
seeing it firsthand, for me, it's so much different. Even
(40:55):
at night, going through two from carry three in the
morning and nothing's lit up, you can still since what
it was there. But one question I wanted to ask
you before we in the segment is have you has
Neon Speaks reach out to you or have you done
like a presentation in Neon Speaks or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I haven't.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
No, huh. Maybe we need to connect the dots there,
because you know, if any of you don't know about
Neon Speaks. It's the big, huge conferencer in San Francisco. Oh, man,
Deborah Jae's gonna kill me for forgetting their names, the
two that run it. But you know they teach people
how to start preservation programs and how to get the
(41:41):
ball rolling in your community about Neon and things like that,
And man, that'd be pretty cool to somehow there'd be
that connection. Maybe maybe one of these days. I don't know.
I can't make any promises. I don't know them out
Neon speaks.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
I just know of what they do, so I like
to it myself. That sounds really interesting.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah, they get out to me for not going to it,
especially having a podcast about Neon signs and things less.
Maybe I gotta save up my panties. Well, that'll bring
us to the end of I think I lost count
of what segment we're on. We're on segment before. I
believe when we come back from this break, we will
(42:23):
get into the bucket list of places that Reese would
like to go to, because I have to be sixty six.
Could be the Lincoln Highway. It could be going across
the desert and win a Mucca, Nevada. Wherever you're listening
to International sign Finders, Welcome back to International sign Finders.
(42:59):
This is that a segment something I don't know? I
lost cow. Do you remember, Reese? I shouldn't ask you.
That's a professional of a Holy Cow. I've just been
enjoying this conversation. I just forgot the count. And you
know what that shows? You know how bested in the
(43:19):
story I am of Reese and eighty HDV. We won't
get in at that too much. But Reese been telling
the great story of not just Oklahoma around sixty six
in the preservation and then just getting out there kicking
the rocks, and not kick rocks in the bad way,
but kicking the rocks of you know, walking across these
places and finding things. And heck, I remember one of
(43:44):
my fondest memories, even though it was during kind of
a rough time because my mom passed away in August,
but we were in up in Oklahoma City in July
and I had a boot on that broke in my toe,
and I'm hobbling across with automobile alley there in Oklahoma
City taking pictures. We're trying to take pictures, and you know,
hopefully you have memories of that, and we'll have links
(44:06):
to Preservation six six dot org. Is that the website
people can go to the share their story. Preserve six look,
get it not Route six six six. That's a different
place in the bad of that now you know, called
something else, but I think, uh, but Preserve six uh
(44:27):
dot or Root six six dot organ. I'll get it right.
I'm sorry my memory is so short term, but you know,
I'll have links to these different websites that Reese will
share within the show so you can get involved, so
you can share your little piece of Americana, piece of
(44:47):
the Mother Row, piece of Main Street, USA by going
there and sharing, you know, your photos, your stories, and
you know, I've I've I'm rambling on too much. I'm
gonna hand the baton over to you. So what are
some places that you would like to go to that
you haven't been to year, or maybe you've been to
but you want to get back to to get you know,
(45:08):
either pictures or better pictures for your signing finding journey.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Well, first, please accept my condolences. I'm really sorry to
hear about your mother.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Yeah, thank you. I don't know how to uh.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Yeah, I lost my mom in twenty twenty unexpectedly, and
that's still something I grapple with. You know, they say
grief never really goes away. It just you just learn
to live with it. And yeah, you know, I also
bring that up because you know, I took a road
trip with my mom in October of twenty nineteen, just
a few months before she.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Would be gone.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Yeah, and we went to the Grand Canyon. She'd always
wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, and so I'm
really happy to you know, we stayed the Blue Swallow
and to can carry or got to show her a
lot of these places that I had become really passionate about,
But the location I was most excited to take her
to this Monument Valley. I've been there a couple of times,
and when people ask where, you know, would you like
to go anywhere? Even though I've been there, I want
(46:05):
to go back. Monument Valley is my favorite place on
the planet. I mean, part of that has probably has
to do with the fact that my dad was a
huge John Wayne fan, and so I grew up and
Monument Valley was always on the television in one form
or another.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
But it's just.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Such a beautiful and amazing and just kind of electric place.
I just love it.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
But oh yeah, and Mike adulces to you about you
losing your mom because yeahs anyway, maybe, yeah, you know it.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
Some days it just feels like it just happened. But yeah,
you know, I would love to go see the Grand
Teton Mountains in Wyoming.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Oh yes, you know.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
I just I joke with my wife that, like, my
ideal vacation is just sitting on a porch somewhere in
the morning with a cup of coffee where I could
just look at some mountains, because we don't we don't
really have much of that here in Alaholma.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
Yeah. And I used to work in the shadow of
the mountains. I went to school there in East Idaho,
and I worked at a golf course in Victor, Idaho,
which is on the you know, the Idaho side of
the Teetons. And uh, there is. Man, I'm about to
get emotional about this. There is nothing like driving across
(47:22):
the plains, well not the plains, but you know, the
rolling hills just before you get to the Tetons and
seeing the sun come up with those mountains in the background.
I miss those Daggo Mountains. Ah and uh. And also
you got Jackson the whole other side, which is a
sign finding treasure as well from what they've preserved and
(47:46):
stuff like that there. But let me let me hind
it back to you.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Sorry, no, no, you're good. Gosh where else like the
first place I went to when I traveled internationally on
that ten month trip, I took a container ship from
Long Beach, California to New Zealand. Oh wow, it was
you know, from there, I went to the equator, so
I didn't It was it was April, so it was
(48:10):
almost winter there, and so I didn't go to the
South Island. And anytime I meet a New Zealand travel
group that comes to Route sixty six and I say, hey,
I've been in New Zealand, they're like, oh, that's great.
What'd you like? Can I say I didn't go to
the South Island and then they like throw tomatoes at me,
like they're like what, So I really want to You know,
South Island is generally considered the more beautiful island. That's
(48:31):
what the big mountains are and all that. That's the
lord of the rings country. I would love to go
back to New Zealand and see the South Island. Plus
it's just cool to go to a place where now
I know these people that I've met on Average sixty six, Hey,
when you come to my neck of the woods, come
in and I'll get you a plint. You know, that'd
be just really fantastic.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
Oh that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
It's interesting talking about it out loud. There's a most
of my bucket list want to go to places are
like this very natural. Yeah, I'm not a real wilderness guy.
But man, I would just love to just sit and
breathe and relax and just look at some mountains. I
think as long as there's something like that, I'd be happy.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
That is. That is because there's no rules to the
whole bucket list thing. They could be signs, ity be
not signs or whatever. But if I remember right, there's
an old drive in there, a grigside of ho. I'm
gonna go back to the Tetons again real fast, and
uh they had a big, huge it was called the
Big Spud. It was out front. They had this like flatbed,
(49:23):
old flatbed you know, pick up you know, pickup truck,
probably for the forties, and they have this huge like
potato on the back of it. But it's called the
Big Spud. And I think that the uh, the the
movie screen you know, came down a few years ago.
They've put it back up. And if memory serves me right,
(49:46):
they have like little bungalows that they've built around the
edge of the uh, the you know, the drive in area,
so you can stand those bungalows, watch a movie and
stay the night all in one, which you know, maybe
that's an option. If my memory is serving me, correct,
(50:06):
that'd be a pretty cool experience, to be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
I mean, just a giant potato on a flatbed is
enough to get me up there.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
So, oh you had me at potato. So before we leave,
because we are regards to the final seconds, Holy cal
this has been an amazing conversation. Thank you so much
Reese for joining me. I'm glad we were able to
get our schedules coordinated for this. What are some places
(50:34):
that you want to you want to direct people to
and I'll share links with with everybody in the show
notes before you head out.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Sure well preserve Root sixty six dot org is kind
of the home base for everything the National Trust is
doing for Route sixty six, including that Share your Story initiative.
Oklahoma Root sixty six dot com is for the Oklahoma
Route sixty six Association, which itself has links out to
all kinds of regional and national Route sixty six groups.
Cool and if if you're still a Facebook person, you know,
(51:06):
we're all over Facebook and Instagram. You can follow me
at reesfunk, r h ys f U, and k you
know Instagram, Blue Sky.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
I'm all over the.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
Place, so I have a pretty wide digital footprint. You
just plug my name in and you'll find something. And
the travel blog that I kept whenever I was overseas,
you know, gosh, that was oh boy, like fifteen years ago.
Now I don't want to say that number out loud.
He is still active. When I'm on the road, I
try to post and share what I'm seeing and what
I'm experiencing. And so I'm I'm out there.
Speaker 1 (51:36):
Are you a flicker hit as well? You'd like to
go on flot? I share photos?
Speaker 2 (51:39):
Boy, you know, I have a paid close attention to
Flicker In a while, my Instagram posts over there automatically.
But when I was overseas, Flicker was the thing I'm
starting to show my h here, and so I i.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
For ten years.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
I went to dragon Con, which is a huge comic
con type convention in Atlanta, Georgia. Okay, And all I
did when I was there was wander around two pictures
of cosplayers and these amazing costumes. So I have a
decade of pictures of dragon Con on my Flicker account,
as well as a bunch of Neon and travel and everything.
So yeah, and you can go to resfunk dot com
(52:13):
and that's also got links out to Instagram and the
blog and all that kind of stuff, so I'm kind
of all over the place.
Speaker 1 (52:19):
Heck yeah, well, once again, thank you so much for
joining me and sharing the story, and hopefully we can
get this out to more people. So when the centennial
hits in twenty twenty six, you know, we'll we'll, you'll.
Why am I saying? Well, I feel like I'm a
part of this now, Dad Gummick, you did a great job.
(52:43):
That's what it does.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
The road get to hold you in and then let go.
Speaker 1 (52:45):
Man, it does. Yeah. So when you resent this oral
history to everybody else, you'll have the twenty twenty six people,
twenty twenty six people and hopefully even more want to
share their story with everybody else and make this, you know,
a centennial to remember. If that's a cliche I can use,
(53:08):
Uh yeah cool. Well, once again, thank you so much.
And as I as I end the show, every time
that we have a show, get out there hear the pavement.
We don't care if you have one follower or one
hundred thousand plus followers. We want to see your photos.
We want you to share them with us. Say we
(53:29):
can enjoy your retelling of a piece of history, whether
it's a long Route sixty six or some little country
road in the middle of Montana in Miles City, taking
a photo of the Montana Bar there in downtown Miles
Serie City. It doesn't matter. Just share it with us,
let us see that, and heck, you might get a
(53:52):
story on my Instagram fee, because you know that's what
I did. As soon as I saw the the Wings
Riseratoka Wings Signed from Reese Is, I put that up
on my stories and so everybody else can see it
and go see his sight and seeing more of what
he's doing. I like doing that for people both at
(54:13):
Houston Signed Hunting and also international sign finders. And until
next time, hit the pavement, have fun and we'll see
you later.
Welcome everybody to another episode of International Sign Finders. We're
glad you're back with us. I'm your host, you Rabernathy,
And you know last week we talked with I'm blanking
out now. Uh sorry, I'll edit this a little bit.
I'm trying to remember who I talked with last week
has been such a long Oh Todd Baits, Oh my gosh, Todd,
(00:34):
I'm so sorry. Yeah, we talked with Todd Bates last week,
and especially about the is trying to document all the
dying signs or all the old signs in Florida. I
don't want to say dying because it's well yeah, yes
and no, So we'll just keep that as dying signs
(00:55):
sad emoji right there across Florida is especially after like
the disnification of Florida. And also we talked about, you know,
the the signs that survived Hurricane Milton and Helene, especially
the sand Ban Motel. I don't know what they built
that sign out of, but for it to come away
(01:17):
with as little damage as it did says something about
the people who built that son of a gun. So
if you're if you love neon, especially Florida Neon, and
want to get into it. One great resources Todd Bates
there a vintage Neon project. But this week we're heading
from the Sunshine State up to what's the nickname of Oklahoma?
(01:39):
Because the one that I know of might be politically
incorrect because my mom, you know, grew up in the
fifties and sixties and seventies in Oklahoma.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
We are the Sooner State.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
There we go, Sooner State. I was going to say
the home of the uh Yeah, which is I don't
think they say that anymore. To the Sooner State. I
should know that. I'm so sorry, but we have on
tonight Reese Funk. You can follow him on Instagram at
Reese Funk. He works with the Oklahoma Route sixty six Foundation,
(02:11):
I believe, and also he is working with the whole
Route sixty six foundation from Chicago to Santa Monica. He
is the headman in charge. Welcome to the show, Reese Funk.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Thank you so much, Dree. It's pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, glad to have you here. And for those listening,
Oklahoma should be another bucketless place for you. And I'm
not just talking about Oklahoma City. I'm talking about Tulsa.
And I've talked about you know, like Chickashek. I've talked
before about chickashe Oklahoma. There is so much going on
(02:48):
in that town that I was able to kind of get,
you know, peak over some of the buildings and I
saw nothing but mid century signage all the way down.
And you're out of Tulsa, right, So introducer. Yeah, I've
jumped the shark already, So introduce yourself to the sign
finding community and let's let's go into you know, Tulsa
(03:10):
and points beyond. Sure.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
So, yeah, my name is Reese Martin and that first
name is r h Ys, So if you're looking for
my handle, it's r h ys f u n K.
It's a little different. As a kid, I hated it because,
you know, if you if you're different, kids usually cope
funded it. But as it's unarrere so people remember it.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
So.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I am currently president of the Oklahoma Route sixty six Association,
which is a state wide nonprofit concerned with preserving and
promoting Route sixty six within Oklahoma, which Oklahoma has more
drivable miles than any of the other seven states of
Route sixty six over four hundred and recently, I was
also hired on at the National Trust for Historic Preservation
(03:50):
as their National Preserve Root sixty six manager.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
But I have a lot of hats.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I'm involved in a lot of different Route sixty six initiatives.
I'm very fortunate that with the centennial Route sixty six
coming up just twenty twenty six, all eight states kind
of have their own little organizations and we're all talking
together regularly and doing what we can to make sure
we're not stepping on each other and helping celebrate this
amazing milestone for the road. But you know, it's it's
(04:16):
funny reaching out to me about Neon first, because photography
is how I got into Route sixty six in the
first case.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Now, when you've got when you were photographing Route sixty six,
what were you mainly concerned with Regent's you know, you
know all the different little roadside attractions kind of the
kitchen of Ral sixty six that's still available. Like when
it comes to my mind, is the blue whale of Watusa?
Is that right? Tusa? Yeah? Why do I want to
(04:43):
say what twos? I'm sorry the Tusa. You're here and
there's like little things like that all along ROULD sixty six.
So what was the thing about sixty six that got
you into photography? Well, it is so.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
The The short version is that in two thousand and
nine I left the country. I sold everything and left
and backpack for ten months through Southeast Asia and Europe.
Oh well, and that was very transformative, as you might imagine,
and I fell in love with writing and photography and
history during that time. So I came home and be
born and raised in the Tulsa area and realized I
not really paid attention to anything around here and started
(05:19):
looking around, and honestly, the thing about Route sixty six
the first drew me in was abandoned stuff, you know,
the old diners, the old motels, the old signs that
had been and that were in disrepair and just weren't
in great shape. But quickly I realized that Route sixty
six was more than just like a piece of history.
It was a living, evolving thing with you know, restaurants
(05:42):
and quirky roadside attractions like the Blue Whale, and that
the journey itself was still very much worth taking. It
took me about two years to drive the whole thing
a piecemeal style and quickly realized there was a need
for advocacy to help save some of these places and
celebrate what's here, because much like you mentioned at the
top of the program, Oklahoma gets skipped a lot when
(06:04):
people are thinking about traveling because people, yeah, I just think,
why would I go to Oklahoma?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
But we have a lot of.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Cool stuff to see here, and I love sharing, you know,
Tulsa's my hometown, sharing what we have here, whether it's
Art deco architecture or cool neon signage or things like
the Woody Guthrie Center that tell an amazing story. And
you know, it's a good jumping off point for so
many other things. And of course Route sixty six, being
arguably the most famous highway in the world, goes right
(06:33):
through town. So it all just works together pretty nicely.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah, when you talk about you know, Oklahoma isn't on people's, like,
you know, to top of their list of places to visit.
You know, I grew up in eastern North Carolina. My
mom's from Norman, Oklahoma, so there was somebody in our
little town. Our little town had now only has two
hundred and fifty people, but at the times about four
hundred and so one of my mom's best friends would
(06:58):
always teases, Okaho, why are you going to Oklahoma. What's
there to do in Oklahoma? And you know, like there
in Norman, you know, for a while you had the
Rose Rocks. You had I remember the old ANW Roopier
drive in which we didn't have in eastern North Carolina
at all. But when you talk about Root sixty six,
(07:20):
I mean just just my little experience in Oklahoma City,
Like was at Northwest sixteenth Street and we're talking about
Northwest thirty ninth Street. I believe that brand News sign
had just went up and you got to see it.
Maybe we'll put it in the promo. But Oklahoma has
(07:41):
so much history that I don't know much of it.
But what little I do know, like Tinker Air Force
Base and the first Bee fifty two is being worked
on out there. My grandfather worked on them. And like
there's a there's an old town in East Oklahoma which
was like the is the home of the Black Cowboy
(08:03):
Rodeo if I remember right. And you know, one of
the greatest rangers of all time, you know, Us Marshalls
comes from Oklahoma as well. That's for use. Yeah, yeah,
So I just took up that last bit of the segment.
And so when we come back, we'll get into Oklahoma
Route sixty six a little more, get into Tulsa, Oklahoma city.
(08:26):
Points in between, you're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome
back to International sign Finders. Glad you's deal with us.
(08:48):
We have Reese Martin Reese Funk. Go over to Instagram
and follow him there. Man, he's got such a treasure
trove of pictures, not just Neon, but one of the
first you'll see when you get to his Instagram feed
is a little Mama Pop food market right there in Riverton, Kansas.
I mean, that reminds me of stuff that I grew
(09:10):
up with there in eastern North Carolina. Like you go
into the old gas station just I don't know if
it's this way there, but I just remember the few
that we had near where I lived. They had like
old wooden boards that you walked on. They creaked, it
smelled like no dust and nostalgia in the air. And
you get like an old glass bottle of soft drink
(09:35):
and take it with you and hopefully you had one
to trade in so you didn't have to pay the
full price. But right, yeah, but we're just kind of
getting into like a taste of Oklahoma, you know, nostalgia
with Rus sixty six and all the other stuff that
goes on around the Sooner State. So kind of give
(09:56):
us the breakdown about Oklahoma Route sixty six. I mean,
we talked about Chicago, Roukou carry Is. I mean, it's
a small little town that's got a lot of a
lot going on for especially with you know, the restore
of Neon and the old Round sixty six Main Street
and things like that in town, even Santa Rosa and
places like that, Oklaholma, not just Oklahoma City and Tulsa,
(10:20):
but all the little towns. What's the appeal of why
should people care about it? Well?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Route sixty six has a lot of nicknames, but the
very first one I ever got was the main street
of America. And Root sixty six still is main street.
And so many of these towns and people from all
over the world come to America and they don't go
to New York City, they don't go to Disney World,
I mean, no lot do. But you know they come
to Root sixty six because they don't just want the
big cities or the tourist attractions. They want the experience
(10:50):
of seeing the grandeur of this country. Yeah, and you know,
you start in Illinois, you have these nice rolling hills
and some prairie land. You get into Missouri, you get
the ozar and a lot more trees, and the landscape
starts to change a little bit. Then in Oklahoma starts
to flatten out. And of course as you give west,
you get like the maces and the deserts and the
beauty and then eventually the Pacific Ocean. But Oklahoma really
(11:12):
is the part where the West kind of starts. And
Oklahoma's have a little bit of a you know, our
hair stands up on the back of our neck. What
someone says, well, are you the South, you the Midwest?
You the Great Plains? Because we're kind of a little
bit of all of those things. We're in this place
where we have just these pieces of all these other regions.
And so people come through Oklahoma, especially if you're using
(11:32):
Route sixty six as that come to it, and you
get a little bit of all of that, and so
that opens you up to so many of these experiences.
And like you said, all of these small towns have
their charm, they have their little places that aren't changed
that you can only go to this place in this
one town, and that's it. You have a lot of
things left from when Route sixty six had its so
called glory days with the great Neon and the service
(11:54):
stations and the quirky attractions, and so.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
You just get this really great quilt.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Of American culture, and it appeals to people that you
know will come from the other side of the world
just just to just to go through it.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I think I've I follow some folks from Germany and
England that you know, there's sole Instagram focus is Route
sixty six and sharing that with the rest of the world.
And you know how many movies are set on Route
secy six? How many? I mean, like the great writers
there in the fifties and sixties, got Carawhac and Hunter
(12:36):
Hunter Thompson, you is that, yeah, one hundred Thompson. You know,
the gonzo writers, the ones that write about experiences and
may not have the best structure to their sentences, but
you get what they're talking about when they write about it.
And just seeing you know, the little bit I've seen
of all, you know, the restored Root sixty six. I mean,
(12:58):
when you're coming up Northwest sixties Street, there no Columbus City.
I've talked about this quite a bit the off factor.
I mean, that was your original Instagram, that was your
original social media. That was the billboard of the day
saying come watch a movie here, come eat here, maybe
do some business. Get your transmission changed because it blew
(13:19):
while you're trying to go across country. So what else
about like the little tales, like those little attractions? You know,
Richard Gutman talks about the diners, especially the diner scenes
of the Northeast and across country, those little you know,
Mama pops shops that you know, they they focus on.
(13:39):
Like the one that comes to mind is Amarillo. I
know that's Texas, but you know the it is on
Roe sixty six. Yeah, but the seventy two out steak
and they have the big Texity you've got. They have
a video and you can watch people, you know, you know,
destroy their digestive system. Well they do that. What are
(14:02):
some cool little places that you found that you know
you want to share with everybody else here on the podcast? Boy?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
You know, I mean it really all comes down to authenticity.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah. You know.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
The author Michael Wallace, who's also from Tulsa, wrote a
book in nineteen ninety called Route sixty six to the Mother Road,
which is credited as one of the kind of embers
that started the fire of this revitalization of Route sixty six. Basically,
it's this book that told folks the road is still
worth traveling, and they're these people that you meet and
he in that book he calls Route sixty six a
(14:36):
linear community. You know, Route sixty six is over twenty
four hundred miles long. Yeah, but you can talk to
somebody in a Route sixty six town, Illinois and they'll say, hey,
you know what, when you get to Texas, you got
to stop in Texas. You got to stop in Amarillo
on sixth Street and talk to log Crocodile Lyle and
check out his jewelry. Or you got to stop at
the Jack Rabbit Trading Post in Arizona. You know, these
(14:56):
folks are connected by this highway. And so in Oklaho
Homa again, like I mentioned, we have we have a
lot of miles of it in this state. And you
have these amazing Mufflerman statues with these giant eyberglass guys
holding various things that are just like amazing summer custom made, summer,
actual vintage, authentic. You have amazing Neon like you said,
(15:17):
I mean here in Tulsa, we have one of the
largest neon signs on.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Route sixty six.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
It's called the metal Gold sign because it advertised medical
dairy products. It's about thirty by thirty feet. It's gigantic,
and that sign was saved from demolition in the mid
two thousands and really served as a catalyst forward the
City of Tulsa to develop some programs for Route sixty
six with grants and some other assistance programs to really
(15:43):
revitalize the corridor which had just really kind of gotten
to where it was a bunch of motels that were
run down car lots, and you know, just there wasn't
much activity. But you go down Route sixty six today
and there's all kinds of stuff going on, all kinds
of shops and restaurants and activities. And it caused the
city to create this Neon Sign Grant, which has been
(16:03):
around since twenty nineteen. Cool and so any business on
Reach sixty six in Tulsa can apply for this grant,
which is a ten thousand dollars max matching grant that
for new neon or restoring old neon signs, And to date,
sixty two signs have been installed because of this program.
It has been wildly successful. Albuquerque has a neon program.
(16:27):
You have all these different towns along sixty six that
are trying to find ways to inject a little bit
of life in it because, as always as it had
been the case since ROTE sixty six was established, you
give it a little bit of energy and the community
rallies around it. Oklahoma also has one of the oldest
we'll say roadside attractions in the Round Barn. It's this
perfectly round barn in Arcadia that's been around to eighteen
(16:50):
ninety eight. You know, Oklahoma City has a lot going
on there. I love the Milk Bottle grocery building there.
It's this tiny, like four hundred and fifty square foot
triangular building with a giant milk all on top of it.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Cool that again, you.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Just got to pull over and take a picture of it.
Where else are you going to find that? But even
as you get out into western Oklahoma, as the town's
get a little further apart, you've got museums al Reno, Oklahoma.
We just went out there earlier this week and helped
unveil a historic marker that talks about the onion Burger
which was invented out there.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yeah, I've heard about those. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So like back during the depression, you know, meat was
getting really expensive, and to help the dollar stretch farther,
there was a guy that had a little burger stand
that took literally half an onion, shredded it as thin
as he could and put it with the meat when
he grilled it, so it wasn't added afterwards. It was
all cooked together. And so when you get the burger,
it's this mish mash of like black and onion cooked
(17:46):
on the grill with the meat and the flavors, unlike
anything else. You know, other people say, here, have an
onion burger, and I tell him that's that's not that's
not an onion burger thing. It's just different. And yeah,
you know, it put them on the map. You know,
there have been New York Times articles written about this now,
which is crazy to think about the little town of
all Reno showing up there in New York Times. But
you know, each of these little towns have their own
(18:07):
little claimed fame. And you know they say that traveling
Reach sixty six is more about the journey than the destination.
And that's because you never know what's around the corner exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
That's a great place to end this segment of International
Sign Finders. When we come back, we'll get more into
you know, I love the whole linear community thing because
you know, sometimes we get so isolating our communities that
you know, people travel around they're like, oh, that's up
in Dallas. You know this is Houston, that's Dallas or
(18:41):
you know, aust or whatever. You know, people will say, hey,
go try this, try this, try this. But you know,
sometimes we want to stay isolated. But the fact that
there's that linear community going all the way from Chicago
to Santa Monica, that that says something about just the past,
but present and even the future of helping keep Round
(19:05):
sixty six going. And when we get back we'll get
more into that. Hopefully my brain stays focused with this.
Has been a long day of work and stuff like that,
but well those are excuses we're gonna keep going. You're
listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International Sign Finders.
(19:37):
Glad you're with us and we have ree smartening. You
can follow him on Instagram Reese funk I. Really I
actually knew a guy with the last him of funk
in Idaho. And it doesn't surprise me that the you know,
if that was your actual real last name, that's awesome
because you don't meet a whole lot of funks except
(19:58):
for you know, like a wrestling dory funk tear, you know,
to your craziest social Yeah he just passed away. Yeah,
he just passed away not too long ago. That that's
son of a gun.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
He's one of those guys that you would have expected
who were gone long ago. But he just held on,
like Keith richards Man, like some of some of these
folks just just rolled the genetic lottery and got lucky.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah. Uh, good on him for all that. But you know,
we've been talking about the linear uh the linear community
of Route sixty six. You know, you got people who
in Illinois telling you about you know, stop. You know,
let's just say Santa Rosa. It's the first town that
comes to mind. New Mexico. They have like the old
Club Cafe, which the sign is gone that gummt uh
(20:44):
I was talking with a vintage Neon project Odd and
I think Todd said that he got blocked by the
owner of the guy who who now has the Club
Cafe sign in Albertquerque, because he may have harassed him
a little too much. But we talked about like the
(21:04):
Oklahoma stops and like El Reno. One of my favorite
signs that is a buckets sign is the Old Ranger
Motel in El Reno. The script is amazing, the the
upside down like atomic Star is really cool and all
those things. Like one thing that they kind of intrigued
me is the neon sign initiative. I know. I believe Pocatello,
(21:28):
Idaho has one as well, like the Knights of Pocatello.
Going through there during the days amazing. I need to
get there and go through there at night. But with
the restoration in Tulsa, are they allowed to take the
signs down, restore them and put them back up or
do they have to work on them on site like
(21:49):
places like in Denver and San Francisco when Chicago.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Have to do so that's a great question. But first
I have to apologize for miss speaking. Terry Funk was
the Texas Bronco, not that six And I do not
want any of my friends in Texas to get onto memo.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
All right, Well, I mean he tumbled like a tumble weed.
Let's just put it that way. Yeh.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah. So part of what the City of Tulsa did
when they put this grant in place is the first
thing they did was they created a zoning overlay for
Route sixty six.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Okay, where there's.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
This essential footprint around both alignments of Root sixty six
in Tulsa that we've been able to use for multiple purposes,
the first being to relax some of the sign restrictions
that were put in place during the beautification era, so
to speak, in the nineteen seventies. So it didn't remove
all of the requirements. So it depends on the size
of the sign and you know how close they are
to power line, spiders stuff. However, there have been some
(22:42):
signs on Route sixty six that we were able to
take down, restore and put back that if this overlay
had not been in place, they would have just had
to fix that in place.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Well.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Wow, there's a Mexican restaurant that moved to Root sixty
six in the early nineteen fifties called the El Rancho Grande.
Interestingly enough, I have a friend in the Texas Panhana
that wrote a book about diner culture on Route sixty six,
and his name is doctor T.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Lindsey.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Baker, fantastic guy, and from his research, he pointed to
that restaurant as one of the very first places that,
if not the very first place that westbound travelers during
route sixty six is Golden Age would encounter tex Mechs
food here.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Oh really, you know, they might.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Have had some roadside stands or things like that, but
an actual tex Mex restaurant that popped up in like
nineteen fifty three, I think it is before that. He
could find no evidence of other tex Mex restaurants on
Route sixty six, which was the only way to go
west at the time. Really, so that has this interesting,
again little claim to fame. But they have a vintage
Neon sign, and that one has to be repaired in
(23:44):
place because over the years now it's up real close
to some power lines and things, and it would require
some city intervention. However, other signs have been able to
come down, get repaired put back up. But I would
say the majority, gosh, probably near ninety percent of the
signs funded by that grant program have been brand new Neon,
maybe a new business that's built, or maybe a business
has taken over an old filling station or some old business,
(24:07):
And said you know what, I want a neon sign.
I want to be a part of this story that
continues to grow and evolve. And so now you can
drive down Eleventh Street and Tulsa, which is the main
alignment of Route sixty six. Yeah, and you have all
this beautiful neon both new and old, that light the
way for you.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Yeah, you know, just going through your feed real fast.
But the one new neon sign that that just strikes
my fancy is the Tunsorial Barbershop. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
And that that tea with the old razor on It
is so clever how they integrated those two pieces together
to create this really cool little neon you know experience
and the barber pool next to it. They really you know,
(25:02):
embrace the barber You know, there's it's kind of a
barber culture coming back, you know, guys going to barber shops,
like upscale barbershops. I know there's a few here in
uh in Houston, there's one over in what is it
a Washington Avenue and there's and that one has another
(25:23):
one over in the Heights and of this probably places
that not many people are familiar with, but you know,
they have cut throats and stuff like that. And not
only have they embraced the barber culture, I don't know
if that's the right term for it, but they've also
embraced the neon culture as well, you know long Route
(25:46):
sixty six. That that's really neat that they did that.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
It's a wonderful realization of again, a new business. They
took over an old convenience store that had been kind
of run down, renovated it and that sign for years
held one of those old, you know, plastic box signs
for the little you know, convenience store that was there, Okay,
and now you look at it. It's this beautiful artistic
expression of their business. And we're just happy that Tulsa
(26:13):
was able to help make that possible.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Yeah, and so what are some other really cool stories
that I kind of liked that about, you know, a
restoration or even new coming on there in Tulsa because
Luke Lecau.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
One of the newest ones and it's I think the
it's early in my feed now because they just lit
it was the Saratoga Center. This sign is gargantuan is
it is sixty six feet tall? Imagine that. And it's
a recreation of a lost sign for the Saratoga Motor
Hotel that stood at that exact spot. A local church
(26:49):
purchased this old hotel renovated it it. It had been
closed for a while. I renovated it. It's now a
facility for folks that are in recovery or coming out
of justice involved situation or escaping domestic abuse. So it's
kind of a safe space. And they got a grant
from the state of Oklahoma related to the centennial because
(27:10):
that sign was over one hundred thousand dollars to rebuild
and rebte, and they replicated the old motel sign for
the Saratoga, changed what some of the letters were because
their organization is called Wings of Freedom. So now there's
this amazing beacon on the east side of Root sixty
six in Tulsa, which that area is still developing and
(27:32):
kind of coming back from the doldrooms days of sixty six,
and this now serves as what we're hoping will be
a real catalyst for development on that side of town.
But you know, you can see it from the interstate.
It is just you can't describe the feeling of seeing
that in person. It's so gigantic. But I did my
best with a little with Instagram, Like, I know you
(27:52):
can post pictures that aren't square anymore, but I refuse
to break out of that because I like the restriction
of only being able to post square pictures. I'm a
little bit of a of a grouchy old guy when
it comes to stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
I guess for me, I've never really fallen into that
in a way because I don't know, I'm kind of
weird like that. I kind of like breaking out of
the boundaries. But I love that you're sticking with the
old square. That good audio for that. And I remember
when you shared this photo and it came across my feed.
(28:26):
I know I'm not there a person. I get that,
but there's a breath taking factor to this sign, even
in the photos of it, because and now knowing the
backstory of it and that they're they're using it as
a beacon of hope, Melly for like the old you know,
sixty six coming, you know, coming back to life and
(28:51):
things like that. But they're beacon a hope for people
trying to get their lives back on track. And that's amazing.
So I guess we'll end this segment of International sign Finders.
Holy cow, there's so much unwrap here, and when we
get back, we will talk about Reese's involvement with not
(29:15):
just the Oklahoma chapter, but the whole, but the whole
sixty sixth chapter. You're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome
(29:40):
back to International sign Finders. Glad you stole with us.
We have Reese, Martin Reese Funk, the president of the
Oklahoma Rout sixty six found Ancient Is that right association association?
I always want to get foundation association mixed up. I'm
so sorry, Reese, but but man, we just on such
a high note there with the Saratoga wings. At first
(30:03):
I was thinking maybe they have some great wings there,
but you know, sorry, I thought that I should have
looked into the place a little more. But you know
them having that amazing like mid century shape at the top,
and you know that wrap azoid down the side and
the atomic star and just everything is so Route sixty
Route Cecy six, Rout sixty six, however you say it.
(30:26):
And to know that that's such a beacon for people
when they come into town or they're looking for a
way to get back on track or find help. It's
such an amazing story. For some reason, I'm reminded of
the Brute the Spruce Motel in Idaho Falls, which I
felt so weird taking a picture of because it was
(30:48):
a safe haven for abused women and I felt such
like a creeper just taking a picture, even though it
was there for like two minutes. I was like, I'm
taking a picture of getting now great, you know the
folks that are doing the Lord's work. I just hope
that I didn't come across as weird when I did that.
But you know that that's just me and my insecurities
(31:09):
and I let's talk about that's and we've kind of
touched on this about you know, the neon initiatives across
around sixty six, Like you know, Tulsa's got this amazing
one there, and God blushell for what you're doing Albertquerque.
It doesn't surprise you with Albuquerque for some reason, especially
with you know, breaking bad coming out of you know,
New Mexico and things like that, and them crying to
(31:31):
you build up different parts to kind of you know,
I want to see where this is filmed, the better
call Saul and things like that. But your involvement with
ROUT sixty six as a whole, what is that what
has that done for you? And you're we talked about
your appreciation of around sixty six, but now that you're
(31:52):
in an administrator position, what does that do for you?
In rauh sixty six? I mean, you're not just as
a salesperson. You're you know, you're the one trying to
well you are the salesperson. Well yeah, let's just go
with that. You're trying to get people to come to
ROU sixty six. And also are you coordinating the differing
(32:15):
events of round sixty sixt especially with the centennial or
what have you.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Well, so my position with the association as president is
completely volunteer.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Ok.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
I joined their board back in twenty seventeen and then
got promoted to president or elected to president in twenty
nineteen and been in that role ever since. Heck yeah,
through that, you know, that's promotion, that's preservation, talking to
like Lions clubs, and eventually that got me involved with
several centennial groups since the road turns one hundred and
twenty twenty six, and everyone's like, hey, you know Route
(32:48):
sixty six, You've been involved in the community, so come
here and be our kind of history.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Guy dose.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I tend to be the guy that talks forever about
the little idio secrecies of Route sixty six history and development.
I'm like, well, now, you see, in nineteen twenty seven,
this thing happened, and you know, I can see people's
eyes glaze over, but I can't help.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
It ad the crispy effect. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
And then you know, so I got to meet people
all over from all over the country involved in Root
sixty six advocacy and so then but I still, you know,
that's still all volunteer work. And then a few months ago,
the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is a national
nonprofit that does a lot of preservation work all across
the country. They've had a preserve Root sixty six initiative
(33:30):
for a couple of years, where, for example, they're working
to get Root sixty six at it as a national
Historic trail federally. They are trying to help guide folks
creating grant programs. They have their own grant programs that
they're putting out there for preservation and research and things
like that. Interpretation. To help prepare Root sixty six for
(33:54):
the centennial, well, they posted a position, a normal hired
position to help ordinate all of their little efforts to
do you in and I'm, you know, very humbled and
proud that they selected me to be that person. So
now basically I've taken the last five years of volunteer work,
five plus years of volunteer work I've done and taken
(34:15):
all that experience, and now I get to represent the
National Trust in these communities when I go out there
and say, well, I see you're you know you're you
need a new roof. Well, Trust has a grant that
could help you with that. Or oh, give me on
sign you know is broken. You know we have a
grant that I help with that. Or you know, you
have this building that should be on the National Register
and you need to hire somebody to do all the
research to make that happen. Maybe we can help with that,
(34:37):
you know. But even something as simple as like in Texas,
Texas Route sixty six only has a single bridge left
and it's one of those to drive over and don't
even realize it's historic. It's a lot of timber like
understructure bridge. Yeah, and so their organization hasn't ever had
to lead an effort to save a bridge. Well, the
very first thing that got me into Roote sixty six
as an advocate was going up to Missouri to a
(34:59):
rally to save an old bridge that was going to
get torn down. So because we now kind of have
all these connections, we get to bring people together and say, hey, Texas,
you're having an issue with this bridge.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
Well let's get.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Oklahoma and Missouri on the line. Here's what we did,
here's who we engage these organizations and basically help each other.
So you know, tomorrow I'm hopping on a plane early
in the morning. I'm playing out to King in Arizona
and talk to some folks. I'm talking to some people
in Seligman, which is where Angel Delgado is from, the
known as the Angel of Route sixty six or his
(35:29):
affcacy efforts. And I imagine over the next two years,
I'll be doing a lot of little hop, skip and
jump along Route sixty six just to let people know
what resources are out there and to you know, keep
everyone communicating and talking to each other.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
My gosh, do you have a lot of h do
you go on to like radio shows? And I know
you're here at the podcast, and I'm glad to help
you know, Like for like eight listeners to the podcast,
I'm glad to sh that with them, But is there
(36:03):
like a media outreach besides just Instagram and social media,
like with television stations and radio stations and such like.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
That everybody kind of has their own little arm of that,
like the Trust has its own group that does their
own thing. And so I'm more boots on the ground.
I might share what I can via social media just
as my own personal journey and as the things I'm
working on. I have talked to the news, I have
talked to radio. I have popped up in a newspaper
now and again. But my job is less public relations
(36:34):
and more just that community outreach and engagement, and sometimes
they cross over a little bit. But like yourself, you know,
I'm always happy to talk about Read sixty six, whether
it's personal or professional. As you can tell from the
way I talk about it and the things I'm involved in,
It's become quite a passion for me.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yeah, most definitely. And you know, talking to Nick Nick
Girlic who's out at you know, West Texas a and
m there yourself.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
His photography is amazing and the dude is.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
A ball of energy. And also I love sharing this.
He broke Google maps. She found that you know, you
can max out your pins at ten thousand. So he
has an he showed you, let me see you his
Google maps. Now he's on the east coast, he's the
west coast, and they're full and it's amazing what he's doing.
(37:28):
And you know he talks about you know, sometimes people
get a little apprehensive about going out and taking pictures,
more pictures because you know how many pictures can people
take of the blue swallow in to come carry seriously,
but he kind of gives encourishment by saying, and hopefully
this isn't too much of a tangent from what you're
(37:48):
talking about. You know, your picture of that you know
roadside attraction, your picture of that diner of you know
like Adrian the cafe, they're an Adrienne, Texas, I believe,
you know, places like that you're adding to the historical record.
(38:10):
Are there many other ways that folks can you know,
help maybe help you out, get the word out, maybe
share their little bit of Route sixty six to kind
of you know, encourage people, say, hey, this is my
little bit of Americana right here. And if you want
to find out more about what's going on with Route
(38:33):
sixty six, go to Reese is Is there like a
network that way as well, so there is you know.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
I had the pleasure of taking doctor Gerlic on a
little in the on tour and Tulsa some years ago
we met their Root sixty six.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Oh cool, spending.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
An evening in the car with him, just hopping out
and taking pictures of science. So not much better than that.
You know, when when people talk about helping and everything
and like how can they be engaged? The National Trust
has a Share Your Story initiative right now that for
the centennial, which is in twenty twenty six, they're hoping
to gather twenty twenty six stories from Route sixty six.
(39:09):
And I've told people before photography is a form of preservation.
You look at some of these old signs that have
been miraculously restored, which is wonderful. We want that to happen,
but you do lose something when that happens. You lose
kind of the story of that sign up until the
planet is restored. But if you have a picture of it,
at least it exists in that form somewhere. So I
tell folks, even if there's nothing else you can do,
we'll overtake that picture because you are capturing it. In
(39:32):
that moment, one hundred percent agree with with net and so,
But if people go to preserve Root six six dot org,
that goes to the National Trust's landing page and there's
a sharer story link there where we ask folks, hey,
have you been on sixty six? Do you have a
story about it?
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Do you have a picture?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Share a picture, give us a little blurb about it,
And we're collecting those as kind of like an oral
history project, and so we encourage people to do that.
I would also encourage folks to go out to Oklahoma
roots six si dot com here in Oklahoma. I I
helped manage that and that page. I've I've really worked
hard to try to make it a clearing house of
(40:08):
information for Route sixty six generally, and so it's got
links out to all kinds of other grant programs and
other association pages and national initiatives and centennial stuff. So
you've just spent a lot of time on there. But
if you only do one thing, I would say that
Preserved Root six six dot org story site is just
a great way to contribute a little bit of your
(40:28):
personal story to the tapestry that is Root sixty six.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
God bless you, and amen, I gotta say amen to
all of you've said. You know, growing up, you know
eastern North Carolina, you'd hear about Ruth sixty six. You
know there's always a song get your kicks of Rut
sixty six. You hear that all the time. And but
seeing it firsthand, for me, it's so much different. Even
(40:55):
at night, going through two from carry three in the
morning and nothing's lit up, you can still since what
it was there. But one question I wanted to ask
you before we in the segment is have you has
Neon Speaks reach out to you or have you done
like a presentation in Neon Speaks or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I haven't.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
No, huh. Maybe we need to connect the dots there,
because you know, if any of you don't know about
Neon Speaks. It's the big, huge conferencer in San Francisco. Oh, man,
Deborah Jae's gonna kill me for forgetting their names, the
two that run it. But you know they teach people
how to start preservation programs and how to get the
(41:41):
ball rolling in your community about Neon and things like that,
And man, that'd be pretty cool to somehow there'd be
that connection. Maybe maybe one of these days. I don't know.
I can't make any promises. I don't know them out
Neon speaks.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
I just know of what they do, so I like
to it myself. That sounds really interesting.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah, they get out to me for not going to it,
especially having a podcast about Neon signs and things less.
Maybe I gotta save up my panties. Well, that'll bring
us to the end of I think I lost count
of what segment we're on. We're on segment before. I
believe when we come back from this break, we will
(42:23):
get into the bucket list of places that Reese would
like to go to, because I have to be sixty six.
Could be the Lincoln Highway. It could be going across
the desert and win a Mucca, Nevada. Wherever you're listening
to International sign Finders, Welcome back to International sign Finders.
(42:59):
This is that a segment something I don't know? I
lost cow. Do you remember, Reese? I shouldn't ask you.
That's a professional of a Holy Cow. I've just been
enjoying this conversation. I just forgot the count. And you
know what that shows? You know how bested in the
(43:19):
story I am of Reese and eighty HDV. We won't
get in at that too much. But Reese been telling
the great story of not just Oklahoma around sixty six
in the preservation and then just getting out there kicking
the rocks, and not kick rocks in the bad way,
but kicking the rocks of you know, walking across these
places and finding things. And heck, I remember one of
(43:44):
my fondest memories, even though it was during kind of
a rough time because my mom passed away in August,
but we were in up in Oklahoma City in July
and I had a boot on that broke in my toe,
and I'm hobbling across with automobile alley there in Oklahoma
City taking pictures. We're trying to take pictures, and you know,
hopefully you have memories of that, and we'll have links
(44:06):
to Preservation six six dot org. Is that the website
people can go to the share their story. Preserve six look,
get it not Route six six six. That's a different
place in the bad of that now you know, called
something else, but I think, uh, but Preserve six uh
(44:27):
dot or Root six six dot organ. I'll get it right.
I'm sorry my memory is so short term, but you know,
I'll have links to these different websites that Reese will
share within the show so you can get involved, so
you can share your little piece of Americana, piece of
(44:47):
the Mother Row, piece of Main Street, USA by going
there and sharing, you know, your photos, your stories, and
you know, I've I've I'm rambling on too much. I'm
gonna hand the baton over to you. So what are
some places that you would like to go to that
you haven't been to year, or maybe you've been to
but you want to get back to to get you know,
(45:08):
either pictures or better pictures for your signing finding journey.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Well, first, please accept my condolences. I'm really sorry to
hear about your mother.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Yeah, thank you. I don't know how to uh.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Yeah, I lost my mom in twenty twenty unexpectedly, and
that's still something I grapple with. You know, they say
grief never really goes away. It just you just learn
to live with it. And yeah, you know, I also
bring that up because you know, I took a road
trip with my mom in October of twenty nineteen, just
a few months before she.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Would be gone.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Yeah, and we went to the Grand Canyon. She'd always
wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, and so I'm
really happy to you know, we stayed the Blue Swallow
and to can carry or got to show her a
lot of these places that I had become really passionate about,
But the location I was most excited to take her
to this Monument Valley. I've been there a couple of times,
and when people ask where, you know, would you like
to go anywhere? Even though I've been there, I want
(46:05):
to go back. Monument Valley is my favorite place on
the planet. I mean, part of that has probably has
to do with the fact that my dad was a
huge John Wayne fan, and so I grew up and
Monument Valley was always on the television in one form
or another.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
But it's just.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Such a beautiful and amazing and just kind of electric place.
I just love it.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
But oh yeah, and Mike adulces to you about you
losing your mom because yeahs anyway, maybe, yeah, you know it.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
Some days it just feels like it just happened. But yeah,
you know, I would love to go see the Grand
Teton Mountains in Wyoming.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Oh yes, you know.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
I just I joke with my wife that, like, my
ideal vacation is just sitting on a porch somewhere in
the morning with a cup of coffee where I could
just look at some mountains, because we don't we don't
really have much of that here in Alaholma.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
Yeah. And I used to work in the shadow of
the mountains. I went to school there in East Idaho,
and I worked at a golf course in Victor, Idaho,
which is on the you know, the Idaho side of
the Teetons. And uh, there is. Man, I'm about to
get emotional about this. There is nothing like driving across
(47:22):
the plains, well not the plains, but you know, the
rolling hills just before you get to the Tetons and
seeing the sun come up with those mountains in the background.
I miss those Daggo Mountains. Ah and uh. And also
you got Jackson the whole other side, which is a
sign finding treasure as well from what they've preserved and
(47:46):
stuff like that there. But let me let me hind
it back to you.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Sorry, no, no, you're good. Gosh where else like the
first place I went to when I traveled internationally on
that ten month trip, I took a container ship from
Long Beach, California to New Zealand. Oh wow, it was
you know, from there, I went to the equator, so
I didn't It was it was April, so it was
(48:10):
almost winter there, and so I didn't go to the
South Island. And anytime I meet a New Zealand travel
group that comes to Route sixty six and I say, hey,
I've been in New Zealand, they're like, oh, that's great.
What'd you like? Can I say I didn't go to
the South Island and then they like throw tomatoes at me,
like they're like what, So I really want to You know,
South Island is generally considered the more beautiful island. That's
(48:31):
what the big mountains are and all that. That's the
lord of the rings country. I would love to go
back to New Zealand and see the South Island. Plus
it's just cool to go to a place where now
I know these people that I've met on Average sixty six, Hey,
when you come to my neck of the woods, come
in and I'll get you a plint. You know, that'd
be just really fantastic.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
Oh that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
It's interesting talking about it out loud. There's a most
of my bucket list want to go to places are
like this very natural. Yeah, I'm not a real wilderness guy.
But man, I would just love to just sit and
breathe and relax and just look at some mountains. I
think as long as there's something like that, I'd be happy.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
That is. That is because there's no rules to the
whole bucket list thing. They could be signs, ity be
not signs or whatever. But if I remember right, there's
an old drive in there, a grigside of ho. I'm
gonna go back to the Tetons again real fast, and
uh they had a big, huge it was called the
Big Spud. It was out front. They had this like flatbed,
(49:23):
old flatbed you know, pick up you know, pickup truck,
probably for the forties, and they have this huge like
potato on the back of it. But it's called the
Big Spud. And I think that the uh, the the
movie screen you know, came down a few years ago.
They've put it back up. And if memory serves me right,
(49:46):
they have like little bungalows that they've built around the
edge of the uh, the you know, the drive in area,
so you can stand those bungalows, watch a movie and
stay the night all in one, which you know, maybe
that's an option. If my memory is serving me, correct,
(50:06):
that'd be a pretty cool experience, to be honest with you.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
I mean, just a giant potato on a flatbed is
enough to get me up there.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
So, oh you had me at potato. So before we leave,
because we are regards to the final seconds, Holy cal
this has been an amazing conversation. Thank you so much
Reese for joining me. I'm glad we were able to
get our schedules coordinated for this. What are some places
(50:34):
that you want to you want to direct people to
and I'll share links with with everybody in the show
notes before you head out.
Speaker 2 (50:43):
Sure well preserve Root sixty six dot org is kind
of the home base for everything the National Trust is
doing for Route sixty six, including that Share your Story initiative.
Oklahoma Root sixty six dot com is for the Oklahoma
Route sixty six Association, which itself has links out to
all kinds of regional and national Route sixty six groups.
Cool and if if you're still a Facebook person, you know,
(51:06):
we're all over Facebook and Instagram. You can follow me
at reesfunk, r h ys f U, and k you
know Instagram, Blue Sky.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
I'm all over the.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
Place, so I have a pretty wide digital footprint. You
just plug my name in and you'll find something. And
the travel blog that I kept whenever I was overseas,
you know, gosh, that was oh boy, like fifteen years ago.
Now I don't want to say that number out loud.
He is still active. When I'm on the road, I
try to post and share what I'm seeing and what
I'm experiencing. And so I'm I'm out there.
Speaker 1 (51:36):
Are you a flicker hit as well? You'd like to
go on flot? I share photos?
Speaker 2 (51:39):
Boy, you know, I have a paid close attention to
Flicker In a while, my Instagram posts over there automatically.
But when I was overseas, Flicker was the thing I'm
starting to show my h here, and so I i.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
For ten years.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
I went to dragon Con, which is a huge comic
con type convention in Atlanta, Georgia. Okay, And all I
did when I was there was wander around two pictures
of cosplayers and these amazing costumes. So I have a
decade of pictures of dragon Con on my Flicker account,
as well as a bunch of Neon and travel and everything.
So yeah, and you can go to resfunk dot com
(52:13):
and that's also got links out to Instagram and the
blog and all that kind of stuff, so I'm kind
of all over the place.
Speaker 1 (52:19):
Heck yeah, well, once again, thank you so much for
joining me and sharing the story, and hopefully we can
get this out to more people. So when the centennial
hits in twenty twenty six, you know, we'll we'll, you'll.
Why am I saying? Well, I feel like I'm a
part of this now, Dad Gummick, you did a great job.
(52:43):
That's what it does.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
The road get to hold you in and then let go.
Speaker 1 (52:45):
Man, it does. Yeah. So when you resent this oral
history to everybody else, you'll have the twenty twenty six people,
twenty twenty six people and hopefully even more want to
share their story with everybody else and make this, you know,
a centennial to remember. If that's a cliche I can use,
(53:08):
Uh yeah cool. Well, once again, thank you so much.
And as I as I end the show, every time
that we have a show, get out there hear the pavement.
We don't care if you have one follower or one
hundred thousand plus followers. We want to see your photos.
We want you to share them with us. Say we
(53:29):
can enjoy your retelling of a piece of history, whether
it's a long Route sixty six or some little country
road in the middle of Montana in Miles City, taking
a photo of the Montana Bar there in downtown Miles
Serie City. It doesn't matter. Just share it with us,
let us see that, and heck, you might get a
(53:52):
story on my Instagram fee, because you know that's what
I did. As soon as I saw the the Wings
Riseratoka Wings Signed from Reese Is, I put that up
on my stories and so everybody else can see it
and go see his sight and seeing more of what
he's doing. I like doing that for people both at
(54:13):
Houston Signed Hunting and also international sign finders. And until
next time, hit the pavement, have fun and we'll see
you later.
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