DRIVING : Cruising Route 66’s Memory Lane

It wound from Chicago to L. A., more than 2,000 miles. And on this eve of the 66th anniversary of the opening of Route 66, historical societies in several states are gearing up to celebrate America’s most famous diagonal.

Sept. 19-20, the San Bernardino Convention and Visitor’s Bureau ((714) 889-3980) will hold a 600-car cruise night, a ‘50s concert with Jan and Dean and the Bel Air Bandits, and a custom car show.

Oct. 3-4, the California Historic Route 66 Assn. ((714) 593-4046) will run a bus tour into Arizona and along surviving patches where the road laced through Kingman, Oatman, Needles and Topock.

The group also plans to take delivery of a Route 66 marker in Chicago--the highway began at the corner of Jackson Boulevard and Michigan Avenue--and drive it to California. There will be ceremonial stops in the eight states the original highway crossed.

Route 66 stretched 320 miles across California as the Studebaker flew, from Needles to Santa Monica. When its interstate shields fell in 1985, much of Route 66 lay broken, buried or bypassed by the Pasadena Freeway, Interstate 40 from Needles and Interstate 15 from Barstow to San Bernardino.

But more than enough patches of the mother road remain to be molded into places for partying.

“You can learn about the Civil War and Plymouth Rock but only with a book in your lap,” says Vivan Davies of the California association. “With Route 66, you learn American history by getting on the road, driving it, sinking your teeth into it.”