The fifties didn't just build cars — they built a whole idea of what freedom looked like.
By 1950, Route 66 had already been shaping America for two and a half decades, and the country had arrived at something close to confidence. The postwar boom put people in cars and put those cars on the highway, and for a particular generation, that combination felt like the whole world opening up at once. Chrome trim and wide whitewall tires and a road that went all the way to California — there wasn't a better feeling available at any price. The centennial remembers that era and the people who lived it, in full.
The mainstreet of a generation. The pride of a century.
