Get your Kicks (and Coffee) on Route 66
Glenn Oyoung
I’m not originally from Arcadia so it seems like every so often I learn something new about this city, like the fact that the famous Route 66 runs through our city for more than two miles from where Huntington Drive in the east intersects the 210 Foothill Freeway to the split at Colorado Place which it then follows to Colorado Street to the western border of Arcadia. Route 66 was the main road that adventurous Americans took out west, well before the Interstate Highway System was built.
Its place in pop culture was immortalized by the famous lyrics “Get your kicks / On Route 66” sung by the likes of Nat King Cole, made popular by rock & roller Chuck Berry, and rehashed time and time again by later pop acts (my generation may remember the rendition by Depeche Mode – did I just date myself?).
Carcadia’s purpose is to bring together all the gear heads and their families from Arcadia and the surrounding areas to celebrate our shared love of cars, grab some coffee and breakfast, and meet our fellow Arcadians. When I moved here I couldn’t help but notice that: a.) there are a lot of cool cars driving around Arcadia that run the gamut from modern high-end exotics to super-rare classics, and b.) with so many different areas to hang out in Arcadia, it didn’t seem to have a single “main street” where people could or chose to intermingle (unless you count waiting in line at Din Tai Fung as intermingling) like there is on Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia or Baldwin Avenue in Sierra Madre.
On Saturday, December 14th we launched Carcadia @Route 66 at the parking lot behind Denny’s Restaurant at Santa Anita Avenue and Huntington Drive – right on Route 66, (and within walking distance of delicious Moons over My Hammy). We wanted to test out the concept and through word-of-mouth and reaching out to the Purist Facebook group we had 15 cars and a couple dozen people of all ages and backgrounds show up.
Ford and Shelby were represented by a 90’s-era Cobra, a Shelby GT500 (in Hertz colors no less!), and a beast of a truck – the Ford Raptor!
Classic American muscle was on display with a 70’s-era Camaro, a 60’s-era Corvette, and a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda.
Perhaps the crowd favorite of everyone in attendance to the first Carcadia was the massive and impressive Chrysler Imperial and vintage Ford ambulance brought by Rob Post and Mike Williams of Arcadia’s very own Post Alarm Systems. The siren came in handy to alert people that the party was getting started!
Please stay tuned for the date of the next Carcadia at Route 66, coming in January 2014!
— By Glenn Oyoung Glenn Oyoung, a founder of turn3 Creative marketing and merchandising services, lives in Arcadia with his wife, kids, and three dogs.