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Your Home Away From Home on Route 66 ~the Munger Moss Motel
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Your Home Away From Home on Route 66 ~the Munger Moss Motel
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The Munger Moss Today |
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"Here Yesterday ~ Today and Tomorrow" |
| In the late 80's we started meeting what today we call Route 66 Roadologists. Of course that says Jeff and Laura Meyer. Can remember sitting up and talking with Jeff into the night... talking about Tom Snyder, Michael Wallis, and everyone else who had anything to do with bringing Route 66 to the attention of those nostalgia buffs. Talked about where exactly did the road go through this area. What businesses were here etc. The more you listened, the more you learned. There are so many that make up this big Route 66 family. Route 66 lovers are a special breed. The old ones, the young ones -- they love history, they love what was, they care about you and each other. | ||
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I Remember the first meeting we went to after the Route 66 Association of Missouri was organized. Summer of 1990 in St. Louis. Guest speaker was Michael Wallis. His book on the Mother Road had just been published, and all there bought one and got it autographed by His Truly. He captivated us all by reading out of his book. Afterward we all journeyed to Ted Drewes for some mud. The tour from Illinois arrived and joined us. There was talk about Missouri having a tour. Offered our place as a place to stop and take a breather. Couple of weeks later was asked to host the first tour here on Saturday night. What excitement when the TV stations were out here with their satellite truck and filming the cars going down the Old Route 66. Now some of these cars were pretty old. We traveled with them the next day from here to Joplin. Was so neat to watch people we meet pull over to the side and watch all the old cars and new cars go by. | |
| Again at the Shiffendecker Park, was the famous Michael Wallis to again read to us parts of his book. Just sold us a little bit more about this famous road that refused to die. So as the Association grew in number, so did our acquaintance of many folks who were so enthralled with the history. One of the highlights was meeting Hiroshi and Akiko Hanamura of Tokyo, Japan. They were traveling down the Mother Road, taking lots of pictures. It was fun to talk with individuals from foreign countries, who loved this mother road as much as we Americans did. One summer I got a call from Hiroshi. He was going to call me in about a week, and I was going to talk on Japanese radio. They interviewed the Radio station in OKC, talked with Tom Snyder, and talked with me. The DJ from Tokyo spoke very good English. Later they sent me a tape. In listening to the tape, after they talked with us, then they spoke in Japanese, I guess explaining what we had talked about. | ||
| A couple of years ago I redecorated a room. It took me about a month to accomplish it with the help of my granddaughter. When we were done it had about 90 pictures of places on Route 66 hanging on the wall. A lot of these pictures I borrow from my friends on Route 66. That way all have a hand in making this place what it is. This room was an instant success. The next room was a tribute to the Coral Court Motel in St. Louis. Borrowed Shellee Graham's pictures and decorated it. Also call this my bordello room. Then I just borrowed pictures of old roads that are abandoned and hung in various rooms. Have a room that is called Jeff Meyer's room. It's pictures that he took out west. -- all fantastic. This summer put about 20 pictures of just places in Illinois (Jeff's) and of Oklahoma (Jim Ross) in special rooms. Have copies of Guy Randall's pictures of Arizona in it's special room. Am planning to eventually have something in every room. |
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| So every year we met more and more people
traveling the road. It made running the motel fun again. We made friends who for couple of
years always came back just to spend their anniversary with us. The people felt so special
about us, you couldn't help but feel that every one of them was also special. I look
forward to Trond Moberg from Norway coming every year with his "wannabe’s".
To belong to the Norwegian Route 66 Association, you must travel the Mother Road before
you can be a member. On our grounds, we have a nice large pool (3 ft. to 9 ft. in depth). Do have an outdoor fireplace that a lot of our roady friends will gather around in the evening and get the fire agoing and just sit and visit and discuss what's out on this famous road. Always nice when a new follower joins and gets caught up in the enthusiasm. |
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Antique Toy Truck Collection |
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| In our office, we have shelves and shelves of toy trucks. Some are old and some are new... most were bought, but a few were given to us by friends. The best is just watching every boy or man's face as they look at the trucks - most will comment "I wonder what mom did with my trucks? I had one just like that." Have decided all men are boys till the day that they pass on. Their eyes still light up like when they were youngsters. | ||
Wrink's Market |
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| Across the street is the bowling alley. Building has been painted purple... They do make a good greasy hamburger and fries, also good homemade pizza. Just down the street from us is Wrink's who has been on this road right there for over half a century. Wrink just loves to talk to anyone about 66. His whole life has been spent on the Route 66. One of his highlights was when Paul Harvey commented "at Wrink's you could still get a bologna sandwich for 99 cents." Of course today, the health department won't let him make and serve sandwiches anymore. Another highlight was when Clint Eastwood stopped in and bought some diapers - neat to have a celebrity stop in this little store. We compare notes on this road. | ||
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