President, Senior Scribes
RT. 66 – KICKS
By Delbert Blickenstaff 

Theron and I got our kicks on Rt. 66 in December of 1949 when we took Western Ave. out of Chicago and ended up in southern California.  Theron was our 5 year old son and he went with me while Louise moved to her parent’s farm in Preble Co. to await the birth of our third child.  Jo Ellen, who was 18 months old, stayed with Louise. 

I had been doing basic research in Physiology in the Dept. of Clinical Science at U. of Illinois, and I began to realize that our family was growing faster than my salary.   So I applied for a teaching job at U. of Oregon Dental School and was accepted.  I arranged to drive a new 1950 Plymouth sedan out to San Francisco for $50.00, and planned to take the train to Portland, Oregon.  So, off we went. 

Theron had not had much experience eating out (neither had I), and whenever we stopped to eat on the trip he would sit and look all around trying to learn all he could.  Then he would eat his food in the car once we started going again. 

We drove to southern California and up to Modesto where my cousin Lenore Palsgrove and her husband Gene lived.   We stayed a few days with them and then drove on to San Francisco.  Theron was a big hit everywhere we stopped because he was precocious, using words that he learned from the medical students who lived in the rooming house which we managed in Chicago.  He also sang some of the songs which they taught him, such as “I Don’t Want Her, You Can Have Her, She’s Too Fat For Me.”

After delivering the new Plymouth to the dealer, we boarded the Shasta Daylight train and had a wonderful trip to Portland.  We sat up in the observation car so we could see Mt. Shasta in all its glory.  As soon as we arrived in Portland we called my cousin Dr. Paul Blickenstaff (Dentist), and he arranged for us to stay temporarily with his sister-in-law.  That arrangement worked well and we got Theron started in school while I got started in my new job. 

Jeffrey Lloyd Blickenstaff was Dayton’s New Year’s baby of 1950.  And six weeks later he moved to Portland along with his sister Jo Ellen and their mother, Louise.  By then I had found an apartment in a large mansion on Klickatat St. which was perfect for the kids because there was a large party room for them to play in.  We stayed in Portland for 9 years, and then moved back to Darke County, but we didn’t take Rt. 66. 

Delbert Blickenstaff, M.D.