SELIGMAN, Arizona — They came suddenly and in numbers, cars and trucks weighed down with their owners’ worldly possessions. Angel Delgadillo was a boy when those hundreds of thousands of Dust Bowl refugees drove through his tiny hometown on Route 66, heading for California and the promise of work on farms so fertile, it was said, that fruit fell from the trees.

He and his friends used to run to a nearby building at night and wait for the passing vehicles’ headlights to cast their shadows on the white stucco wall. They danced and watched their shadows change as the cars neared.

“And as a car left,” he remembered, “our shadows went with them.”

Delgadillo’s entire life, all 98 years, has played out along what John Steinbeck called “the mother road, the road of flight.” He and his eight siblings grew up on the route; he went to barber college in the Route 66 town of Pasadena, California, and then apprenticed for two years at a barber shop in another route town 43 miles east of his home — Williams, Arizona — before returning to Seligman to run his parents’ pool hall and barbershop.

As Route 66 aficionados look to the historic roadway’s 100th anniversary next year, most agree there would probably not be a centennial to celebrate if not for Delgadillo.

“They’re right,” he said with a smile, sitting in his barbershop chair on a Friday in June.

Follow our road trip: Route 66, ‘The Main Street of America,’ turns 100

An estimated 9,000 cars once passed through Seligman every 24 hours, Delgadillo said, until Interstate 40 bypassed it and other towns along Arizona’s Route 66 corridor. The time, he recalled, was around 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 22, 1978.

“When you lose something so important, your livelihood, how can you forget that moment?” he said. “Listen to me: We knew we were gonna get bypassed, but we did not know how devastating it was going to be. The world just forgot about us. County officials didn’t know about us. State officials, highway officials, the feds — it was like they told us, Angel, if you can swim out of it, swim out of it. If you can’t, drown.”

Businesses shuttered. People left. Delgadillo, his wife Vilma and four children considered doing the same.

Seligman was heading to its grave.

“It was a very, very sad moment,” he said. “First, it was so sad. Then I got so angry.”

Then he did something about it.

Enlisting the help of his older brother Juan, who built the Seligman institution Delgadillo’s Snow Cap, and others, he formed the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona in February 1987. They wrote letters to state highway officials telling them to step in and preserve the route. At first, they were ignored.

“But, you know what,” he said, “those big boys in Phoenix didn’t know who they were up against.”

By November that same year, the state’s transportation department designated 83 miles of Route 66, from Seligman west to Kingman, as a historic road. Delgadillo’s association kept up its pressure, eventually convincing the state to add more miles.

Today, the entire expanse is recognized by the state as a historic road, and Arizona boasts the longest remaining stretch of uninterrupted Route 66 in the country, starting at the California border and ending nearly 160 miles east near Ash Fork.

“To fight the government, you lose. Go to city hall and try to convince them, you lose,” Delgadillo said. “We had to fight our state government and we succeeded. We the people.”

Delgadillo soon fielded phone calls from would-be preservationists in the other seven states the route traverses. They wanted to know how they could protect their portions of the road.

Form your association, he told them.

Delgadillo’s efforts have earned Seligman the title of the “birthplace of historic Route 66,” and Delgadillo, the “guardian angel of Route 66.” He retired from cutting hair a few years ago; the barbershop inside the Route 66 gift shop that bears his and his wife Vilma’s names is now something of a shrine to his and his family’s legacy.

Route 66 travelers from all over the world make a pilgrimage to Seligman to see him. More often than not these days, they see a life-sized cardboard cutout of his likeness instead. When he does stop in, like on that Friday in June, he’s quickly surrounded by people wanting to have their pictures taken with him.

“It’s as though they have known me forever,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s overwhelming. They’re so thankful. It is mind boggling.”

In retirement, he continues to help celebrate his beloved town and route. He started building birdhouses constructed using 100-year-old lumber from his grandparents’ Seligman restaurant that once stood on Route 66 before it was torn down.

Each birdhouse is numbered. Last week, he finished number 268. He has enough wood for another 30.

They sell for $100.66 at the gift shop. The proceeds are being donated to help Seligman construct Route 66 welcome signs at either end of town ahead of next year’s centennial.

Read the sixth dispatch, An Albuquerque neighborhood in peril, here >>>

The journey along Route 66 map to Seligman, Arizona, June 6, 2025.

By JESSICA DAMIANO, Associated Press

When I was a kid, my aunt and uncle grew tomatoes in plastic buckets lined up like soldiers on the cement patio in their tiny Queens, New York, backyard.

They also grew dozens of vegetables in their 10-by-10 foot patch of soil and installed a pergola they made from green metal fence posts above a picnic table. While it provided much-needed shade, it more importantly supported grapevines that produced enough fruit for their annual homemade vintage.

Space — or the lack of it — doesn’t have to stand between you and a fruitful garden. You just have to be creative.

Start by looking up

Vertical space is a horizontally challenged gardener’s best friend.

This June 21, 2024, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows squash, beans and tomatoes growing vertically in a space-saving Long Island, N.Y. garden. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

String up a trellis, hang baskets or attach planters to a fence or wall. You might be surprised at how much you can grow when you consider the third dimension. Vines, herbs and even strawberries are content climbers or danglers.

Create visual interest by strategically grouping containers in clusters of odd numbers rather than lining them up in straight rows or placing them all separately. Try staggering their heights by perching them on decorative pedestals, overturned crates or stone slabs to draw the eye up and out.

This July 29, 2024, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows a squash plant growing vertically on a trellis on Long Island, N.Y. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

Compact and colorful crops

Of course, size matters. If your space is limited, seek out compact or dwarf varieties of your favorite plants. They’ve been bred to thrive in tight spaces, and many are prolific producers of flowers, fruits or vegetables. These days, it’s easy to grow roses, blueberries, tomatoes, peppers — even apple and fig trees — in containers.

Tall garlic provides a lush backdrop for this small Long Island, N.Y., flower bed on June 19, 2025. Growing herbs, fruit and vegetables in flower beds is a great way to utilize limited space in the garden. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

And don’t sleep on plants that multitask as both beautiful ornamentals and nutritious crops. I’ve grown amaranth, cherry tomatoes and rainbow chard in my perennial beds. Other edibles with attractive foliage or flowers like chives, fancy lettuces and sage would be equally at home among my coneflowers, zinnias and roses. And sweet potatoes make a nice ground cover or trailing vine in a mixed container.

Make the most of a single vegetable bed

If you have a small, designated bed for vegetables, you can maximize your yield by planting a succession of crops throughout the season. Start by planting early-maturing plants like peas, beets, kale and lettuces. Then, after harvesting, replace them with warm-season crops, such as tomatoes, peppers, summer squash and beans. As they fade and fall approaches, use the space for another round of cool-season plants.

This July 3, 2024, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows squash, beans and tomatoes growing vertically in a space-saving Long Island, N.Y. garden. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

Even a narrow strip or window box can feel lush if you plant it in layers. Place tall, upright plants in the back, midsized growers in the middle, and low bloomers in front to create visual depth that can help transform even a balcony or front stoop into your own personal nature retreat.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

As if ice cream could get any better, the addition of fresh, ripe cherries and chewy, gooey almond paste turns a summer classic into a gourmet delight.

The cherries are simply coarsely mashed, rather than cooked first like most cherry ice creams, preserving their fresh tartness that complements the nutty sweetness of the almond paste chunks sprinkled throughout.

Serve as is, or as a sundae with a dollop of fresh whipped cream, chocolate drizzle, toasted almonds, and, of course, a cherry on top.

Take advantage of ripe cherries at the farmers’ markets right now or, if you miss the window, thaw frozen cherries. If cherries aren’t your thing, raspberries or peaches would also be lovely with the almond flavor. For compressor ice cream makers, simply throw the mixture in right after whisking it together, since it is not heated to dissolve the sugar. But for a frozen canister model, be sure to chill it for at least 2 hours for best results.

Cherry Almond Ice Cream

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cup (8 ounces) fresh pitted cherries

2/3 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, divided

1 cup whole milk

1 pinch salt

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 cup (2.5 oz) chopped almond paste, chilled

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DIRECTIONS

Combine the cherries and 1 tablespoon sugar in a small bowl and mash them with a pastry cutter, potato masher, or scissors until they’re coarsely broken up into small pieces. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Meanwhile, whisk together milk, salt and 2/3 cup sugar in a medium bowl for 2-3 minutes until the sugar completely dissolves. Stir in the vanilla, almond extract and heavy cream and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Pour the cream mixture into your ice cream maker and run according to the manufacturer’s directions, usually about 25-30 minutes, adding in the chilled cherries and almond paste at the 15-20 minute mark when the ice cream just starts to thicken (so that they don’t sink to the bottom). Serve immediately for a soft-serve consistency, or empty into a chilled container to firm up in the freezer for a couple of hours before serving.

Registered dietitian and food writer Laura McLively is the author of “The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook.” Follow her at @myberkeleybowl and www.lauramclively.com.

Two books that explore the deep flaws in our health care system are top of the pile today, along with fiction set from St. Paul’s Seventh Street to Vietnam. The authors are Minnesotans or have regional connections.

“Because We Must”: by Tracy Youngblom (University of Massachusetts Press, $24.95)

Entering his room, I also entered a new world, one that was shrouded in the unfamiliar: medical specialists and surgeons, sedatives and transfusions, trach and feeding tubes, changes in medications, therapies and difficult diagnoses, long-term care facilities and rehab centers, and Lord knows what else…after that first night, though a stranger there, I made that new world my home. I live there now, in the land of recovery. — from “Because We Must”

(Courtesy of the University of Massachusetts Press)

Tracy Youngblom’s heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful memoir of life after her son Elias’ car crash in 2015 is riveting reading as this Minnesota poet takes us into her family’s life. First, seeing her son lying so broken in the hospital, she wonders whether he will survive. He does, but head injuries lead to the young man’s blindness and a new way of navigating the world. Through medical crises and recovery, Youngblom was there for her son.

On the day of the crash Youngblom, was rushing to finish preparing for a class she was going to teach when she met a uniformed officer at her door, telling her Elias had been in an accident while driving home to Coon Rapids from Fargo. His car had been hit head-on by a drunk driver.

Youngblom thought she was prepared for seeing her son in the hospital, but she wasn’t: “His head was swollen to an unrecognizable size, a small watermelon. Both of his eyes were swollen shut: his eyelids bulged, red and purple with bruising. Dark lines of stitches, along with bruises, crisscrossed his arms and his face, including one crooked, deep gash on his left cheek that met his mustachioed upper lip, twisting it upward…”

Through years of Elias’s rehab, learning Braille and finally living on his own, Youngblom was the one on whom Elias relied with resilience, grace and humor. His mother faced her own challenges about her marriage and religious faith as she fought for her son’s care and coordinated with other family members. Always she tried to strike a balance between wanting to protect Elias while also letting him lead his own life as he became an adult. Now he is married and lives in Fargo where he continues his passion for drum corps music.

Youngblom will read in celebration of winning the University of Massachusetts Press Juniper Prize at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls., in conversation with Lindsay Steffes, winner of the Juniper Prize for her novel “Gichigami.” The prize recognizes outstanding works of literary fiction.

“Who Cares?: The real patient experience”: by Melisssa Winger (Independently published, $29.99)

Melissa Winger has been a patient care advocate since 1997, undertaking the Herculean task of changing the nation’s health care system to one in which the patient is treated as a human being. Her memoir could be a companion to Youngblom’s because they had many of the same experiences under different circumstances.

Winger was an 18-year-old single mother when she gave birth to Evan, who has a rare genetic disorder. He is nonverbal and has endured countless surgeries because of more than 30 medical issues. From the beginning, Winger tried to advocate for her child, but nobody took seriously a young mother who needed help. For instance, when Evan was hospitalized as a baby, trained professionals took care of complicated procedures such as dealing with a feeding tube. But when he was released, Winger was expected to do these procedures herself with no help.

Along with her personal experiences, Winger references studies from reputable organizations that show the twisted mass of regulations and paperwork that knot the vast world of health care, discussing patient safety, medical devices and prescriptions, testing, home care, medical records, emergency care, funding, patient and family-centered care, and vulnerable-adult abuse. Evan now has been diagnosed with acute kidney problems and Winger must continue her often-exhausting fights for the best care available for her son. This book is so fact-filled and clear-eyed that it should have been published by a major publishing house. It should be in the hands of all of us who are potential patients as well as medical professionals.

“Backwashed”: by Pete Gallagher (Beaver’s Pond Press, $21.95)

(Courtesy of Beaver’s Pond Press)

There’s some kinkiness and lots of colorful characters in this novel set in and around St. Paul’s Seventh Street. The twisty plot is so complicated that it’s hard to know who is “playing” whom and why. The main characters are Dion Drury and his bisexual sister, who never learned why their father was killed and why their mother disappeared 20 years earlier. Dion works as a civilian employee of the St. Paul police impound lot at night, and his sister is a bartender at one of two restaurants that are important meeting places in the story. What happened to the siblings’ parents is being investigated by Kady L’Orient, a young cop drawn to Dion while trying to make a name for herself, as well as a police lieutenant with a damaged eye who’s the right-hand man and fixer for “the walrus,” a ward politician who talks like the encyclopedia and is not exactly ethical in his dealings. Add a corpse in the St. Paul sewer system, the sultry owner of one of the restaurants who’s married to the councilman, a big young tow truck driver whose dad was a house painter, and the piano-playing uncle with whom the siblings lived after their parents were gone, and you’ve got a juicy story of corruption, deal-making and secrets  set in familiar places St. Paul readers will enjoy visiting:

” ‘What can I say?’ Evan told her. ‘This is West Seventh Street. The truth takes a little while sometimes.’ ”

“Escaping Limbo”: by Mike E. Elliott (Beaver’s Pond Press, $17.95)

(Courtesy of Beaver’s Pond Press)

Growing up Catholic in St. Paul is almost a literary subgenre, and former St. Paulite Elliott does it right in a coming-of-age story about Francis Paulson and his wild friend Izzy, set in 1968. While never belittling those who take their faith seriously, the author offers humor. For instance, the title comes from a confusing conversation his grieving mother has with the priest after she delivers a stillborn baby. The priest assures her the baby’s soul is “safe in limbo” but when he tries to explain this place, using a Thanksgiving feast as a metaphor, it ends up being about pumpkin pie. Francis, who tells the story looking back on what happened in one year, is an altar boy in the limbo of adolescence. He wants to help Izzy get over the death of his older brother, which has sent Izzy’s father into violent behavior. Meanwhile, Francis is saving money for a canoe trip to northern Minnesota with Izzy while defending his girlfriend Susan from Izzy’s insults. He’s also dealing with his little sister’s fascination with fire and missing his beloved grandmother, founder of the family’s candy factory. This tender story is a tribute to friendship and a young man questioning everything he was taught by his school’s nuns and priest. The author divides his time between Minnesota and Arizona.

“Devil’s Thumb”: by Dan Jorgensen (Speaking Volumes LLC, $19.95)

(Courtesy of Speaking Volumes LLC)

Devil’s Thumb is a rock outcropping in the Black Hills in this third novel by Jorgensen, set in 1925 in and around the mining town of Keystone where Gutzon Borglum is poised to begin carving four presidents’ faces on Mount Rushmore. This isn’t the Wild West anymore, but there’s crime. U.S. Marshal Al Twocrow, the only Native American lawman in the service, investigates two murders and a bootleg operation reported to be linked to gangster Al Capone. The plot is a tribute to women working in the area at the time, including a pilot who helps Twocrow when he needs swift transportation in her biplane, and a reporter who wants to get both sides of the controversy about Borglum’s huge project. She’s a tough woman, not too fazed by being kidnapped in a plot to stop the carving. The story starts slowly but picks up speed as a gang of bank robbers arrive after pulling a heist in Denver. There’s lots of excitement as the marshal and the bad guys meet in an abandoned mine.

The author based this story on his experiences working at two newspapers in the Black Hills area. He was director of public relations at St. Olaf College and Augsburg University before retiring to Colorado in 2013.

“Call Me Speed”: by Dan Faveau (Independently published, $20.99)

Dan Faveau’s second novel set during the Vietnam war (after “Thumbs Up”) is not easy to read, but war isn’t easy. The author, a combat-wounded veteran who served with the 1st Air Cavalry, follows a group of young soldiers as they fight in Vietnam’s jungles and highlands, go on leave and always think about home.

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Speed was a classroom troublemaker and outstanding athlete lauded for his running ability. Although his name is in the novel’s title, his friends are just as important to the plot, including one who stood up to high school bullies and another who escapes farming to become a crack sniper. Horrific scenes of killing enemy soldiers face to face and young bodies thrown out of foxholes by grenades are vividly drawn, as well as the terrible living conditions the men endure as they slog up hills in endless rain with no shelter except their ponchos. Even the conclusion is sad as we see the veterans in old age. This war seems far away now, but Faveau helps us remember the real-life men who suffered and watched their comrades die as soldiers always do in our seemingly endless wars.