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There being more people and, therefore, more money in the cities, it
is natural that the first effects of the automobile should be felt
there. In 1899, the Akron police threw away their horse-drawn paddy
wagons and replaced them with motorized versions. In the same year,
an enterprising citizen in Boston opened "a stable for renting, sale,
storage, and repair of motor vehicles" - the country's first garage.
Curbs along the city streets began to furnish hand-cranked gasoline
pumps, bringing an end to the dangerous practice of open containers
in hardware stores, and the nation's first regular service station
opened in Pittsburgh in 1913, an all night drive-in that began slowly
but soon picked up a lot of business.
The first automobile showroom opened in New York City in 1900 and
these were soon found in all city centers all over the country. The
used car lot followed shortly after for those who would surrender the
class and gloss of a new car for a much smaller price.
It had been the custom for companies to display their goods on the
cash-on-the-barrelhead basis, unless it was a major purchase, such as
a piano, which could be bought on an installment plan. In 1911, the
Studebaker Company offered automobiles on a deferred payment plan.
This was soon followed (in some cases, reluctantly) by other car
companies. In less than ten years, 50%% of all cars sold in America
were bought on time payments. Other businesses, seeing the powerful
draw this had on consumers, also started selling their merchandise on
the installment plan (what the Britishers term "the never-never"),
putting almost all of America "on the books."
Cities now had to face the problem of traffic and traffic jams, as
more and more people became car owners. Traffic policemen were soon
organized, and in 1914, Cleveland installed the first traffic light,
and soon there became a need for traffic management. There is always
someone standing in the wings, waiting to find a way to make a buck.
As the load of traffic became heavier and parking space limited,
parking garages were built to care for the overflow; then the
unadorned parking lot was installed. In 1935, city officials
discovered that there was money to be made in this, and came up with
parking meters.
The Great Depression of 1929 gave the nation a thorough understanding
of just how important the automobile had become. People began to
realize that cars were not just a convenience that would take them
from here to there a little faster: they were a fixation, part of the
body and soul of everyday life. No matter how poor and needy those in
the depression became, they would not give up their cars. If forced
to choose between gasoline and beans, the average man may decide the
gasoline was more important. Replacement parts were scavenged and
repairs were improvised from whatever could be found. Will Rogers
said that Americans would be the first people to go to the poor house
in an automobile.
In 1924, an innkeeper in California put up a flashing sign that was
to spread across the nation. He combined hotel and motor to coin the
word, "motel." At the same time, in Florida, businesses began to bow
to the motorists needs by establishing curb service dining with bell
hops, so that the driver would not even need to leave his car. They
coined the word, "drive-in." The government (always the last to act)
installed curbside mailboxes, equipped with chutes angled out to
receive letters. These were first put up in Houston in 1927. In
Camden, New Jersey, on June 6, 1933, the first drive-in movie was
shown in a field large enough to hold 500 cars on a 40 x 50 foot
screen. At their peak, there were more than 4,000 drive-in movies
across America.
Thanks to drive-ins, we now have the privilege of sitting in our cars
to do everything. We can draw money from the bank account, have our
prescriptions filled, pay utility bills, have clothes cleaned, have
film developed, return library books, or buy a bottle of wine. Dallas
has a drive-through pawn shop, where you can sell whatever is worth
anything to drive straight to the gas station and fill up. There are
some drive-through supermarkets. In some cities, church-goers can
pick up their drive-through breakfasts and continue down the road to
attend drive-in worship services. There are at least two cities that
furnish drive-through funeral parlors. The automobile has become an
inbred necessity to life in America, thanks to Henry Ford's assembly
lines and his "universal automobile."
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