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Once the world climbed into the driver's seat and stepped on the gas,
it hardly ever looked back. Art Buchwald wrote, "Americans are broad-
minded people. They'll accept the fact that a person can be an
alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater, and even a newspaperman, but
if a man doesn't drive there's something wrong with him." Automobiles
became more than just toys for the rich, they became a part of
day-to-day living in, from, and to the work place. And it is in
America that the long ride has been the zippiest, the zestiest, and
the zaniest, because it is in America that automobiles started a
social revolution almost as revolutionary as that of the motorized
industry itself.
One of the first social changes cars brought about was in mating
habits. It didn't take young people in America long to realize that
there was a lot more they could accomplish in a backseat than on the
front porch. Besides, it would be more private and a good deal more
comfortable. Motorized courtship had been established even before the
Model T offered a love nest within everyone's price range. Gus
Edwards' popular "In My Merry Oldsmobile" contained two very
provocative lines: "You can go as far as you like with me, In our
merry Oldsmobile." Ford's Model T just gave the merry Oldsmobile an
enormous amount of company at prices the common person could afford.
In 1944, John Steinbeck noted in "Cannery Row": "Most of the babies
of the era were conceived in the Model T Ford, and not a few were
born in them." And it wasn't just in America.
A survey of 6,000 British girls by the London "Woman" revealed that
half of them regularly make love in parked cars. In Los Angeles, a
business called "Tail Dating" became popular. The motorist paid a fee
to receive a bumper sticker in popular day-glo colors. If one driver
spots another car on the road with a driver that sparks his or her
interest, and also sports the bumper sticker, the license number can
be phoned in to "Tail Dating" to set up a meeting. The automobile
manufacturers had no qualms about using sex appeal to sell their
product. In 1924, a Jordan firm named one of its models the
"Playboy." Its ad campaign showed a handsome cowboy and a beautiful
girl driving "somewhere West of Laramie." A Brewster used the same
tactics when they produced a heart-shaped radiator grille. Some car
companies turned out models with seats that folded down to become a
double bed. Things haven't really changed much, except the fold-down
seat has become a more comfortable van with all the luxuries of a
motel.
Automobiles opened up the possibility of farm children going to town
schools, where they were provided with better facilities and greater
educational choices. It also gave farm communities the ability to
shop at will, rather than once or twice a year. Town was within
shopping range and there were also clubs, theaters, and numerous
other activities that the average farm family had previously been
denied. If one got tired of it, he could always get back to the quiet
of the country.
The feminists' movement, which had been dragging its feet ever since
the 1820s, had a rapid growth from the automobile. In 1898, Genevra
Delphine Mudge drove a Waverly Electric in New York to become the
nation's first known female motorist. The following year she became
the country's first female racing driver by competing in a Locomobile
in a New York race meet. She skidded into five people standing on the
sidelines, knocking them down, but not seriously hurting them. She's
now only a footnote in automotive history as the first American woman
to have an automobile accident. It was also in 1898 that Chicago
began requiring licenses in order to drive, and one of the first to
be licensed was a woman. The Women's Motoring Club of New York was
chartered before Henry Ford had even begun to produce the Model T. In
1909, the president, Alice Ramsey, and three members left New York in
an open-bodied Maxwell-Briscoe and drove to San Francisco in 59 days.
Women were not a real part of the automotive scene, however, until
Henry Leland produced a self-starter in a 1912 Cadillac. Eliminating
the physical strain of hand-cranking, he removed a large physical bar
from women drivers and, perhaps, men as well, since he was prompted
to this creation because his friend died of injuries he had received
from the kickback of a hand crank.
The automobile gave America a new look and something new to look at
as well. Escaping railroad schedules and the fixed routes of public
transportation, Americans could go wherever and whenever they wanted
and stay or leave at will. They took advantage of this opportunity by
the thousands. Overcrowded hotels and stage stops developed into
road-side cabins and then courts and finally, into motels for the
convenience of the motorist who was on his way to someplace else and
only needed a stopover to rest for the night.
Businesses looked around and saw the multitude on cars on the roads
and followed after them. First there were a smattering of service
stations; then they spread across the country like insects as more
and more people owned wheels. Every junction of the road had a gas
station, and eventually they were on each corner of the junction.
The speed of the vehicles picked up sharply and station owners were
soon watching them fly by to the next stop, so they started building
eye-catching structures, and because man does not live on gasoline
alone, they erected diners and cabins and assorted other roadside
businesses, which now provide everything from swimming pools and
paper, disposable swim suits to breath sprays.
Some salute the car for improving the American breed by providing
such extended mating territories. This may be argued, but the car
surely did alter the pattern of movement. People began to leave the
beaten path, which had previously been unknown. The car introduced a
country to itself, enabling travelers to discover and to understand
regional differences and common values.
The placid beauty of the open road and the changing scenery began to
be spoiled by old tires, food wrappings, pop and beer bottles (and
then cans), by bodies of animals who could not outrun the charging
vehicle, by deserted service buildings and finally, by road signs
designed to catch the motorist`s eye several miles ahead of his
arrival, so that he had time to consider stopping before he had
already sped past.
One advertising man instituted the now famous Burma Shave jingles,
which were spaced out to match the speed of the traffic. Tourist
cabins were upgraded into more lavish courts, and then into motels.
Diners began to improve and highway food chains made an appearance
with some control over menu and sanitary conditions.
Unfortunately, the lure of money brings all kinds of money makers,
some of them not so desirable: beer joints, hot dog stands, "wild
animal" shows, fortune tellers, souvenir shops, and now automobile
scrap heaps lining the edges of every town and city. Signs became
bigger and some were lighted in flashing neon.
People trying to get out of the congestion of the city fled in droves
to the suburbs. Somehow they envied the farmer who could come in and
shop and return to the solitude of the country. They breathed the
fresh air and cooked on open grills, and talked about the country
life, encouraging more people to move into the suburbs, all bringing
their outdoor grills, lawn mowers, automobiles, boats, trailers, and
other paraphrenalia, until there was eventually as many people in the
suburbs as there were in the city. Then the "suburbanites" demanded
some of the advantages of the city. They needed churches, schools,
fire departments, markets, drugstores, hardware stores and gasoline
stations, until there was soon as much congestion and stress as they
had left behind. Shopping malls sprang up everywhere, serving
everything from french fries to wedding gowns, and electric rails
swept the population into the city in the morning and back to the
suburbs in the evening. They finally began to realize that they had
not escaped the city at all; they had merely moved to the
"residential area."
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