MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG

the Model T cost less than $300 fob Detroit for that you got a car and a hobby every street was Gasoline Alley and every owner was a backyard mechanic who counted on an hour of polishing and tinkering for every hour of Motoring the t- model was delivered without any accessories the floorboards were made from the box the battery came in and the customer could order any color finish so long as it was black here was a car anyone could afford and almost anyone could start the owner of one old stem winders said if you advanc the spark too far she'd backfire that would kick back the crank and break your own or at the very least scrape your knuckles against the radiator considerable color has gone out of our language since the adoption of the selfstarter if the spark throttle and handbrake were not set on their mystically exact notches the Model T demonstrated another peculiarity all 20 horses under the hood would start to creep affectionately forward under their own power these were the days when cars seemed to have personalities of their own they were almost like living things children grew to love them gave them pet names Lizzy Lena Bouncing Betty they crept from the garage into the affections of the home they were members of the family the mobile introduced a new form of togetherness that weekly and often aimless migration the Sunday drive it provided a great excuse to leave the dishes in the sink right after dinner they'd all pile into the car destination didn't matter maybe they' drive down County to see Grandma or drop in on the cousins a prize went to whoever saw the most unusual thing or spotted the most out of state license plates let's go for a spin meant that the alleged head of the family wanted to see how many miles he could get on the speedometer Starlight parking back the same day on one tank of gas now that was something you bragged about by getting Cleveland on your Crystal set family activity was no longer limited to the race IUS of the horse and buggy going down to watch them unload hogs at the Depot was not nearly as much fun as the Magic Carpet were that could be reached by automobile oh benefits of Motoring are numerous a medical joural cheerfully stated fresh air and sunshine the invigorating excitement of motion the chance to escape from the wer day cares of kitchen and Counting house make the automobile a medicine much to be recommended for the health of body and spirit but the automobile which unified some families helped to scatter others low course and upkeep put cars within reach of many young people who use them to escape the jurisdiction of the home joy riding shiks and their sheas drove on both sides of the road irritating their ukul and consuming by the pint liquids which the radiators would have rejected one worried Observer wrote violation of the motor vehicle laws in the 18th Amendment lead straight down hell's highway to the Roadhouse the order was put the front parer on Wheels and moved it beyond the city and all other limits I don't know which is the Horn of Doom the claxon or the saxophone [Music] not only had the automobile replace the horse it went too far and started to replace the comedian the kids painted jokes all over the cars so no matter where it hit you it would strike you funny notice this uh stable became a filling station air was free so was water and gas was 22 cents a gallon including the 2cent tax wherever the country was headed it was going to get there on Wheels the popularity of the Charleston said one social historian is all that keeps legs from going completely out of style in fact the automobile fermented not only the Second Industrial Revolution but a social Revolution too it affected the manners the morals oh boy did it affect the morals even the map of America the whole country in 1905 had only 150 Mi of paved roads by the mid 20s most rural roads were still unimproved said one farmer they're so bad that even in the dry season they'd bog anything that ain't web footed after a fast size rain even a dinosaur would have to look for a detour we consider roads are real smooth around here when the tree Stomps in them are below the level of the mud e [Music] a Midwestern paper admitted that the ruts in one road certainly do need filling we believe the coming crop of fractured axles and broken stering knuckle should do the job nicely [Music] a [Music] gasoline was one was thrown away as a waste product of oil refining now it supported a new major industry which expanded daily as car production increased and the more cars on the road the more good roads were [Music] demanded overnight it seemed that New Paths were beaten from point A to point B what had been dotted lines on the map catawampus Trails were drained and widened and leveled filled and grad and topped off with tar gravy concrete clamshells anything that would lie flat and shed water with improved roads the automobile had become a rural convenience as peridia and a great deal more common than Plumbing after all said a farmer H where can you go in a [Music] bathtub the automobile didn't entirely replace the farm horse but it did give the farmer more horsepower and it did the same thing for the Texas Rancher who said I've got me a car that'll do anything a brood May will do except F in the spring or lick salt from a plow [Music] [Applause] handle if the automobile didn't retire the cow pony to pass your was because gas and repair stations were noticeably scarce on the Open [Applause] [Music] Range the car owner with a puncture was advised to let the tire get snake bit then wait till she swells up to size the automobile widened the social Horizon of the farmer and his wife now the State Fair was just as close as the county fair it introduced them to more people and ideas in the Partyline telephone and it meant that their sons and daughters could for the first time meet and neighbor up with other young folks who weren't all second cousins country churches were more accessible and better attended but they also felt the competition of Sunday driving many a congregation heard sermons which warned that America was traveling buckety buckety down the road to pedition in a model tea but if that's where Lizzie was taking them they had every confidence that she could get them back [Music] for Generations horse and buggy roads had led reluctant fee to the traditional one room District Schoolhouse here one teacher had to instruct and defend herself from seven or eight grades at the same time the automobile made the Consolidated School possible and put an end to eight different mcguffy's readers in one class now every grade could have its own room or as a teacher put it each age in its own [Music] cage no longer dependent on common carriers Farmers could truck their produce and livestock to Market themselves this not only lowered the cost of but it raised the land Val vales of whole areas not served by rail or [Music] waterways once prosperous railroad Spurs and Branch lines began to wither trackage rusted into winding Gardens of gimson weed only occasionally and then accidentally did the Iron Horse get its revenge against the Horseless Carriage but the roads which fed the cities also bled the Farms they lured men away from the soil to good jobs in factories and Mills that Ed out parts and pieces of more cars and they paid good wages so that more people could buy them ours was the only country in the world where the men who made the cars could afford to drive to work in them but they manufactured problems too air pollution noise congestion problems so acute that in some cases we had to use horses to help solve them [Music] the automobile had made a total impact on America or any part of America unable to get out of its way [Music] a new slogan safety face came out for some Curious reason it didn't catch [Music] [Applause] on radio and the automobile grew up together at a time when crime also had become technically sophisticated [Music] radio equipped police cars were developed to meet the high mobility of the mechanized criminal the hot com Ring The Bootlegger the midnight importer of hot lavaliers and a guy charged with an overdue library book [Music] except in toneville it was the end of the line for the trolley car when they made lunch wagons out of the old electric horses or bonfires there would be more room for more automobiles the automobile helped to overcrowd the cities which in turn made their outskirts more desirable and accessible they made the land expensive which in turn popularized if that's the word and storman [Music] buying house with attached garage meant that the house could be attached too and so could the car the final price would probably be uh [Music] 1929 but in 1928 anyway it seemed that Wall Street and Easy Street merged at Main Street and Main Street Chriss crossed America and every car on it put every American within easy spending distance of at least one big town no longer did the housewife have to buy her dresses to the nearest size from a mail order catalog or buy the only style hat from behind the feed sacks and the General Store the car made everyone a comparison Shopper who could always go to the next town for a better fit a different color a fairer price so big city chain specialty and department stores moved out to the small small towns to get the egg money and when they did there were no more small [Music] towns to go with these Fashions from Paris and New York the girls from Main Street had to get the latest Hollywood haircut this drove the men from the barers shops and broke up a lot of good quartets for all this we can thank the automobile our culture like our economy was on Wheels we didn't know where we were going we only knew wherever it was we were going by car and Will Rogers was saying that the only thing this country really needs is a place [Music] [Music] aart we were so in love with the automobile if you care enough about something you can afford to laugh at it once in a while and we did on Saturday night at the silent movies [Music] is [Applause] [Music] we [Music] w wow [Music] [Music] w [Music] [Applause] [Music] w [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] w [Music] [Applause] how did that chase end up it didn't it's like our romance with the automobile was still going on the honeymoon ended along with a few other things in 1929 but we're still very much married to Lizzie we don't always know how to get along with her but we certain he can't get along without her if that isn't marriage I don't know what is we've been through two wars together in a depression she's carried us through the air age and into the atomic age and wherever we're aheed now it'll it'll be in something like this it may be nuclear powered radar control CYO State and vitamin enriched but it'll have license plates front or back headlights and a horn and once in a while we'll still have to get out and give it a shove so Merrily We Roll Along [Music] [Applause] [Music] w oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]