https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt702v2c8t1s_4432_1?f%5Bsource_s%5D%5B%5D=Lafayette+Studios+photographs%3A+1930s+decade&offset=1480&per_page=20
The wild days of youth, when America had cars, but few police, and none with radios. Not much in the way of having fun, at your own risk, and actually living a life of freedom and liberty.
Sure, you can whine about safety, all damn day long if you like. But, why bother me with it?
I like high octane, stunts, cars without airbags, and that fundamental principle that some guys started a new country with, freedom from tyrants.
freedom to have a race down a country road with a fast car and a friend with a plane, who didn't have to log 1000 hours with a school, and student loan debt, to fly a damn airplane that didn't have to have an FAA inspection every 12 months, and an engine rebuild, and all the other costs that destroyed cheap airplanes for EVERYONE that wanted to buy one instead of a car and jump from municipal airport to airport and live a full life of adventure.
Anyone could make a car, or car company, and flying wasn't something just for trust fund babies in the Rockefeller or Kennedy clans. You got the nerve? Jump in, get someone to show you how to fly, and land, and bingo, you're on your own kid, don't crash it.
Back when the govt didn't tell you what you could drink, eat, smoke, or do in your free time. When you could open carry, or conceal carry. When a beer was part of lunch, and if you wanted to walk down the sidewalk with a beer, not in a brown paper bag, fine. Enjoy the can o suds! When cops walked a beat, knew the store owners, kept kids out of trouble, and showed them how to make an apple crate into a downhill racer (don't let your mom see this kid)
Back when Norman Rockwell and the other painters made cool stuff come alive, with humor. Before the beatniks, and the hippies, when people were excited to get a ride in a car, or plane, or even a movie theater experience. When we made stuff in America that other countries weren't copying poorly. Hell, when someone was inventing something every 10 minutes that would make life easier.
Amen and amen. I am glad that cars have better brakes and lights than they did in 1936 though.
ReplyDeleteI love the backup camera, and bluetooth from cell phone to car av display... and POWER of modern cars. It's just different. New stuff comes with arbitration clauses for example, 100 years ago, you'd go to the guys that built your car and say look, this broke, and wasn't made well. Lets figure out a solution, or you and me are going to see a judge and have him figure it out. Inside a week you'd have a day in court, no laywers, no papertrail, no BS. Simple life, honest people, no insurance company hornswoggle.
DeletePeople made things, and stood behind them. The owner of a store ran it, not hired a min wage teen to work the counter and not know a damn thing about the stock in the store room.
Sure, the lighting on cars, and their brakes, were lousy, but you could drive ANY where, including all over the national parks. Now? There's 5 billion tourists who are parading for miles to get in the gate, and if you're not there before 6 am, so much for your vacation of camping in Yosemite. Etc. Simple times.
Hey, mosquitoes still carried malaria in the USA, it wasn't all peaches and cream... but there weren't a bunch of crybabies who needed a participation trophy either. People were solid, dependable, and looked out for neighbors, and orphans, and old folks. Try and adopt an american kid... it's a shitshow. All lawyers and rules, but it wasn't always govt run interference for the sake of permit fees.
We gained, we lost, we had cleaner water and no EPA. We had gasoline poured into streams because they didn't know what the hell to do with the byproduct of making kerosene to light homes and streets, until the 1902 rush to build cars. So, we had crazy pollution in places too... The world has always been complicated, but it's never been as bad as it is today.
Your phone company tracks your every move, supreme court judges are funded into office for conservative future moves to get tort reform pushed through so the rich get richer and the unfortunate can't sue for damages.
On the other hand, we had doctors that cured pox, malaria, etc.
The world, and life, are complicated. We were forced to take algebra and chemistry in high school, and will never use them, but playing a guitar will earn you 20-30 an hour as a teacher showing newbies how to play. Algebra won't.
Great Post!
ReplyDeletethanks!
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