March 31, 2003
GO!
If we wish to be somewhere other than where we are today, we simply choose our favored means of transportation, and assuming that we have needed amounts of money, or a set of colorful, plastic credit cards at hand, we can be on our way in a matter of minutes.
It has not always been that way, of course. And, it also appears that, with today's multiple travel-related problems we might expect the old ways to return. We are going to have to re-learn subtle meanings of the term "to wait".."delay" ..."standby" and "canceled."
I'm not quite old enough to recall any personal delays caused for me through waiting for horses, but it was inconvenient for travelers in those days to wait for a horse, or horses to be be rounded up, suitable harnessed, and brought around. It was seldom as it happens in the movies where you dash out of the saloon and leap upon a waiting steed, all saddled and ready to speed you to your haven in the hills. More than once, just leading he horse to the barn was a time-chewing chore itself, especially if said horse had other ideas. The moment of actual departure was dependent on horses and upon those who tended to them. It would seem that to be ready to go within and hour would be a reasonable time frame to consider.
The appearance the automobile did not actually improve the situation too much for a time, either. People today, seem purposely to dis-remember that early cars – wonderful though they were - needed to be cranked before one could move in any direction at all. There are, even today, many broken arms to testify to the fact that cars did not have automatic starters a first. The iron, double- “L” shaped handle as inserted just under the radiator to the end of the shaft and many cars, like the horses before learned how kick back, and such a kick was no match for a simple arm bone or two. C-rack!
Many car owners came to think of their cars as being fa more complicated an elaborate than most of them were, but it caused many owners to prepare for driving or more so, perhaps to prepare to be 'seen"driving by others. Motoring wardrobes became, for a time, quite serious. My grandmother never went for a turn in the old Saxon touring car without a colorful scarf holding her hat on her head, and her son wore a tight leather cap and goggles as well as a wool scarf around his neck and tucked into a warm jacket or coat to protect his chest from the chilly breezes which, I can confirm, did come around the end of the tiny, glass windshield ahead of him. Both front and back seat travelers often felt blankets to be a necessity piece of traveling equipment.
We forget that early cars had a handy, standard equipment kit one carried along at all times which made it possible to patch tires along the was. A jack stand, a hand operated air pump, several and wrenches, a prying bar and pliers were included or added. As stations were few and far between, so it was wise thing to carry a five gallon can of gas with you when you took a trip through less familiar territory. My father worked with a man in Norfolk who drove a Stanley "Steamer". He had to leave the office for ten minutes of so every day at around four something to go out and fire up the small charcoal furnace in his car to generate enough steam to get him home and five o'clock-quittin' time.
We like to think of the many improvement we have made over the ways of yesterday and yet, it is plain to see that our current frustration with time spent in getting there – especially with get-there-quickly air travel - is repeating much of what has happened before." Hurry up, and wait" is no longer a maxim used concerning military routines alone.
A.L.M. March 29, 2003 [c687wds]
