Driving cars in the 1950s

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything. Charles Kuralt, On the Road With Charles Kuralt

I remember fender skirts. What a pain. They were on our first car, a 1951 two door V-6, stick shift, Chevrolet. No radio or anything else, just a cheap water heater under the glove compartment. $1600 dollars out the door for the car. The average annual salary in 1950 was around $3,000. A loaf of bread cost 15 cents.

Shortly before we bought the car we were using a pickup on the farm. The road by our house was dirt and it was being graded and paved. During rains many people would get stuck. As a teen I would take the farm tractor and pull them out.

A "big shot" was in a hurry when he got stuck. I pulled him out and he was so happy he gave me a $5 tip, which was a fortune to me around 1950.

One day mom saw a female neighbor drive by on the recently paved road. She was astounded that a woman was driving! Soon after we bought our car, mom learned to drive.

Most women did not drive because automobiles did not have power steering, automatic shift, an electric starter, and other conveniences. I remember many times watching my dad hand crank our pickup in the late 30s because batteries were charged with a generator instead of an alternator. An alternator allows the battery to be charged while the engine is idling. Battery life and quality was not what it is today. Imagine how important the electric starter, alternators and reliable batteries are to our economy and life styles.

Prior to 1950 many roads were dirt, often muddy from rains. Automobiles would get stuck. Men would be out in the mud trying to get the automobile unstuck, while the women stayed inside, if it was raining. Tires with rubber inner tubes would often go flat. Many motorists carried their own patch kits to repair inner tubes.

There was a time in the 1950s when driving was fun. Roads were not crowded. The population was almost half of what it is in 2007.

Automobiles improved in style and comfort and were heavily advertised on the new television. Many roads, like the one by our farm, were paved. President Eisenhower started our Interstate Highways. http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/homepage.cfm People would go for a Sunday afternoon drive with the family.

Compare driving then to now. Today people are in a hurry. They are shopping for more stuff. They have urgent errands to do, but not important errands. Road rudeness and road rage are common. The big cars today are seen as weapons for the driver.

Young drivers of today missed the glory days of automobile driving. Road transportation today is more reliable, but less enjoyable. However, when the young drivers of today reach old age, they will look back on their young driving years as the glory years of driving.

Prior to the automobile, transportation to the polling places contributed to the absence of women's right to vote. Women were often pregnant and/or nursing babies by breast feeding. Getting on a horse, or in a wagon, to go to the voting areas in inclement weather was inconvenient. Polling places were often a place of drunken activity. They were not considered a place for a lady.

Charles Tolleson