The car-buff media is so oriented toward the gear that it tends to neglect one of the biggest reasons people drive automobiles — to go somewhere interesting.
We could talk about that in scholarly terms. For example, John Heitmann wrote in his book, The Automobile and American Life, that “the car has changed the nature of space and time, and with it human settlement patterns, social relations, and the spatial relationship between work and home and cities and industry. In the process of changing space, it has empowered people in many ways. . . . But along with this enhance mobility came also an increased tendency toward social isolation” (2018, p. 8).
Heitmann has some useful things to say about how radically the automobile has transformed American culture, but at the moment I would like to share something simpler — a moment from being on the road. And since we are mired in the depths of winter, how about some images from summertime.
The photos in this post are from a country road that is a few hours north of Seattle, Washington. While I was watching the sun rise over the Cascade mountains I didn’t see another car in this coastal valley, which is dotted with cattle ranches and farms. I may as well have been a million miles away from the noise and confusion of the metropolis.
The scene reminded me of a Jordan car ad that I referred to in an “Ad Nauseam” feature a while back. If you didn’t click into a larger version of the ad, it’s worth taking a closer look at it.
I particularly like the first paragraph of the text, which captures as well as any car ad I have ever come across the allure of summer driving.
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RE:SOURCES
- Heitmann, John; 2018. The Automobile and American Life. 2nd ed. McFarland & Co., Inc.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:
- oldcaradvertising.com: Jordan (1923)
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