During the first episode of the Beverly
Hillbillies the Clamplets jump out of Mr.
Drysdale's car as he takes them to their
mansion for the first time. They mistake it
for a prison. Jed, Elli May, Jethro and
Granny go running down the street to get away
through the early sixties Beverly Hills
neighborhood that influenced so many other
upscale neighborhoods of the time. As the
Clampets run past a stop sign there is a very
pronounced black oil stain on the road, right
where you'd expect it to be if a car had made
a complete stop. The vision in the back of my
mind is a local kid, a hot rodder, slicked
back hair, rebellious, James Dean style,
souping up his jalopy when he probably came
up to the stop sign and discovered an oil
leak. Every neighborhood had backyard
mechanics at the time. They were cool.
The producers probably didn't give it a
second thought and didn't think it was worth
cleaning up the oil stain before filming the
scene for the show. This provides unique
insight into the times. Just about everyone
worked on their own cars back then. We
weren't to far out of an era where driving a
car was an adventure plus soldiers coming
back from service in WWII and Korea had fresh
daily exposure to mechanical tasks so working
on your car was part of the American fabric.
I wish I would have kept it but I picked up a
1918 newspaper a few years ago and there was
an article about a families automobile
journey from Seattle To Colorado. The writing
styles of that era were much different.
Readers had far more patience for the
lengthy, wordy descriptions. Every bump in
the road, majestic bird, vista and weather
event was described with great detail along
with several mechanical breakdowns that added
to the adventure as they described repairing
the car enroute, on the side of the road.
Driving a car in 1918 was an exotic
experience worth reporting. The paper gave it
several columns and it was continued as a
weekly.
Through the twenties this love affair
continued with the automobile and the Sunday
drive became a bonding moment for families in
America. We even started developing an RV
industry that punctuated the mystic of road
trips. In the thirties we saw families take
to the road as the great depression and the
dust bowl destroyed their property. A broken
down automobile on the side of the road was
harmless. People even stopped to help. Now
you can get a ticket if you break down on
some roadways where traffic flow is impeded.
Stopping to help is potentially libelous and
probably dangerous.
We've gotten away from our automobile
heritage. I can remember repairing a u-joint
in my Studebaker on the side of the road on
the Valley Freeway in Kent, WA soon after it
opened up. There was a lot of cheap land when
they built the valley freeway and the
shoulders on the side of the road were broad
so I could push my car off to safety. Now on
most freeways I look around and ask myself:
"what would I do if my car broke down here?"
Then there are the brave soles who pull over
and use their cell phones rather than talk
while they're driving. They usually appear
leery of traffic going by, wishing they could
have found a more secluded spot to take the
call. It's a whole new AAA era where less
than 15% of people work on their cars and we
buy extended warranties so it's not our
responsibility if our car breaks down. Rather
than adventuresome, an oil leak is an
environmental irresponsibility. I wonder if
there is anybody today, in Beverly Hills, who
can turn a wrench?
