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Program: Witness to a Century
Segment Number: 7 (Watch entire program)
Duration: 00:03:31
Year Produced: 2008
Description:

One of the biggest changes in the century was how Virginians got around. As one Virginia woman put it "It wasn't the vote that made me independent. It was my car."

The Roaring Twenties. Prohibition. The Great Depression. World Wars. The explosive growth of technology. Testimony from Virginia’s centenarians is used to create WCVE PBS’ one-hour documentary, “Witness to a Century.” WCVE PBS and the Virginia Historical Society have collaborated on this look back at the enormous changes that took place in Virginia in the twentieth century through the eyes of those that lived through them.

For more information visit: http://www.ideastations.org/witness/index.html

Transcript

One of the biggest changes in the century was how Virginians got around. As one Virginia woman put it "It wasn't the vote that made me independent. It was my car."

Fisher

Well, in the early twenties, there weren’t many cars. Most of them were Model T’s, and not every family had one. Oh, in those days a car cost only about $400. I remember my first car was a Model A Ford, I believe . In those days you had to crank the cars by hand in front of the car. [laugh] And if you wanted to take a spin, you’d put [it] in neutral, crank it and get in, and there were three pedals. On the right, you push it and that put it in low gear. There were just two gears. And after getting up to 15 miles an hour approximately, you would let it all the back -- that was second gear -- so you left it in second gear. if you wanted to back the car, there was a middle pedal.

Yates

By ’22 I was a merchant. And decided to buy a brand new five-passenger car. Parked it in front. People come by, “Whose car?” Man, I’d swell up. “It’s mine.” And that went on. They’d ask me, “Can I get one?” I had this uncle running a store a few miles away. I said, “We made a mistake. We ought to sell something bigger than canned goods. So he said, “We’ll get up a agency.” He did. I ran it by myself for a year and a half. I would have kept it, but no roads.

Fisher

There were not many paved highways. Dirt roads, which were dusty in dry weather and muddy in wet weather. . . . you didn’t go very fast because the roads weren’t suitable.

McMurdo

I met with a man that had a motorcycle for sale, and he had just married, and his wife didn’t want any part of the motorcycle. So he sold it to me for $40. And I– that made me independent.

It was a Harley-Davidson, twin, and it was a powerful machine. I didn’t have a helmet, I didn’t have a driver’s license, Well, the motorcycle didn’t have a speedometer either. I didn’t speed on it. I think my top speed was about 35 miles an hour, and that was the speed of most everybody else. Incidentally, I sold the motorcycle when I graduated in 1930, for $40. So it was a no-loss proposition.

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