The Woman and the Car, 1909, for International Women Drivers' Day

If you were a woman of driving age in 1909, wouldn't you be pleased to find a guide to help

you learn to drive a car?  A guide especially written for women drivers as though they know very little about a car?  A guide that explains the details of caring for a car?  I was delighted to find this little gem of a book, The Woman and the Car: A Chatty Little Handbook for All Women Who Motor or Who Want to Motor, and to learn how simple the care of a car was in 1909.  Both of my grandmothers, one born in 1888, the other in 1893, would have been of an age to use this book when learning to drive.  It may seem quaint to us in our day and age but I'm certain that the avant garde women of 1909 would have been pleased to have had this guide to motoring, as the author called it.

Today, June 24, is International Women Drivers' Day.  Is anyone else celebrating with me?  My maternal grandmother, Emma Bickerstaff Meinzen, never drove a car and as far as I know, neither did any of my great-grandmothers.  (Though I know at least one of my great-grandmothers drove a horse and cart, and probably several others did, too.)  Of my direct-line female ancestors, only my mother was a driver of an automobile.

The contents page tells us that it covers cost, upkeep, and accessories; dress for driving; the mechanism of the car; how to drive; how to avoid troubles and mend them; hints on expenses; motor manners; tips for the necessary and the unnecessary, and several other categories. 

Here are a few photos from the book.

The Useful Overall

Changing the Oil

Changing the spark plug

Almost flooding the carburetor so it will start easily

She makes the upkeep of a car seem simple.  (But then maybe cars were simpler in 1909.)  I've never changed a spark plug nor the oil in a car.  She didn't mention dirty, greasy hands though the overall suggested the possibility of getting dirty.

I found the section on motor manners interesting.  As you can probably guess from the paragraphs below, the author was British so manners in Britain might have been a bit different than in the U.S.  Her instruction of care when driving past a horse reminds me that 1909 was a time when the roads were shared with pedestrians, horses, horses and buggies/carts, and cars.  A transition time.  And how I wish modern drivers were more careful about not splashing pedestrians when there are puddles of water.

The author included a dictionary, especially helpful when the technology is new.  There are car parts that I've never heard of, car parts that now have different names, and maybe some car parts that cars no longer have.  The definitions of these words were ones I found interesting:  Bevel Gear, Big End, Cam, Change-Speed Gear, Governor, Induction Coil, Pony-Brake, and Sparking-Plug.

All in all, I found the book insightful into the social history surrounding the advent of cars.   Not only did I learn about driving in a car, I also learned about those who were not in cars.

The author of The Woman and the Car is Dorothy Levitt.  You can read more about her and read her book at this post in The Public Domain Review.  (It's an excellent article so be sure you visit.)  You can also read or browse the book at Internet Archive.

Did any of your grandmothers who lived in the first quarter or half of the 20th century drive a car?  Did they tell you of their experiences?

Happy International Women Drivers' Day!

-–Nancy.

Copyright © 2022 Nancy Messier.  All Rights Reserved. 
Do not copy or use any content from this blog without written permission from the owner. 
.

A Question of Longevity

I suspect I am tied to paper for the rest of my life.  I love using a computer for some things but others just need paper and pen.  For example, a calendar book.

About a dozen years ago I bought a book similar to the one to the right.  It suited me perfectly with its monthly and weekly 2-page spreads.  Monthly for a quick glance at major events, weekly for to do lists and appointments.  I tried to buy one the next year but that style was not to be found in stores nor online.  I guessed they discontinued making them.  Even then there were probably few people like me who loved the physicality and ease of paper calendars.

So, being resourceful and having enough computer and word processing skills to create a similar book, I set out to duplicate the calendar book I loved.  I succeeded and have been making them annually ever since.

These books get pretty racked up by the end of a year:  I shove the book into and pull it out of my purse, make notes, pencil-in and erase entries, and sometimes paste in bits of paper.  The wire binding and flexible cover allow me to put a pencil between the pages before I close the book.  Handy.  It's all very handy.  If you like paper.  And probably faster than your digital calendar.  My doctor once asked me when I'd had a particular exam.  When I couldn't remember the date, she started looking through my digital records on her computer.  I pulled out my calendar book and found the date in no time.  She bemoaned needing to change to digital medical records.  I find computers are faster for some things, paper is faster for others.

I've probably made at least a dozen of these books.  I cut the paper to size with a paper cutter, punched the holes with a hand paper punch (about 5 pages at a time), used a punch to round the outer corners of all the pages and the cover, made divider tabs for the months, and made tyvek envelopes with holes punched along the side to go at the back of the book for miscellaneous items.

This year I learned of a local company who, for a price, would cut a ream of paper to size (3 calendar book pages per 8½" x 11½" sheet) AND punch holes in all the pages AND include the wire bindings cut to size.  I considered the cost of all of this and the time I spend to make one calendar book each year.  Imagining a whole ream's worth of calendar pages ready for printing and binding almost made me giddy.  It seemed like a dream come true.

And then I realized that having a whole ream of paper cut to size for calendar books would give me 1500 pages and allow me to make 18 books!  Eighteen!  I started to chuckle when the absurdity of having paper and bindings for 18 years' worth of books hit me.  I'll be turning 70 in a few weeks.  Will I still want calendar books like these when I'm 88?  Will I even be able to make them at that age?  Will I even be alive in 2038?

I had the whole ream cut and hole punched.

But the idea of longevity has been swirling around in my mind.

• How long will I live?  Will I be alive in 18 years?
• How long will I be physically capable of creating these books?
• How long will I be mentally capable of creating these books?
• How long will I have a computer/computer program capable of making the calendar pages the way I want them?  The longevity of computer programs seems to be decreasing quickly.  Perhaps the old WordPerfect word processor I use will not be compatible with some new computer I'll need in a few years.
• Will we even be using computers in 18 years, or will we all be using small devices like cellphones and tablets?
• How long will my interest in jotting down to-do lists and appointments last? 
• In 15 or 16 or 17 years, will I have finally converted to a digital calendar?
• And no, I'm not in the least concerned about the longevity of the paper in these books.  They're for my use, not for posterity's sake.  If they last longer than I do, my daughters will probably throw them away, or, if they look through them first, chuckle at what they find inside.

My most recent ancestors have lived only into their 70s or early 80s, but I have earlier ancestors who lived into their 90s.  Am I as healthy as they were?  Or are there other factors at play in their long lives?

We never know how long we'll live, what our life span will be, what we'll be able to accomplish in a lifetime or near the end of our lives.  I guess, long or short life, the point is to live it, enjoy it, do our best and try to keep getting better from one day to the next.  That's my plan.  And I hope to continue making and using my paper calendar books.

Wishing you a long and happy life!

--Nancy.

Copyright ©2020, Nancy Messier.  All Rights Reserved. 
Do not copy or use any content from this blog without written permission from the owner. 
.

Putting an Ancestor in Time and Place

I enjoy reading well-researched and well-written historical novels, especially when they take place at the times and in the places where my ancestors lived.  They open wide the door to life as it may have been lived with details about topics such as home-keeping, child-rearing, food preparation and diet, health, clothing, travel methods, care of animals and gardens, dealing with weather, not to mention manners and the interactions between family, neighbors, friends, and business associates/owners.  An excellent author of historical fiction will have researched these topics in old newspapers, books, journals, magazines, and any other available resources, including some of the records we family historians use:  census records; birth, marriage, and death records; wills; probate, property, other court documents, etc.  The excellent author strives for accuracy as s/he paints the picture of some specific time and place in the past.

But I don't envision my ancestors as characters in a book of historical fiction.  I see them as the lead characters in their own lives, lives lived with with purpose (even if the purpose was only survival), spunk, fervor, humor, stamina, determination, and often faith.

My interest in family history has always extended beyond names, events, dates, and locations.  I've been interested in getting to know about their lives, activities, and interests, as much as possible, and learning about the social and political environment of the times in which they lived.  Knowing details like these helps me avoid the pitfalls of assumption.  Non-fiction books about social history and specific topics pertaining to ancestors' occupations and interests often help fill in details about places they lived and newspapers can give local details, sometimes including information about specific individuals.

These are a few examples of errors in thinking I could have made had I not been aware of the customs, standards, and expectations contemporary to my ancestors.

• My father ended his formal education with eighth grade.  By today's standards he might be considered a drop-out, but not so.  It was common practice in rural communities of the early 1920s to end formal education at that time.  My father was an intelligent man and I think part of his insistence that his children go to college was because he never had the opportunity and could see how beneficial it would be.
• Ten of fifteen of my grandmothers born in the 1800s were married when they were between the ages of 16 and 18.  In today's culture, we would generally consider that too young to make such an important decision.  Had I not learned that it was common for young ladies to move from home to marriage at this age during the times in which they lived, I could have misjudged the situation.  Cultures and mores change over time.  (I will admit that I still marvel at the marriage of my great-grandmother, age 17, to my great-grandfather, age 35.)
• One of my great-grandfathers died leaving a pregnant wife and six children.  The children were assigned a guardian by the court.  It would have been easy to assume my great-grandmother was not capable of caring for her children except for the knowledge that it was common practice for a guardian to be assigned in cases like this one.

There's lots I love about genealogy and family history:  the mystery of finding the next individual or family, finding as much as I can about him or her, the search and the sleuthing for documents, the satisfaction of having found an individual, tracking and recording the search and results.  I also love putting an ancestor in his or her time and place and learning details about both. 

This post was written for Amy Johnson Crow's 2019 version of 52 Ancestors.  The post topic for the week was "Context."

 –Nancy.

Copyright ©2019, Nancy Messier.  All Rights Reserved. 
Do not copy or use any content from this blog without written permission from the owner. 
.