Among the most arresting and well known images of the 1930s are displaced families on the road.
The exodus of dust bowl farmers from the Mid-west and sharecroppers from the South was
well documented by FSA photographers. The dented and overloaded Model Ts pictured
struggling down Route 66 have become icons of both disappointment and determination.
Yet even during the Depression the car represented more than a potential
escape from hunger and misery. In the thirties the automobile was promoted and perceived as a vehicle for
family togetherness. Suprisingly, the American tradition of piling the
family into the car for a vacation has its roots in the thirties. Travel was one of the few
luxuries for which spending did not plummet during the Depression. In 1933 Americans spent
$1,102 million dollars relating to car operation during vacations. In 1929, that number was
$1,040 million (Belasco, 143). Harvard economist Julius Weinberger observed how quickly
spending related to auto travel rose during an otherwise slow economic recovery.
Harvard Business Review that in 1935 more than half of the dollars spent on
recreation were spent on vacation travel: $1,788 million out of $3,316 million.
And eighty-five per cent of that travel was by car (qtd. in Belasco, 448-463).
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