For years I was guilty of swap meet shopping crime. Not thievery; but rather my inability to look beyond anything related to the year/make/model vintage car that sat in my garage. Besieged by blinders and the adrenalin rush from hunting for NOS parts – just in case – I gave nary a casual thought to the countless treasures hidden in unsearched boxes of parts, crates full of literature and in dark recesses of canopy-covered vendor booths. Oh, I found treasure: an NOS steering wheel; a dealership banner; even postcards and press photos, to name just a few.
Nearly 20 years have passed since my hunts began, and like any good gearhead I am proud to say I’ve amassed quite the collection of both common and rare parts for my ride, as my wife can attest. Notebooks full of literature, a library full of books and shelves full of scale cars and other assorted trinkets. Heck, even the HO-scale train layout I am eking my way through is set in my favorite automotive period. And it’s this latter endeavor that awoke my senses to vintage finds well beyond the narrow garage bay I resided.
As an example, I present Exhibit A above: Maim Street. Taking the oath on the stand, I must say it was an accidental find, tucked in a box of vintage Fifties automobilia I snagged for a shockingly low $15. Issued by the Travelers Insurance Company (this one dated 1950), its twisted title and admittedly amusing cartoon cover was what drew me to the contents within – and that’s when the macabre reality began to sink in.
Having already been published for a number of years, Maim Street was a fact-based look back at driving safety; a stark reality of injury and death rates among men and women drivers in all type of crash scenarios, and pedestrians, too. Tracking the trend over the previous two years (1948-’49), I was not surprised to see that as the number of cars increased on the roads, so too did collision rates. In some instances there were a decrease in the number of injuries and fatalities, but with each turn of the page (and beyond the – if nothing else – entertaining cartoons) it also begged the question: What was the auto industry itself doing in the name of driver/passenger safety?
Clearly, Travelers was making an effort to educate. The statistics were indeed an amazing read, especially having driven a 1952 Buick – and a variety of other collector cars – for two decades. Then again, it struck me that reading is one thing; learning is something else. It reminded me that in spite of the slower pace we enjoy behind the wheel of our vintage steed, danger is on duty 24/7. Maim Street is far from a whimsical window into our past, but it’s a treasure nonetheless; a snippet of history we can’t ignore. Even if its cartoons are humorous.
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