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| Don Vickers stands in front of a car that may have been the one that he and Hazel Pierce took their honeymoon road trip. The car is from the mid-1920s, but it is difficult to tell the make, model and year from this photo. If you know what kind of car it is, please leave a comment. |
NOTE: This post is the sixth and final in a series of excerpts from the
road trip diary Hazel Pierce kept on her honeymoon with husband Don
Vickers in 1926. Along with the excerpts are some observations and comments
from this blogger.
After leaving Mammoth Cave in Kentucky "...we saw many beautiful apple orchards. We passed
one large army camp which was Camp Knox. We passed through Louisville,
Kentucky, which is a very large town. We crossed the Ohio River and it is
beautiful. We saw a cement plant and a flour mill.
"We spent the night [in]
Edingburgh, Ind., with an old lady. We were only a short piece from
Indianapolis. Friday we left Indiana and went into Ohio.
"That day we had our
first tire trouble. Had two flats, but it only took a short time to fix them.
That night we stayed at the West Jefferson.
"Saturday after taking a good many
detours we arrived in Akron about four o’clock. We enjoyed our honeymoon trip
very much, just had the time of our lives."
Don and Hazel ended their honeymoon in Akron, where they
would live and Don would work for
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| Downton Akron, Ohio, in the 1920s. Courtesy Northeastern Pennsylvania Photo Collection |
When the couple arrived, Akron had just completed an
economic boom that made it the fastest growing city in the United States. General
Tire, Goodrich, Firestone and Goodyear built headquarters in the city. Other
industries made everything from fishing tackle to farming equipment. Between
1910-1920, the population increased 202%. Almost a third of the population were
immigrants.
The Vickers eventually left Akron for the Alabama farming
community of Faunsdale. There they owned and managed a 600-acre farm
specializing in cattle. The move from the bustling big city to a quiet farm ran counter to the population shift taking place in America. You can't help but wonder about the motivations that led to the Vickers' decision to return to a rural lifestyle.
Very interesting. My first thought is that perhaps Akron smelled like rubber, if they were making tires there as well as having Goodyear headquarters. That would make a rural lifestyle seem healthier!
ReplyDeleteThese really were the good old days, weren't they, when people could support themselves by manufacturing or farming? Now almost a hundred years later, the economy has gone topsy-turvey.
Hazel seems to take everything with such equanimity. She must have been a peaceful person.
Mariann, of course Hazel was much older when I knew her, but she was always a sweet, quiet person.
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