DvD Video 1

Was a sin. For centuries the working man worked. and worked, on farms, in factories from sun up to sun down. By the middle of the 19th century the working men tiled an average of 66 hours a week, in their few hours off families might get as far as a picnic in a near by grassy cemetery, a morning picking strawberries or a trolley ride to the local fair. meaning while idle crept into style, for the rich at least. The first vacationing families, when they werent making a grand tour across Europe in the 1800's they took trains, steamships and carriages to grand resorts in the US, like French Lick Indiana, and Saratoga Springs New York, they lounged they eat and drank, they gambled, in fact they wallowed in just the wicked behavior those puritans warned against. After all at these vacation resorts flirting and cording were very high up on the list of things that people did at these places. but while those Victorians where getting about, inventors, scientists and engineers where concocting a vacation revolution for the masses In the beginning was the model T, the car of the common man Rolling off Henery Fords assembly line in 1913. To the average farmer a working still, reving up the tin lizzy was like strapping on a set of wings. most people were born and died within 25 miles of their home prior to the 1900s. The car gave them the freedom to venture outside their county and their world as they known it so it really encouraged families to go out and see america. but wheels alone, dont vacation make, without time off the clock its no go and thanks to that same assembly line, working Americans began to get vacation time, well some did. Partial credit goes to William Howard Taft, when 1910 extolled to reporters the wonders of vacation. Even subjecting all Americans get 2 to 3 months off every year A concept not fully embraced by leading industrialists. All vacations Yes, vacations are very important but 2 to 3 months definitely not. A week, two weeks, and they say its only important for brain workers, the brain workers are the people who exhausted from all this mental energy and nervous anxiety, but people who work with bodies, with their hands, they dont need to. But the boss man changed their toon by the 20s when they learned R & R was good for the bottom line. Maybe a rested work force, would be a more efficient workforce and some businesses begin to experiment with offering their workers, their manual labor's some paid vacation. First stop the great outdoors. By 1920 with over 9 million cars registered and on the move, A harried nation scurried into the country side, a natural destination for families because it was easy on the budget. Working class people who had an automobile could use the car as sort of tent, a traveling tent and could pill the family in it and could go to places farther away and camp you brought your food with you, and you cooked it outside. Canned food, cooked and eaten right there by the side of the road, or in a farmers field Many of these pioneers earned the nickname Tin can tourists, no one knows for sure exactly why, it could of been the cans or their cheap tin lizzy model Ts, or the occasional evidence of bad manners. People were going though Iowa and they'd say look at all that corn. I mean there are only 8 of us in this camping party, were only going to have a couple ears of corn a piece another farmer found some people in his barn milking one of his cows So all this stuff is going on and people are in some way getting a little unhappy with these auto campers So a club was formed to help their image, they called them selves The Tin Can Tourists of America and the president of the club was called a Royal can opener By 1922 15 million auto tourists were swarming the nations roads and the 2 major driving complaints, lack of roads and their terrible condition, add to this mechanical mishaps, and unfamiliar destinations and that made for pretty exciting, if not relaxing vacation Often times while meeting a camp sites in the 20s, people would talk about whats the road like? whats the directions like, did you get lost, can we make it over that grade, is their water ahead for the radiator, you hardly ever heard them talking about the scenery their talking about the hardships, so there was sense of adventure a sense of hardship and yet that sense of adventure, really is a thing that captivated people, tin can tourists.