bjgreen
By Betsy J. Green
The cars of the 19teens were very unreliable. Tire punctures were common – in part because the roads were not paved well, or not paved at all. Engine problems were also a fairly frequent occurrence. So, when a “Flying A” writer drove all the way from Santa Barbara to Oakland (300+ miles) and back by herself, it made the news in a national silent movie magazine.
“Mabel Condon drove her Santa Barbara car to Oakland last Saturday afternoon and came back Monday. This plucky girl drove all alone too, and it is quite a drive, even for a man.” – Screamer, October 28, 1916
Betsy’s Way Back When book — Movies & Million-Dollar Mansions — is now available in local bookstores and at Amazon.com. This is the seventh book in her series on the history of Santa Barbara. Learn more at .
Thank you, Betsy, for entertaining us over the years. Congratulations on your recent contributions to Wikipedia. And I don’t think that you should be excoriated for using the word “girl.”
“Not bad for a girl”..” even for a man”….I understand the attempt of this article, but these quotes are beyond derogatory towards females..as well as sexist towards males…while the latter was composed in 2015, your headline is current…composed by a completely socially unaware female…go figure how unaware some people are of their own words..and yet they publish them… it is 2023 Betsy..unfortunately people are still fighting hard for equality and to not have toxic statements like yours in circulation…you are part of a problem that does not have to exist…
Tempest in a Teapot: A set of quotation marks would have made clear the author’s intent: the mindset of the era in contrast to the current one here.
I agree, and think that it is always a good reminder to show how far we have come in the last century….. And a good reminder that these strides are going to continue and spread to the rest of the world.
I love how PC liberals spend so much time trying to rewrite the past and make it conform to their current way of thinking. Don’t worry that’ll change and what they say tiday will be wrong tomirrow. Situational ethics which is all the thinking that the PC police have to bring to any insight it’s not only boring but attempts to dumb down the thinking of our society, see Idiocracy the movie for 2 hours of this thinking . The original quote was obviously current to the times. The headline was obviously tongue in cheek at worse sarcastic at best and overall a great use of five words to catch attention. If we could only find more synonyms for the word beige I’m positive that cherish and all of her friends will be able to achieve one with the printed word.
JOJO – just curious, are the “libs” the ones in Texas and Florida banning certain school textbooks that discuss questionable parts of our history? Again, just curious who is actually and literally trying to “rewrite the past?”
CRY more victim claiming softy.
Betsy: The vast, Vast, VAST majority of us know that you are not making toxic statements. A person would really have to dig deep to interpret the headline or anything in the article as a “problem.” You are a local treasure and why anyone wants to paint you as some sort of “socially unaware female” is beyond my very woke comprehension.
My comment was meant as a joke, folks. 😉
Thanks Betsy, some of us understood 😉