Oil Stain in Beverly Hills

 During the first episode of the Beverly 
Hillbillies the Clamplets jump out of Mr. 
Drysdale's car as he takes them to their 
mansion for the first time. They mistake it 
for a prison. Jed, Elli May, Jethro and 
Granny go running down the street to get away 
through the early sixties Beverly Hills 
neighborhood that influenced so many other 
upscale neighborhoods of the time. As the 
Clampets run past a stop sign there is a very 
pronounced black oil stain on the road, right 
where you'd expect it to be if a car had made 
a complete stop. The vision in the back of my 
mind is a local kid, a hot rodder, slicked 
back hair, rebellious, James Dean style, 
souping up his jalopy when he probably came 
up to the stop sign and discovered an oil 
leak. Every neighborhood had backyard 
mechanics at the time. They were cool.

The producers probably didn't give it a 
second thought and didn't think it was worth 
cleaning up the oil stain before filming the 
scene for the show. This provides unique 
insight into the times. Just about everyone 
worked on their own cars back then. We 
weren't to far out of an era where driving a 
car was an adventure plus soldiers coming 
back from service in WWII and Korea had fresh 
daily exposure to mechanical tasks so working 
on your car was part of the American fabric.

I wish I would have kept it but I picked up a 
1918 newspaper a few years ago and there was 
an article about a families automobile 
journey from Seattle To Colorado. The writing 
styles of that era were much different. 
Readers had far more patience for the 
lengthy, wordy descriptions. Every bump in 
the road, majestic bird, vista and weather 
event was described with great detail along 
with several mechanical breakdowns that added 
to the adventure as they described repairing 
the car enroute, on the side of the road. 
Driving a car in 1918 was an exotic 
experience worth reporting. The paper gave it 
several columns and it was continued as a 
weekly.

Through the twenties this love affair 
continued with the automobile and the Sunday 
drive became a bonding moment for families in 
America. We even started developing an RV 
industry that punctuated the mystic of road 
trips. In the thirties we saw families take 
to the road as the great depression and the 
dust bowl destroyed their property. A broken 
down automobile on the side of the road was 
harmless. People even stopped to help. Now 
you can get a ticket if you break down on 
some roadways where traffic flow is impeded. 
Stopping to help is potentially libelous and 
probably dangerous.

We've gotten away from our automobile 
heritage. I can remember repairing a u-joint 
in my Studebaker on the side of the road on 
the Valley Freeway in Kent, WA soon after it 
opened up. There was a lot of cheap land when 
they built the valley freeway and the 
shoulders on the side of the road were broad 
so I could push my car off to safety. Now on 
most freeways I look around and ask myself: 
"what would I do if my car broke down here?" 
Then there are the brave soles who pull over 
and use their cell phones rather than talk 
while they're driving. They usually appear 
leery of traffic going by, wishing they could 
have found a more secluded spot to take the 
call. It's a whole new AAA era where less 
than 15% of people work on their cars and we 
buy extended warranties so it's not our 
responsibility if our car breaks down. Rather 
than adventuresome, an oil leak is an 
environmental irresponsibility. I wonder if 
there is anybody today, in Beverly Hills, who 
can turn a wrench?

kb
kbushnel.sdf-us.org/contact.html