Asphalt is almost becoming a regular topic on this blog. Back in November of last year, I featured a 1957 ad by the Ohio Road Improvement Company promoting the economic benefits of using “black, velvety asphalt” for paving roads instead of pouring concrete.
And here’s another ad in that same series. This ad appeared in the Lorain Journal on July 30, 1956. This time, the focus is on the farmer and the ability to get his produce to market quickly thanks to asphalt.
I suppose that only old-timers get the visual pun of the cute “tomato."
I'm old enough to remember the 1950s when many of the county roads were gravel, and they were no fun to drive on. Anyone who lived on a gravel road would certainly appreciate the push to asphalt paving of all roads. In the dry summer, driving on gravel roads created a large rooster tail of fine dust that not only covered your car but also crops and houses along the road. The only thing that may have been worse was the oiling of the roads to keep down the dust. A couple of times each summer a tanker truck would spray the roads with an oil and water mixture. Trust me you didn't want to drive on a freshly oiled road, at least if you wanted an oil free finish on your car. Once the oil dried, the dust was somewhat mitigated, at least until there had been enough vehicle traffic to churn up the gravel again.
ReplyDeleteI still have bad memories from about 1960 of riding my bicycle on Oak Point road in Lorain when it was a gravel road with virtually no development. What a difference 60 years makes!
Hi Rick!
ReplyDeleteGreat observations and very informative too! And that's a funny memory of how Oak Point used to be, I just remember trying to cross Route 2 there on our bikes too before the overpass was built, it was a pretty dangerous intersection!
NOW I'm getting email SPAM from this site!
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