Owning an automobile today is really a great privilege. No king or emperor as late as fifty years ago enjoyed the comfort, speed, and safety of a modern car. The modern motorist can even have excellent music or drama to accompany him over hill and dale if he wants it, and no great ruler ever thought of such a thing before the age of the automobile.

The automobile is truly a remarkable invention of man. And yet there are many families who have never learned how to use one wisely. To such people the mere owning of the car is the most important thing in their lives. They like to keep it shining with polish and drive by the houses of their friends, but as to the real use of the car they have never been trained properly.

Perhaps these suggestions will help you to see new possibilities for that family car of yours. They should be of assistance to you in planning new trips and seeing new places. Ask yourself if you really, as a family, get your money's worth of fun out of your car.

Value Of Travel

One of the reasons why the automobile is important in modern life is that it furnishes rapid and comfortable means of travel for millions of people. Travel is important because of what it can mean to the individual in the way of recreation and education. You will note that we said can mean to the individual, because there are many who travel but have never learned to enjoy or profit by it.

Recreation

The word recreation sounds like wreck-creation. It really is re-creation, a time and way to build up and re-create pep and vim. Travel in the family car can be the best kind of recreation even when it is only a short trip near home. The amount of actual recreation a person receives from the car depends, however, upon how skillful he is in using the facilities about him. There is no particular recreational value in sallying forth on a Sunday afternoon to see how much faster you can drive than the next fellow, and then spending three or four hours pushing your way in and out of traffic. You'll come home with a grouch and two dented fenders, no doubt. Such an experience may be quite exhausting.

There is real fun in rolling leisurely along a country road enjoying the scenery, stopping occasionally to see something of interest or exploring a new part of the woods that looks inviting. There is fun in driving out in the evening to cook your evening meal in the county park and to sit around the fire for an hour or so. There is enjoyment to be found, too, in driving out to a near-by swimming place after a hot day in the city to take a dip and then enjoy your own picnic supper around a fire. These arc the kinds of activities that the motor car has made possible for millions of families. How many families, however, have really studied the roads in their own county to see which ones are interesting and which are not. How many families have explored the recreation facilities that lie within a radius of 100 miles? You can answer this question very easily if you watch the cars rolling by on some main highway near a large city on any Sunday afternoon. Most of the drivers are content to follow along with the hundreds of others on the crowded roads, not knowing about the many shady and cool nooks that may lie within a stone's throw.

The automobile can be a great help, too, in carrying fishermen to the best trout stream or hikers to the most interesting trail. In the winter it is handy to have a car to carry you and your equipment to the best skating or skiing in the surrounding territory. But the car cannot take you to these places unless the driver knows where they are. It is up to the owner of the car to find out about these many free facilities and how to get to them, if he is to make the best use of them.