The Restive Spirit

Cabin Court

After reading the articles for this week, I was particularly interested with this sort of restless American spirit that was described and all of the inventions and consequences from that feeling. James Agee wrote in his piece, "the American people - worked up in their blood a species of restiveness...we are restive entirely for the sake of restiveness. Whatever we may think, we move for no better reason than for the plain, unvarnished hell of it." I completely agree with this statement by Agee, that Americans travel and move around just for the reason that there isn't anything better to do. This is why we take road trips and visit friends in other cities and take paid vacations and have destination weddings. But I am also interested in how these things, including leisure travel and motels and diners have been created out of this need to travel.

One of the most interesting things for me while reading these pieces is the idea of the cabin court, where people could just stay in a small house or shack and park their car next to their temporary home. It is the first version of the modern day motel. While motels today have a seedy sort of image in general, back then, they were attractive for travelers. John Jakle wrote, "the cabin camps and cottage courts attracted not only travelers who had previously camped, but many who otherwise stopped only at hotels." He goes on to say that few hotels were actually convenient for automobile travelers, as they were more centered by the railroads. Motels back then were cheap comparatively and still are today, which is just another convenience for travelers. Hence the birth of the motel culture during an American road trip.

From the birth of road trips and American's taking paid vacation time also came diners and gas stations along high ways, which are all still prevalent today. Even driving down a modern high way there are rest stops with McDonald's and local restaurants, information booths for travelers, bathrooms and motels in which one can spend the night. Also created from this need to travel, particularly in the past ten years or so are the birth of destination weddings and websites like Expedia and Cheaptickets. All of which can be used to plan a full on trip - from car rentals, hotels and flights. There are also companies like Hertz and Avis where travelers can rent cars at once location and drop them off at another.

Destination Wedding

Furthermore, I used to work at a travel agency and destination weddings, despite the economy are very popular for young couples. They want to travel to another place to get married purely for the experience and like Agee said just for the "unvarnished hell of it". This idea of leisure travel has grown since the early 20th century - from cabin courts to motels, from diners to fast food restaurants, now to destination weddings and travel websites and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon. Americans just like to travel and have had that travel mind set imprinted upon them throughout recent history.