Art & Inspiration The book of Sportsmanlike Driving and other adventures en route to Lubbock

I was up in Lubbock with the wife visiting my in-laws this past weekend and had some free time on Saturday afternoon to engage in my favorite past time...junkin'. I went by one of my favorite "gettin places" and I picked up this old book for a dollar and some change called Sportsmanlike Driving, which was put out by the American Automobile Association (AAA). This is a 3rd edition printing from 1955. The first printing was in 1947. This book is in awesome condition and covers a wide range of topics like physical fitness and driving, driving psychology, traffic laws, and how the automobile runs. There are all kinds of graphs, statistics, and charts, but the best part of this book are the killer 1950s era illustrations. I took a couple of pics to show here. The book seems like something that a drivers education instructor would pass out to a classroom full of beginner drivers in the 1950s. I thought y'all might enjoy these.
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First off...I pass this Caddy in Lamesa every time we go to Lubbock, but had never taken a pic:

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Here's the front cover of the book:

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Here's the back cover, says "Power Under Control".....cool!

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Some of the illustrations, this one is about the dangers of drinking and driving:

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Road rage babies that like to honk their horns:

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Horsepower through the years:

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Gremlins that hinder stopping ability:

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The importance of automobile maintenance:

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Book spine:

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American Automobile Association:

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Now you're ready to hit the streets, dad! Grab your chick and go man, GO!

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These were just a few of the illustrations in this book, nearly every page had some kind of killer graphics. If you ever see one out in the wild, I would say to pick it up for history's sake. It's like having a little window to what it must have been like to be gearing up for your first chance at the wheel, circa 1955.

Oh, and check out our blog at atomicradar.com

Adios,

Scott

 

Nobody else has seen this book?

 

I've got the 1948 edition,exellent graphics as well, but a little more dated. Fun read.

 

Lubbock is full of cars I went to college there and met the nicest most sincere people in the world there. I really miss it wish I had more reasons to move back.

 

I see alot of iron around there and San Angelo along Hwy 87. Yeah, the folks are swell too. My wife grew up there and also taught at Texas Tech, we go up to visit every few months.

 

That's the text book used when I took drivers ed. in 1963.

The pictures are a real time warp.

 

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing with us.