{This is a response to a prompt from Friday Fictioneers. We are to write 100 words, inspired by the photo. Photo courtesy of Ted Strutz. My rhyme scheme, once again, took me beyond the limit to 105. Sorry.
The prompt photo led me to look at various radiator caps/hood ornaments, designed from the 1920’s through the 1960’s, and placed as decorations or marks of distinction and brand, on the hoods of cars. Some were custom-made, by designers as renowned as René Lalique.
Many featured figures from Greek or Roman mythology, especially characters known for speed, such as Hermes/Mercury, or animals, such as eagles or rams, that were also known for their speed or strength. The three-pointed star you may recognize, as the Mercedes emblem.
It is also interesting to see, how these emblems morphed over time, to adjust to tastes in design and political correctness. The amber-faced Native American that Pontiac used, very early on, is a good example, as it becomes much more abstract over time. Plymouth used a ship, like the Mayflower, at one point. The DeSoto emblem,at first, looked like a portrait of the conquistatador, Hernando de Soto, but then became more stylized.
These emblems were eventually determined to be a safety risk to pedestrians, who tended to get impaled by them, and for the most part, they went out of style.
A good selection of photos of these ornaments can be found here.
Thanks again, for the prompt and for stopping by to read!}
Before consumer protection,
Before our politics, most correct,
A classical education
Recognized a Greco-figurehead;
We dressed our ladies in steel-chrome,
Emphasizing curves and white-wall tires,
And Prosperity was Destiny,
Bestowing on us, what we most desired;
Then, brandishing Wingèd Victory,
We delivered Prometheus’ storied torch,
And we parked, with head-dressed Indians,
Beaming amber-visaged toward our porch.
We imagined speed was our savior,
Sporting three-point stars: land, air and sea;
And DeSoto would conquer our demons,
Wearing ruff and crown of metal-ry.
But now, Phaeton hijacks our carriage,
Kicks his heels way up, and, flags unfurled,
Our steel-ship takes a nose-dive,
And sails right off the edge of the world.
Copyright 2018 Andrea LeDew
For a tale for car-enthusiasts and technophobes, read Twisting Wrenches.
Really enjoyed all the great comments!
This is gorgeous.
Thank you so much Lisa
That was really clever, and flowed like a river, brilliant stuff
Thank you ministry!
It’s an unusual take on the photo prompt – just goes to show how differently and creatively our mind works. I didn’t much understand the American reference, however, I loved the flow Andrea.
Thanks for the feedback.
Im not sure specifically what you meant by the American reference but Ill try clear up some things for the non-US audience.
I just realized, after publishing, that a hood in the US is probably a bonnet in other countries so hopefully that didn’t cause too much confusion.
By consumer protection, I mean the laws that protect consumers from harmful products ( like, in the fifties, cars with no seatbelts, or steering wheels that could kill the driver, or hood ornaments that might injure pedestrians in a crash, for example. ).
These laws developed, I think, in reaction to the rise of automobiles and automobile accidents.So there was a time lag, and a lot of things were permitted in the fifties, that would later be outlawed for safety reasons.
Political correctness you may be familiar with, but specifically, I am referring to the Native American hood ornament, in full head dress, with a face in translucent amber. I think this would, today, be looked upon in horror, as racist and insensitive.
Much of the poem refers to a long period of prosperity in the US, and I tried to link the hood ornaments to these aspects of the American psyche.
The last paragraph speaks of a comparative decline in our country, where we no longer feel so confident and sometimes we feel that our ship of state is heading on a very dangerous trajectory.
I remember being fascinated by hood ornaments, when I was a kid in the 50’s. Nice take.
Thanks granonine! They are impressive!
I think indeed the last stage of cars is getting close… the hood ornament is a great metaphor of the first decline.
You may be right Bjorn. I imagine boats will become more popular as time goes on…?
The purity here is lovely. Poetry in motion. And so historical and informative. Really really like this Andrea. So glad you are A FF and a WPS!
Thank you Kelvin! Comments like this make it a pleasure to participate. Glad to have the chance to rub shoulders with writers as accomplished as yourself! Drama, humor, pathos, poetry: we have it all here. And even sometimes the stories are “blinding me with science” (fiction) ?.
Haha you flatter me unduly, Andrea.
Really enjoyed this clever verse, as well as the history lesson that precedes it. Very interesting and dynamic, well done!
Thank you Dawn. Ever the homeschool teacher, I guess. ?. I was impressed with your Huffington Post credentials, congratulations. So sorry you had to worry about your daughter’s safety during the attack in Jerusalem. My daughter was in Orlando at the time of the pulse nightclub shooting ( but was perfectly safe and nowhere near, thank God!) so I have some small idea of how that can feel.
Yes, that was a very scary one, as it happened very close to her apt, and the initial report only stated that 5 Americans were dead. Scary for any mom. Thanks for the kind words.
Interesting how much ancient imagery was used in these early car designs. Great piece of poetry and thank you again for your enlightening notes – really interesting Andrea
Thank you Snow!
Beautifully crafted.
I love your perspective! As an obviously much older participant I knew this to be a 1954-1955 model (and its a 1953). Still I love seeing what you see!
Thanks Dawn!
I think of the voice in this poem as the voice of the nation, going through time. Our communal experience, related through these very expressive hood ornaments. Glad you enjoyed it.
ah, you took me for a ride on this one. 🙂
Haha!
Good stuff here. I remember reading about Nader’s crusade, and how the administration change from LBJ to Nixon eliminated the requirement for crashbars in truck doors (as well as another regulation stipulating that the cab had to hold the weight of the truck in the event of a rollover). Many people died and were injured because of that. The whole history of automobiles in the US is endlessly interesting to me, from the Sloan plan to eliminate light rail to the cold war idea of the interstate system.
Sounds like you are well-versed on these issues. Having a traffic engineer in the family has made me more aware of them too. Its seems to be the American way togo full speed ahead with any promising innovation, and deal with the consequences, later. ?
Well researched and presented history followed by an equally informative verse. Thank you so much!
Informative verse. It seems I have spawned a new genre. Just kidding. ?
I think you could be right!
PS I thought of a good name for it. “infopo.”
Ooo that is menacing!
What a fascinating take on the prompt! Hood ornaments were once an integral part of the brand image; nowadays the visual cues are subtler but just as potent.
Perhaps as our environment has become more saturated with advertising, and we are more conditioned to recognize such symbols, the trigger to remind us of that brand’s advertising can afford to be more subtle. Or perhaps our tastes are just more minimal, less grand. Thank you for that insight Penny!
So that’s why hood ornaments all but disappeared.
Here’s an article from Newsweek explaining why.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiZio-vkYXgAhWFGt8KHWp0B5QQzPwBegQIARAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Fautos-doing-away-hood-ornaments-88375&psig=AOvVaw1sKlA02ZmchS0nXw8Yj0oT&ust=1548375232826178
I love where you went with this, Andrea. Though, it is a tad disconcerting that “people tended to get impaled by them”. You have to wonder at human’s stupidity!
I think it was when cars ran into pedestrians by accident, and not the other way around. Still, I guess I put that a little too coarsely. Believe me, safety is very very important to me.
No, no… I didn’t take it that way! It was not too course. People just had to get out of the way 😉
Well it probably helped when they later installed niceties, like roads and signs and stop lights. ??
Yes… those little niceties do help peeps from getting run over…
I just read a Newsweek article ( linked in the comments) that the strict European pedestrian safety laws had a lot to do with the hood ornament’s fall from grace. So we North Americans can blame the Europeans! ?
If they didn’t make them so darn big and protruding so much!!
Dear Andrea,
Fascinating and entertaining. I loved where the prompt took you.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Thank you Rochelle! The link I provided toward the end of my intro shows a great number of hood ornaments, which I have referenced in the poem.
Hope you dont mind, if I explain a bit here, since not everyone may be up on their Greek and Roman mythology. What follows is a short tutorial.
Toward the end of the list are a few images of the Pontiac amber Indian head, and even later is the Plymouth Mayflower-type ship, which really looks like it is about to sail off the edge of the hood.
There are many winged beings, and Mercurys, carrying fire. I deliberately conflated Mercury with Prometheus ( the one responsible for giving fire to mere mortals) to convey the very American notion that all things American are God’s gift to the world.
Phaeton is the name of a car (with a darling child ornament in the list) but he is also a child of Helios (Apollo?) the sun. When Phaeton’s friends questioned his paternity, he asked Helios for proof. Helios said the boy could have anything he wanted, and Phaeton demanded to be able to ride the sun’s chariot across the sky. After Phaeton burnt several fields,Zeus took him out with a lightening bolt.
Hope that helps!
enjoyable and informative.
Thanks Sandra!
What a lovely tribute to nineteenth century romantic verse
I think my style is definitely stuck in the nineteenth century!
But what I had in mind was more the post-war period of the nineteen-fifties and sixties, when the car was king, and hood ornaments expressed the US public’s feelings of dominance and security. When we were riding high, so to speak.