Professor Hamilton's Diary: Dec. 21, 1935

He buys a heater and defroster for the car; they weren't standard equipment

In preparation for the family’s Christmas travel to Bronxville today, Professor Hamilton went out and had the car’s windshield wipers fixed and bought a heater and a defroster. The family left late in the afternoon. “It was a cold day and the heater made the car real comfortable,” he wrote. They arrived at his in-laws’ home at 7:30 “having made no stops.”

I had no idea that car heaters weren’t standard equipment in cars in the 1930s, and thought of all those long drives Professor Hamilton had made this year through snow and sleet. How did he stand it? In fact, it would be the 1960s before heaters and defrosters became standard equipment in new cars. Paid subscribers can read on about the development of a luxury we all take for granted.

Professor Hamilton’s diary is again blank on Dec. 27. Don’t you want to know what happened to daughters Gwennie and Mary Elizabeth after they grew up? Alas, only paid subscribers will know. Give yourself an early Christmas gift and sign up today for just $5 a month or $50 a year. That way you will also be ready to enjoy the diaries of Mrs. Ross, a Washington, D.C. matron writing about the early days of World War II; Walter E. Askew, chief of police in Newnan, Ga. in 1930; and Myra Jackson, a young farm wife and mother living in Petrey, Alabama in 1932. For various reasons, these diaries are incomplete, but each provides fascinating insights into America during those turbulent years. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts!

This 1936 ad for the HaDees car heater is being offered by a dealer on eBay. Hades — the ancient Greeks’ version of hell — was an appropriate name for a heater, and the emblem of the devil blowing hot air drove the point home.