Rear View Mirror

Historic articles from our archives.

> Unemployment relief is our greatest problem
> Sterling, Colorado
> ERS called to cope with odd ostrich

Unemployment relief is our greatest problem

Originally published in the Rocky Mountain Motorist, AAA newspaper for Colorado and Wyoming, October 1932

Labor has been paid approximately three million dollars for road work so far this year in Colorado. In many counties this has been the most important factor in relieving distress. Mr. Motorist would you not rather pay a few cents more during the month for the privilege of using better roads than to give charity to relieve suffering? Is it not better to give men honest work and have good roads to show for it than to give a dole?

Perhaps in a couple of years we should cut down our gas tax which is now below the national average, but in a couple of years many of our roads will be connected up, and we hope and pray that men will be able to find gainful employment otherwise. We make this sincere appeal insofar as eighty percent of the road dollar goes to common labor. Let us not cut down the means of unemployment relief for at least a couple of years.

Sterling, Colorado

Originally published in the Rocky Mountain Travel Directory, 1947

The shortest, most direct, all-paved route from Chicago to Denver
Home of the Golden Harvest

Elevation 3,934 feet. Population of greater Sterling (County Seat of Logan County) has 8,257 people living inside its city limits, and 2,251 people living immediately outside of its city limits—a total population of 10,508 (1945 estimate).

Sterling has many modern, comfortable, tourist accommodations, including tourist camps, hotels, and tourist homes. There are also very many modern restaurants waiting to serve you, and make your stay in Sterling one which you won’t forget.

While Sterling is not known as an industrial city, it has twenty-three such firms furnishing steady employment to several hundred people.

Sterling is centrally located for tourists, and is an ideal city to spend a night or a few days. It is only a few hours’ drive from Estes Park, Cheyenne, Black Hills, and several historical and scenic points.

The climate in Sterling is typical of that all over Colorado, the days are cool and the nights are comfortable so the tourist may get a good night’s rest.

Sterling is served by bus, train and trucking service. It is on the main line of the Streamliner between Chicago and Denver. The CB&Q and the Union Pacific run eleven passenger trains as well as many freight trains through Sterling daily.

For amusement in Sterling there are two theaters, one ultra modern that has a seating capacity of 900. There are two golf courses, bowling alleys, duck pin alleys, three grassed parks, four tennis courts, one park containing picnic facilities, 100 lodges and organizations furnishing diversified entertainment.

Sterling is an agricultural community, the chief products being wheat, sugar beets, rye, barley and oats. Logan County has had three wheat kings, which is some indication of the type of soil and crops produced by the farmers of this community.

ERS called to cope with odd ostrich

Originally published in the Rocky Mountain Motorist, July 1956

The Massachusetts division of the AAA recently realized that there are service problems you just can’t fix by going directly to the source of the trouble.

On a peaceful afternoon the Bay State club received a frantic call from a member visiting at the Franklin Park Zoo. When the emergency road service arrived, the car owner indignantly pointed to an ostrich and said, “He swallowed my car keys!”

The road service fellow did not step in where zoo keepers fear to tread, but instead made the member a new set of keys—a service any AAA’er can take advantage of, even in less spectacular circumstances.