Reader: Hard to believe roads were empty not so long ago

Editor:

I read the article by Tom G. Downing in the Jan. 10, 2013 issue titled Road trip in the good old days was a little bumpy. It reminded me of a story my grandfather told me when I was a boy — a story that just amazed me at the time and still amazes me.

He was born in 1896 and grew up in Jeannette, Pa. As a young boy of 10-15, he would get up Sunday morning and the family would attend church services and return home for a big family breakfast (think extended family of three generations).

When the weather was good, he and his cousins would walk to the Kings Highway (Route 30) to see the automobiles pass by. I remember him saying that, on a good day, they might see one. Hard to imagine.

William Joyce

Lackawaxen, Pa.