Fill 'er Up is an engaging and light-hearted look back at the first 50 years of motoring from one who lived it. Partridge was born before the invention of the automobile, and gives us a wonderful overview of the development of the auto and the roads that carry them. The conversational writing style does not sound dated at all, and I eagerly looked forward to each chapter. A highlight of the book was the authors first hand experience of a 62 day cross-country automobile trip in 1912. Imagine no bridges for streams less than 50 feet wide, no road signs, no gas stations, no maps, sometimes no roads! Truly an adventure.
The author first drove a car in 1899 and attended the last of the Vanderbilt trophy races. Details of these events and many more that the author was involved in form the basis of this book. His stories from the very early days, 1895-1905, are the most vivid. He also drove across the United States in 1912, before roads were really a thing out west! There are a fair number of clear black & white photos. He also tells a lot of the history of the ACA and AAA. He ends the book in 1952, boldly prophesising that in a few years we will have solved the problem of traffic jams.
Published 1952
