The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America

The Ride of Her Life is set in the mid-1950s when new technology and inventions were quickly changing Americans’ routines and quality of life. This decade heralded great technological progress that altered citizens’ everyday lives, primarily by mechanizing mundane tasks. Companies took advantage of the government’s newer services, such as in-home electricity and indoor plumbing, to market new appliances that made everyday life safer and more convenient for US citizens. During this decade, modern appliances such as washing machines and dryers became popular, while technology like televisions and record players, invented years earlier, became ubiquitous in households across the country. The household phone and transistor radios made communication easier, and new inventions such as the credit card and the Barbie doll made an enduring mark on American culture. In addition, significant medical advances, such as the polio vaccine and the heart-lung machine, extended citizens’ lives.

In this decade, US citizens began to embrace the automobile as their primary method of transportation. This development impacted not only everyday lives but also the organization and aesthetic of the country itself. In a nation that had long relied on horses, buggies, and trains, US infrastructure quickly shifted to accommodate the now-dominant car as the government funded huge highway projects across the country. This allowed Americans to go further, faster, making the country more connected than ever.

However, citizens did not equally enjoy these developments: Many of the older generation found themselves in an unfamiliar and sometimes confusing world. Annie Wilkins was one such American. Raised in rural Maine, her world was largely confined to her family farm, where she lived until her sixties. Like many low-income, rural farmers, Wilkins could not afford indoor plumbing or electricity in her modest farm cabin and had never traveled far from her hometown. This insularity left her in the dark about how the rest of US society was transforming, and the country she encountered on her travels was sometimes quite different than she had imagined.

The book contrasts Annie’s childhood with her experience of 1950s America to show how rapidly the country had changed in her lifetime, inviting readers to consider these changes from Annie’s perspective. For instance, Annie had rarely watched TV but made several televised appearances on her trip and was amazed at having her image and voice projected to households across the country. In addition, she watched a “talkie” movie for the first time. Having grown up busy with chores to support the family farm, Annie was impressed by the new suburban lifestyles that allowed children time to play. However, she was taken aback by the heavy vehicle traffic in more populated parts of the country, such as New Jersey and California, which made horseback riders like her abandon major roads altogether. These developments turned horseback riding into a leisure pursuit for wealthier Americans, making Annie, as she phrased it, “the last of the saddle tramps” (2). The book’s presentation of Annie’s background and her reactions to the novelty of 1950s technology, infrastructure, and lifestyles helps readers see these modern realities from her perspective.