"I would see anywhere from 10 to 20, hardly ever less than 10, sailing vessels down the (Hudson) river. Now I don't see more than one in three months.
Very few steamboats. Everyone went to New York then, if they wanted to go in the new style why, they take a steamboat. If they want to go cheap they go on one our river sloops."
One of the most incredible things to note here is that this was around the time planes were being invented, the first commercial airplane trip was just made few years earlier, and this a fairly rural interview of an elder so it's sane to think this person has never even seen an airplane.
Coincidentally, the original source has a longer version of the interview where he goes on to talk about railroads and airplanes immediately after the segment about the sailing vessels:
"Now the railroad is slow. Just now, this afternoon, going right up over here, I saw I guess a dozen aeroplanes..."
Commercial passenger airline service already existed when this was shot.
He lived quite near New York, just upstate a bit. We gather that from him seeing all of the river traffic to the city. He didn't seem phased at all by the motion picture camera and sound equipment. It's very likely that he had seen an airplane before. Not germane to what he said, but likely.
In 1929, seeing plane in the air was commonplace in almost every country let alone New York state. Maybe not commercial passenger planes (they were still a rarity), but mail planes were complete commonplace. Also, cropdusters. Also, barnstormers visited literally every village once a year or so.
My grand-grandmother told me that she first saw a plane in the air in 1914 when WWI started (she lived with her parents in what is now easternmost Belarus). When the war and the Revolution ended, they became somewhat of a rarity for the next decade or so, but not extreme rarity.
Very few steamboats. Everyone went to New York then, if they wanted to go in the new style why, they take a steamboat. If they want to go cheap they go on one our river sloops."
One of the most incredible things to note here is that this was around the time planes were being invented, the first commercial airplane trip was just made few years earlier, and this a fairly rural interview of an elder so it's sane to think this person has never even seen an airplane.