I used to lay on the upper deck above the back seat while my parents drove around. They knew I was there and drove more carefully. All parents used to drive more carefully because they knew their kids were loose in the car. Now they drive like NASCAR drivers because they “know” the carseats and all the rest of the “safety” extras will keep them alive no matter what. Now we enter the “dead kid in the back seat” season (summer) where parents “forget” their children in their car seats and they die from the heat. In the old days, the child sat in the front seat (even in a car seat) and you NEVER forgot them (even if you were a casual driver – non-custodial parent, grandparent, etc.). But thanks to MORE safety crap like passenger side airbags that cannot be disabled, kids are now dying in back seats. So new legislation is being put forth to MANDATE some sort of warning system on ALL new cars by some date that ALL of us will be forced to pay for whether we want it or not. Once again, government imposing more “solutions” on everyone to fix the unintended consequences or simply outright failures of the last “solution” they imposed. Ah, the good ole days indeed.
Gayle
June 10, 2017 12:01 pm
I can remember my antique car seat. It was made of blue canvas with two holes for baby’s legs. The seat was attached to a metal frame which was hung over the front passenger seat backs, comfortably between the driver and passenger. There was a row of wooden beads strung on wire to amuse baby. It offered absolutely no safety, but was a handy way to transport a baby who could sit up. Perhaps this was used after the hammock stage.
Brian
June 10, 2017 1:08 pm
I don’t remember ever sitting in a car seat. I do remember sitting on the arm rest, the passenger side foot well, the back window, and in the back of a pickup.
DeplorableOldeVirginian
June 10, 2017 2:20 pm
I remember being in the backseat of the impala free to do whatever i wanted as early as not quite 2 y.o. which I can date because i have memories of a specific road trip we took that year. I remember flying through the air, hitting the back of the one of the front seats, which were also pivoting forward to help mom and dad’s kisser’s get intimate with the dash at that instant in time, then sliding down, whee, to the floor pan, when we had a crash. I think I was 3 then. Good clean fun back in the day. I had already cheated death once bc an old fart drove up on the sidewalk and knocked me out of my stroller into the gutter one afternoon when I was about 6 months old. And yet, here I am, 5 decades later.
I also remember when my 2 oldest came along, we were able to buy Fisher Price car seats that lasted from bringing home from hospital until they were big enough to use plain seat belts. Now my daughter has to keep cycling through age-specific seats for my granddaughter. Those FP seats of the 80s were built like tanks as I recall. Very tough steel frame under a formed plastic seat, race-car quality webbing and harness. You buckled it in with the seatbelt, not goofy tethers. Today’s seats are cheap plastic made-in-china crap that “expire” and can’t be handed down. Progress.
Zarathustra
June 10, 2017 3:02 pm
I remember our ’63 Ford Galaxie 500 XL, 2 door hardtop, which was a really beautiful car. It’s front bucket seats did not have any clasp of any kind which made it really easy to climb into the back seats. From the factory it had no seat belts, but these were now being offered aftermarket by the dealer. The straps even matched the upholstery (rose beige). I drove that car as a teenager for a bit. It was pretty long in the tooth by then. You could take the gearshift and move it from drive into reverse while moving forward, which locked up everything and produced a nice skid. I did it once by accident and it’s amazing the transmission didn’t explode. You could also start the thing using a flat bladed screwdriver instead of a key. Being a motorhead I remember it had the 362 V8, but according to the owners manual you could order the thing with the T Bird 427 V8 (13:1 compression). That would have hauled ass!
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MarshRabbit
June 10, 2017 5:09 pm
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nkit
June 10, 2017 5:28 pm
We used to hold wrestling matches in the back seat of my Momma’s 1948 Plymouth…Car seats were probably 20 years away. Seat belts didn’t exist. But, if you kicked the body of that car, you would injure your foot. A half of a dozen Mexicans could have lived in the back seat.
I used to lay on the upper deck above the back seat while my parents drove around. They knew I was there and drove more carefully. All parents used to drive more carefully because they knew their kids were loose in the car. Now they drive like NASCAR drivers because they “know” the carseats and all the rest of the “safety” extras will keep them alive no matter what. Now we enter the “dead kid in the back seat” season (summer) where parents “forget” their children in their car seats and they die from the heat. In the old days, the child sat in the front seat (even in a car seat) and you NEVER forgot them (even if you were a casual driver – non-custodial parent, grandparent, etc.). But thanks to MORE safety crap like passenger side airbags that cannot be disabled, kids are now dying in back seats. So new legislation is being put forth to MANDATE some sort of warning system on ALL new cars by some date that ALL of us will be forced to pay for whether we want it or not. Once again, government imposing more “solutions” on everyone to fix the unintended consequences or simply outright failures of the last “solution” they imposed. Ah, the good ole days indeed.
I can remember my antique car seat. It was made of blue canvas with two holes for baby’s legs. The seat was attached to a metal frame which was hung over the front passenger seat backs, comfortably between the driver and passenger. There was a row of wooden beads strung on wire to amuse baby. It offered absolutely no safety, but was a handy way to transport a baby who could sit up. Perhaps this was used after the hammock stage.
I don’t remember ever sitting in a car seat. I do remember sitting on the arm rest, the passenger side foot well, the back window, and in the back of a pickup.
I remember being in the backseat of the impala free to do whatever i wanted as early as not quite 2 y.o. which I can date because i have memories of a specific road trip we took that year. I remember flying through the air, hitting the back of the one of the front seats, which were also pivoting forward to help mom and dad’s kisser’s get intimate with the dash at that instant in time, then sliding down, whee, to the floor pan, when we had a crash. I think I was 3 then. Good clean fun back in the day. I had already cheated death once bc an old fart drove up on the sidewalk and knocked me out of my stroller into the gutter one afternoon when I was about 6 months old. And yet, here I am, 5 decades later.
I also remember when my 2 oldest came along, we were able to buy Fisher Price car seats that lasted from bringing home from hospital until they were big enough to use plain seat belts. Now my daughter has to keep cycling through age-specific seats for my granddaughter. Those FP seats of the 80s were built like tanks as I recall. Very tough steel frame under a formed plastic seat, race-car quality webbing and harness. You buckled it in with the seatbelt, not goofy tethers. Today’s seats are cheap plastic made-in-china crap that “expire” and can’t be handed down. Progress.
I remember our ’63 Ford Galaxie 500 XL, 2 door hardtop, which was a really beautiful car. It’s front bucket seats did not have any clasp of any kind which made it really easy to climb into the back seats. From the factory it had no seat belts, but these were now being offered aftermarket by the dealer. The straps even matched the upholstery (rose beige). I drove that car as a teenager for a bit. It was pretty long in the tooth by then. You could take the gearshift and move it from drive into reverse while moving forward, which locked up everything and produced a nice skid. I did it once by accident and it’s amazing the transmission didn’t explode. You could also start the thing using a flat bladed screwdriver instead of a key. Being a motorhead I remember it had the 362 V8, but according to the owners manual you could order the thing with the T Bird 427 V8 (13:1 compression). That would have hauled ass!
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We used to hold wrestling matches in the back seat of my Momma’s 1948 Plymouth…Car seats were probably 20 years away. Seat belts didn’t exist. But, if you kicked the body of that car, you would injure your foot. A half of a dozen Mexicans could have lived in the back seat.
And riding in the back of a pick-up truck.