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Tuesday, April 09, 2024

Back when they didn't give a shit about those damned kids


 

28 comments:

  1. No seat belts. Didn't give a shit about anyone.

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    1. I remember my younger sister in the back seat of our 61 Chevy wagon fell out of the car going around a corner. Luckily we were hardly moving and she landed on grass.

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    2. I fell out the door of my brother's Galaxy 500. Swinging in the breeze hanging on for dear life.

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    3. Look closer. This one's the Safety Edition, with the backseat belts.

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  2. And yet we didn’t just survive, we thrived. Diving boards and all….

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    1. I love diving boards.
      Do they still have public swimming pools? They might be dangerous.

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  3. I don't know what that is, all I know is that I used to make sure my son was wearing a seat belt, at any and every age

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  4. "Here Boy - hold Daddy's beer while he lights up his cigarette, okay ?" 8^)

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    1. "Can you reach the pedals? Good, you're driving home from the bowling alley.

      "Don't worry, the snowbanks are like lane bumpers..."

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  5. In some states you can abort a kid right up till birth, but in a vehicle, you have to treat a kid like it’s an astronaut going to the moon. Government stay the fuck out of my car. I had a similar device for my daughter before it was mandated by law. Tossed the kid in with an encouraging: "What doesn't kill ya makes you stronger".

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  6. My family had a car seat like that back in the 50s.

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  7. When my daughter was a few months old, I was had an f150 supercab. We'd lay the backseat down, a twin mattress fit almost perfectly back there. Went all over the country like that chasing work.

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  8. I rode in a seat like that.

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  9. Mine had a red button in the middle that honked. I remember that clearly. I remember laying in the back window and on the back floor board during winter trips. Mom tried to strap me in with a lap belt as a kid, and it was terrible.

    First time I slid across the front seat doing a donut, I dug out the seat belt and strapped it on. Have ever since.

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    1. Only ever wore one if I was planning on driving fast. Which was quite a bit, but I don't do dat no mo. mostly

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  10. As a special treat, Dad used to take us racing down the road that featured the "Seven Sisters" - a series of sharp hills closely spaced. This was before anyone knew what those "seat belt things" were for. I recall my head grazing the roof again and again, as we were launched off the bench seats, laughing to beat the band.

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  11. My father was a hot rodder in the 40s-50s. He used to drag race. He installed seatbelts in every car we owned and made sure we wore them.
    -Steve in Idaho

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    1. My father had seat belts installed by Sears in '64 when he was on leave in Nashville. Sears meant something back then.

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  12. My seatbelt was my old man's right arm.
    - WDS

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    1. Mom's right arm. Dad was the reckless one who let us go unrestrained no matter what. Also let us sit on his lap and steer. Would have been crushed between he and the wheel in a sudden stop. Here to tell about it, so all went well.

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  13. We didn't need seat belts as kids.  You parked your backside in the seat, you sat still, and you entertained yourself quietly because if either parent needed to stop the car, the rest of the trip was going to be very uncomfortable.

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  14. I sat on a box between my parents in the front seat of Dad's Model A. Not to mention that we had weekly Bible Study and said the Pledge of Allegiance and The Lord's Prayer daily in a Chattanooga Public School. I survived all of them.

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    1. We were still saying the Lord’s Prayer at Niota Elementary (between Athens and Sweetwater) in the ‘70s.

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  15. The most unusual things I see in this picture is no center pillar, but it is a 2 door, in the back seat a suggestion that there are seat belts, (why? there are no front seat belts) and a side mirror that would be rare, but the reflection seem accurate.
    Any idea of the make/model? Or is this just a photo shop job.

    daddy-o

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    1. Spitballin...looks like a Ford Galaxy to me. 64 ish.

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  16. That wheel on it is so the kid can drive mom and dad crazy.

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  17. Starker here,
    Mom had a 61 Convair with seatbelts, my grandparents had a 63 LeSabre with belts, I had a 65 Chevelle with belts. My 70 Ford pickup had mounts for shoulder belts & I got retractable belts out of a 74 F-100 in a junk yard and installed them, along with Mustang buckets and a floor shifter.
    I've always worn belts. I learned to drive with stick shift and a bench seat, when you push in the clutch push the brake turn the wheel and you slide across the seat. Gotta have belts!

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  18. Looks a lot like a 65 (+- a year) Fairlane 500... Spent a lot or time riding around in one as a kid.

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