MusicalMerlin1973@reddit

lol.

Growing up: common refrain I heard: if that car doesn’t have seat belts you aren’t going.

As adults, going through old photos with mom. I was in a car seat. I was surprised. She said they’d just come out, they were janky but best she could do at the time. My parents were on the ball.

My wife? Youngest of 7, 15 year span. 3 years older than me. She remembers riding in the back of the station wagon, hanging out on the window ledge , them rolling the back window down, sticking feet out with a red tag as joke. One of my BILs rolled out of the car when door accidentally opened. (I remember my mom being adamant that as soon as we got in the car the first thing we did after buckling up was lock the door. I thought she was crazy growing up. ).

My in laws weren’t bad people. Just a different gen. Silent Gen. mine are border line silent/boomer. Right on the cusp.

Talking about safety… my favorite car growing up was a 1965-1966 Mustang. Fastback. I remember where I first saw one. The color it was. I had opportunity to see it often. I loved that shape. Got to a point as an adult I could swing one. A low end 6 cylinder to be sure but it was mine.

Then I learned about the death spike they call a steering column. Yeah I could have retrofitted something safer. But I’m tall, hard to get in and out. When I needed to find money to pay off my dd so we could replace my wife’s vehicle (transmission died and it cost way too much to rebuild/replace owing to being a one year model) I didn’t bat an eye. Sold it without looking back. I had it five years.

HardlyAnyGravitas@reddit

The cars were deathtraps - not highly engineered modern cars with insane active and passive safety systems that you do t even know exist, most of the time.

A modern car would rip through an old 'tank' like a knife through butter.

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404LeadsNotFound@reddit

A modern car would end in several mangled chunks, while the old "tank" would have a dent. That's by design to protect the passengers. A modern car would be totaled, and the old tank would probably still be drivable. The passengers in the old tank wouldn't fair as well.

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AudaciousGee@reddit

What's it like to be so confidently wrong?

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404LeadsNotFound@reddit

Actually not wrong. A modern car is designed with crumple zones and other survivability features that cause more damage to the car but protects the occupants. The modern car absorbs more of the shock while the old rigid tank pass that shock to the passengers. I've seen modern cars split in two while the passenger was relatively ok.

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HardlyAnyGravitas@reddit

You couldn't be more wrong:

Genseeker1972@reddit

My parents had a pair of tanks when I was learning to drive. 1978 & 1979 Oldsmobile diesel 9 passenger station wagons. They would not let me try for my permit until I could do a 3 point turn on a single lane gravel road. It had deep ditches on both sides and the first time I tried I got stuck. They made me walk alone to the closest farmhouse and ask them to pull me out with their tractor.

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WIlf_Brim@reddit

OMG those Oldsmobile diesel cars. I feel bad for your family. GM had some really bad cars in the 70s and 80s: those were near the top of the all time "what were they thinking" list.

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Genseeker1972@reddit

My family actually loved them. My dad worked sometimes for a buddy that had a commercial garage. He'd work on weekends when they got backed up or when his job was shut down for maintence (2x year). We never really had mechanical problems and they drove them thousands of miles a year. My grandparents were a 4 hr drive each way and we used to go at least once a month, plus we'd go from NC near Boone down to Panama City Fl every summer.

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dugmartin@reddit

Who here remembers riding in the jump seat at the back of a station wagon with the window down either making faces at the driver’s behind you or throwing sh_t out the back.

Genseeker1972@reddit

Craziest thing I can think of - my Poppie had a 1972 F100 truck. We used to ride in the bed of that truck all the time. His rule was you had to be old enougb for school to ride in the bed. He had about 5 of us older cousins in the bed and 2 of the younger in the cab with him one day. There is one road we traveled a lot, that when you hit the right spot at speed, your vehicle would be airborne. Poppie hit that with us in the bed and not a 1/4 mile later, slammed the brakes and threw the truck in reverse. He stopped on the side of the road and grabbed something, then tossed it in the bed with us. He was already back in the truck and moving again before we realized that the turtle was alive. He had gone around the front of the truck which is why no one knew what he had grabbed. That damn snapper had a shell that was a little over 2' nose to tail. And it wasn't happy. It was biting at us so we spent the next about 10 miles to his house riding on the side rail of the truck bed.

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dugmartin@reddit

Did it make a good soup later?

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Genseeker1972@reddit

Yep, and the shell made a great sled.

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Havacookiewhydontcha@reddit

My mom drove an orange 69 Camaro with burgundy vinyl interior with no seatbelts, no air conditioner, and no kid containment whatsoever.

That means that the occupants absorbed more of the forces of deceleration since the vehicles didn’t accordion crumple which absorbs the forces that occupants use to.

More people survive now and walk away from even severe accidents.

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Newt_the_Pain@reddit

While true, it is allowing the worst to live and multiply. All the safety shit, other than seatbelts, should go.

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BlackBasementCats@reddit

That’s the most brain dead reply I’ve seen in a while

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Dull_Entry_8287@reddit

Well lots actually did.

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Cazmonster@reddit

Came to say that's the dark secret of Generation X's low numbers. We died.

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TowerOfSisyphus@reddit

It builds character.

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Ophukk@reddit

Darwinian Test Subjects

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Correct-Condition-99@reddit

I would have said proof for Darwin's theory.

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ertyertamos@reddit

That graph makes the drop look more dramatic than it is. It’s just under 20% less. Important to the 10,000 people/year that survive, but that’s still 40,000 / year that don’t.

They were built like a tank.

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GroYer665@reddit

How Did We Not Die as Children in the 1970s?

DaddyOhMy@reddit

My dad got a Datsun 240Z. My older sister & I would sit in the hatch and brace our arms against the ceiling whenever we made a turn or drove around a curve. My younger sister, who was 2 y.o. when he got it, sat on my mother's lap in the passenger seat. I do not recall the car having seat belts.

Not to be snarky, 1974 was oil embargo’s… speed limits were lowered. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/january-2/nixon-signs-national-speed-limit-into-law

Where were You driving??

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PeachOnAWarmBeach@reddit

Not on the roads we were on. Narrow one lane each way. No shoulders. 55.

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IAm5toned@reddit

back when?

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Wise_Ad_5810@reddit

1974

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JiveTurkeyII@reddit

I'm looking for my fellow Tulsan's here.

lindbergh Elementary School. 1983, First grade play area. Some of you might remember they brand new yellow Worm we just got.

But for me, my go to was the tire swing. You know the one I'm talking about. Not only did it rock in every direction, but it also spun. And the thing was built like a gallows.

The damned thing by itself was already dangerous. But just to the left of the swing was the support beam. So not only could this swing go Back and Forth, but Side to Side (reminds me of a song somehow) But you could also put one hell of a spin on thins thing and right there waiting was that Post.

Ready to just Vegitate the kid that wasn't strong enough to hold on.

That swing was designed to take out the weak.

Cull the heard.

Separate the wheat form the chaff.

I never saw anybody hurt by that murder machine, personally, but I know my own head missed that beam by inches a few times - and I just know the third graders were trying to kill us.

Every. Single. Day.

Good times, man.

Our play equipment burned us, bounced us, beaned us, threw us, made us collide - and it was all made from Steel and mercilessly hard plastic.

Playing in the yard was a constant exorcise in survival that kids today dont have to put up with.

Just went and looked. It's mostly all gone.

I see they even finally tore down the first and second grade building I was in.

Kinda sad.

Future generations wont be nearly as prepared.

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Zyhara@reddit

Seesaws! The most used murder weapon of the 3rd graders in my school. How many times can one be hit under the chin or crack their tailbone without suffering permanent disability lol

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No_Parking_4195@reddit

Yeah, when some kid who was heavier than me would get on the see-saw and stick me up in the air, then hop off without any heads up, making me slam down on the ground. I hated see-saws.

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FatHamsterTheDread@reddit

Because they were lead sleds? We were T boned by a semi in ‘77 in a Mercury station wagon. No seat belts, of course. Many very serious injuries but truly shocking that we all lived.

A 2026 Ford F-350 is significantly heavier than a 1990 Crown Victoria Station Wagon, typically weighing between 6,500 and 8,000+ lbs depending on configuration, while the 1990 Crown Vic wagon weighs approximately 3,978 lbs. The modern truck is roughly 1.5 to 2 times heavier than the vintage station wagon

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doktorhladnjak@reddit

This. Perceptions are skewed because cars have gotten huge since then. A Toyota Camry is only a few hundred pounds less today that one of these cars.

passonthejager@reddit

Parallel parking that car is a major talent. I too had a family friend with one. She let me try it I could barely turn a corner without hopping the curb. It was just sooo looong

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rosebudbar@reddit

Bc people drove much more slowly

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MsChif@reddit

Only the good die young.

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shaugnd@reddit

Many of us did. Only the really tough ones are left.

Or survivor bias.

I think the couple things you need to remember is that most cars were bigger and made of steel, and that speed limits weren’t as high. Most residential speed limits when I was younger in the 79’s and 80’s were 30 to 35in city and 55 on highways. Sure people have always gone faster but there is a reason for the old saying “speed kills”.

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cricket_bacon@reddit

55 on highways

Not Carter's most popular move.

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hammerpocket@reddit

Especially since it was signed into law by Nixon three years before Carter was inaugurated.

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cricket_bacon@reddit

Signed by President Richard Nixon on January 2, 1974, the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act (Public Law 93-239) established a national maximum speed limit of 55 mph to combat fuel shortages during the 1973 oil crisis.

We are the survivors generation.

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Both-Leading3407@reddit

Because the car in the title was a freakin Tank. When these cars were too old to drive to the normal American's they were scooped up by Demolition Derby cars. Because they were indestructible at a level that compared to a car that could run with no water, no oil as long as there was something it could burn in the gas tank it would finish the Derby.

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Ok_Still_3571@reddit

My god. I saw one of these just yesterday, turning a corner near my house. I nearly jumped out of my bones, wondering how it was still running. It barely made the turn at the corner, given the wheel base. But bless its soul. Survivor, for sure.

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Friendly_Nobody_8264@reddit

STL to Tennessee in the back of one of those

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golgol12@reddit

In a figurative sense,

matbea78@reddit

I loved the long nighttime rides to Maine n the way back. My brother and I would lay on our backs and stare at the stars. Great memories.

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Accurate_Doubt3426@reddit

What should have killed me...traveling in the flatbed of a pickup truck...or, if you want to be 'safe' the camper on pickup, lol.

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Blurghblagh@reddit

Survivor bias.

Lol, I remember my PaPa's & Grandmother's 1970 4-door Malibu, squished in between my big ol' uncle and PaPa.

NHmountain-man@reddit

We were just built tougher

Every year, my dad drove me, my siblings, and two of our cousins on over 100 miles of mostly rural highway to the state fair, in the back of his uncapped pickup truck. The fact that we drove home at night and the drive included a long, winding stretch of interstate dotted with deer carcasses gives me pause in hindsight. But man, did we kids love that trip!

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18436572_V8@reddit

Highway fatality rates in the early 1970’s were about 3x higher than today, and that’s including the very recent uptick in the rate. So…many didn’t survive.

However, speeds were lower back then, when the nationally mandated 55mph came in. Going 75 was a big deal. Now that is slow lane material. No one had cell phones to distract them either. Imagine taking today’s cars with all the safety stuff, and today’s awareness of drunk driving (and uber etc) and putting it back then with 55mph speed limits and no cell phones or in car screens.

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hammerpocket@reddit

The limits weren't lower until 1974 and some states didn't work very hard to enforce the federal mandate until further regulations in the 80s.

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18436572_V8@reddit

The death rate per mile driven was still over 2.5x what it is today in 1977. Of course the speed limit was lowered to save fuel, not primarily for safety.

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What_if_I_fly@reddit

I recall some interstate highways had much higher speed limits like 90 mph back in the day. And having 4 long legged kids stuck facing each other in the back jump seats- kick fight fiesta!!

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18436572_V8@reddit

Not sure what “back in the day” is to you, but that wasn’t the case when that wood paneled wagon was new.

I do recall Montana having no daytime speed limit in the mid 90’s. The sign said something like “day: reasonable and prudent, night: 65”. They since walked it back. I’ve been to parts of Texas (just outside Austin) where the speed limit is 85.

In any case, it’s not just speed, but the speed differential that kills having mix of people going 55 and 80 is bad. If everyone went 75 reasonably consistently during good weather, we’d have better outcomes.

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Weird-Girl-675@reddit

All I think about when I see this car is hanging out in the back at the drive in. Good times.

But yeah. So much lack of safety and so much hard metal inside.

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armaedes@reddit

A lot of us did, we just can’t post about it on Reddit.

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HarnessYourHopes_68@reddit

They were built like tanks. But. Yes. We rode in the back

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ggibby@reddit

We didn't.

WolfThick@reddit

So a little bit of information here station wagons were the safest vehicles on the road they had built-in roll cages just ask anybody who drives a monster truck at a truck show they don't use them in car crushing competitions because they can't crush them. Also the back was reinforced and usually they had sizable engines and horsepower.

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Efficient_Market1234@reddit

Some kids did die. Survivorship bias. Cars were awful--unsafe and lacking in proper belts and airbags, with kids in there all loose. If you didn't get in a horrible wreck, you were OK and are talking about it today. If you did, you might not be here to tell us about it. I mean, when's the last time you heard of someone dying in a wreck? It happens, sure, but it's not super common. People have walked away from insane crashes. That's because of belts and airbags, of course, but we also eventually realized the car needs to take the impact, not the passengers. All of the force goes into the car's body, which crumples like a ball of tinfoil. You need a new car, of course, but it's better than needing a new you.

I watch bodycam videos way too much, and I see a lot of people getting in trouble for not having child seats, or police not letting kids go with a relative who doesn't have one. Like, it's not just a recommendation or a good idea, it's a legal issue. And they have to be up to code--you can't sell old car seats or whatever.

Plus I see videos of little kids wandering around and the parents getting in trouble for it, although those cases are often like literal 3-year-olds wandering down highways, not 10-year-olds playing with their friends.

Even the '70s and '80s were safer than some other times to be alive, though, and a time in the future will be safer than now. Like, I always imagine that one day, people will be horrified that people were allowed to drive multi-ton machines willy nilly all over the roads, with very little to ensure that you're doing it safely, or soberly, and with human error and distraction commonplace (unlike the transportation of the future, with robotic precision and multiple backup systems).

When I see parents in cars lined up at the bus stop to see their kids off, I’m reminded that kids were feral in the ‘80’s. We were sent to roam all day, and just had to be back home by the time the street lights came on. If that—there were public service announcements asking “It’s 10pm, do you know where your children are?” If we didn’t come home, they’d just slap our pictures on a milk carton. Gen X parents were so traumatized that when our own kids grew up we thought every white work van was plotting to snatch a kid. That’s because when we grew up, half of them were.

Hahahhahha! I lived in the back of one of those in the late 70's on a road trip to all continental states!

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Elrodthealbino@reddit

gif

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-ACatWithAKeyboard-@reddit

Wow, that was a Volvo compared to my family's Gremlin.

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PRC_Spy@reddit

Survivorship bias. Some of us, like a good friend's sister, didn't. And I too did more than my fair share of travelling in the back of vans and pick-ups, rattling around loose along with the less-than-optimally-secured loads.

but also, they were so heavy, they maybe didn't go as fast.

Dude. We DID.

But we're GenX.

2PlasticLobsters@reddit

A lot of us did.

I also recall a Reddit thread where a nurse mentioned how there are hundreds of brain damaged boomers & gen-xers in nursing homes, because car safety seats weren't a thing. If there was an accident, a baby in Mom's arms or on a bench seat could fly into the dash at 20 MPH or worse.

Back then, it was common to chuck imperfect kids into care. Doctors told parents to just put them away, mourn them like they'd died & move on. Basically pretend they never existed.

Open_Champion8544@reddit

We were a lot tougher that these candy asses today.

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clever_username23@reddit

no. a lot of people died. This is just survivorship bias. Kids in the 70s were probably more candy ass than the kids today.

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moonflower311@reddit

I am a baby Gen X (78) and I guess my mom had one of the early car seat models but she likes to tell the story about how she looked in her rear view mirror one day to see baby me crawling all over the back seat.

My grandmother who raised me too because deadbeat dad had a Sentra wagon and would tell me to sleep in the back of the way home from the horse races which ran late (and that she would take me to since I liked the horses and had a track record of picking winners). That might have been more risky.

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DocMcCracken@reddit

Not every one made it, survivor bias.

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CharlieTuhna@reddit

The Family Truckster!

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phunny-words@reddit

If you hate it now, wait until you drive it

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CharlieTuhna@reddit

😝

gif

Damn fine automobile.

You think you hate it now but wait til you drive it

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Jumpy-Impact3265@reddit

We did. This is Hell.

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Sad-Usual-7647@reddit

Pretty much the same way the rest of Gen-X and really Millennials didn't die. Sheer force of will and feral survival instincts. We also drank hose water, put some dirt on cuts (or used bactine) and were generally a generation of chaos gremlins who roamed the streets until the street lights came on. We used to ride our bikes (or skateboards) for hours, stop off at 7-11 for drinks and snacks, and yes, did dumb things both with and without fireworks.

We absolutely fucked around and found out. We also learned from our own mistakes and the mistakes of our friends.

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Also, I loved riding on tailgates in the fields when we baled hay.

I remember riding the back of a Ford Country Squire, standing on the bumper and holding onto the luggage rack on the roof. My friend's mom never used the rear view mirror, one time we made it 5 miles into town before she noticed.

We used to use a slingshot out of the jump seat window, but we used wadded up tinfoil so it just freaked people out.

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Goliardojojo@reddit

My parents were the masters of boomer logic. We had Volvo station wagons for safety but when the whole family went out together we children crammed in the back cargo area untethered.

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Bartlaus@reddit

Well..where I live (Norway, with a population similar to an average US state) we used to have about 100 children killed in car accidents each year, in the 70s. These days it's in the single digits most years; one year recently it was zero.

SheriffBartholomew@reddit

Please don't turn into boomer Facebook.

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Fabulous_Cod_128@reddit

She's a beaut Clark!

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Ok-Work4134@reddit

That's a steel tank. That jawn will cut a city bus in half

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Moodleboy@reddit

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cold_meatloaf@reddit

We rode in the back of fucking pickup trucks.

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ShirleyApresHensive@reddit

That was absolute freedom, I remember it fondly. The ride wasn’t the most pleasant, breathing exhaust not my favorite, but just piling in was the fun part.

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Potential-Drawing745@reddit

And I lost a classmate because he was riding in the back of a pickup truck.

But that's one person I know out of all the people I know.

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catlips@reddit

Many people DID die. You’re talking to the survivors.

My grandparents drove a Cadillac with a bench seat in the front and a fold down armrest in the middle. They called that armrest the jump seat, and it was my “special seat” when I rode with them. In the front seat, no seatbelt, boosted up closer to the windshield. I’m just lucky we never got into an accident.

My sister and I also rode in the “back back” of the station wagon with no seatbelts or actual seats. Nowadays I think that part of the car is called “the crumple zone.”

My mom smoked while pregnant with me, and smoked in the house and everywhere around me. I always felt so carsick with her smoking in the car, windows closed, wearing heavy perfume bc the smoking had dulled her sense of smell.

We moved to Manhattan when I was 11 and my sister was 8. The 14th floor. My parents didn’t bother to get window gates because “we figured you kids knew better than to lean out the windows.” We did not know better. We literally leaned half our bodies outside the window to look straight down and drop water balloons and other random things. I don’t know how we managed not to die, doing something so stupid.

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SavageHenrie@reddit

Damn, Kilogram!!!! Wild times they were without any safety precautions except common sense.

I remember us 5 kids rolliing the streets in my dad’s Nova. We never wore seatbelts; couldnt even tell you if that car even had seatbelts.

I also remember driving in the back of that station wagon-pictured above-with anywhere Between 4-6 kids, just swimming ontop of eachother, having the beat time of my life. Never fully understanding how shitty the situation can turn with a bad driver’s mistake.

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fuzzimus@reddit

We did. Death rates in automobile accidents has been steadily decreasing.

Tragically many many people did die. It was one of the leading causes of death at the time. ( motor vehicle accidents) people don't like to talk about that cuz it's inconvenient Truth..

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Thirsty-Barbarian@reddit

We had a station wagon when I was a kid, and I remember being a toddler and going down the road standing up in the front bench seat so I could see out the windshield better. But it was perfectly safe because we had a safety device called Mom’s Arm.

The other thing I remember is going on family road trips in the station wagon, and you could flop the second row seat back forward to make one continuous, flat space in the back. We had sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, toys, coloring books, and other stuff back there, and it was a great play space for me, my brother, my sister, and our dog. I loved that! It was such a fun way to travel as a kid.

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I learned to drive in one of those! It was great training for when I joined the Army had to drive an APC...

gif

My mom and sister and I started wearing seat belts in the early 80s because there were campaigns at school about how it was much safer.

A few months after we started, we got into a wreck. My mom did end up pretty hurt as the dashboard drove into her knees, and my little sister was taken out on a backboard but was ultimately fine.

I'm convinced that without seat belts we would have all been a lot worse, flying unrestrained about the car.

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PeachOnAWarmBeach@reddit

My parents never wore seat belts until I pushed for it when I started driving.....hmmmm. they always wore them after that 😆

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rabidstoat@reddit

In middle schoo I rode this "school" bus. that was a regular FIAT bus, on a regular route, trat was designed school route because it was waiting outside the shool at the end of the lessons and was arriving in front of the school just before the start of the lesson(*). But it was a regular blue bus and everyone could use it with a valid ticket.

Patient-Chocolate531@reddit

You wore seatbelts?

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Its_noon_somewhere@reddit

It had a ninth seatbelt that was detachable and stored in a little compartment in the rear.

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ericrz@reddit

I don't think ours did. I don't remember that, and I rode in that third row A LOT. Where would it have attached?

Also, why was one seatbelt out of 9 detachable? What's GM's logic there?

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WithoutDennisNedry@reddit

I was in a car fire in one of these when I was around 5-6. Nice try, woody wagon!

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Admirable_Tear_1438@reddit

We used to love sliding around in the back.

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LaLionneEcossaise@reddit

My dad once got cut off on the freeway with me in the back of our station wagon. He slammed on the brakes, and I slammed into the back of the second row of seats. Was bruised all over.

Totally not true regarding the power. Our 78 Buick Estate Wagon had the 350 V8 and hauled major ass. That was my car in high school and I could not only light up the tires but pull the craziest donuts in it.

As for seat belts, we only wore them when we went through Canada. I grew up near Niagara Falls and we would visit my grandparents every year in NW Indiana, cutting through Ontario to get there. We all hated putting on those lap belts for those 4 hours.

I had a ton of memories of that tank. Heck, it blew a head gasket at 60k in like 83 and my dad and big bro had to rip out the engine to rebuild it. Everyone talks about how cheap cars were back then, but that's because they were designed to last 5 years at most. The pre-fuel injection world is nothing like what we enjoy today as far as reliable long lasting vehicles. I think we kept that wagon for 10 years with 100k miles and it was a rusty wreck. My son drives a 19 year old Camry and it still looks and drives like new.

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BasicTelevision5@reddit

Yes, having a variant of the Corvette engine would make a big difference.

In general, these weren’t tuned for speed- and not everything was built with the 350. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t be a sleeper. We had a Pontiac Trans Sport (“Dustbuster”) and it could haul ass and light the tires.

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blackpony04@reddit

You were commenting on the wagon pictured, which was a variant of the Buick wagon. The Chevy and Buick wagon had the 350 V8 standard with a special option for the 403, while the Oldsmobile had the 305. Pretty odd that one would be different. They were built for towing and ours pulled an all metal pop up camper (stupid heavy) like it was nothing. Built for speed or not, that boat of a car could haul balls.

As for that minivan (the longest dashboard known to mankind), FWDs of the day had pretty darn great torque. I had an 89 Camry 4-banger that could smoke the front tires.

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billbixbyakahulk@reddit

There were some beasts but the average car was heavy and slow compared to today. Zero to 60 times have been dropping through the years. And you have to remember that every slow as hell VW bug was a physical barrier to the speed demons going as fast as they wanted. Now the "vw bug"s of today can do 0-60 in 7 seconds.

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Open_Mortgage_4645@reddit

You crazy. The 1980 Chevrolet Caprice Classic Estate Wagon came standard with a 305 cubic inch V8, and a 350 cubic inch V8 was an upgrade option, as was a 5.0L V8. All those engines are very capable, and well suited to power a vehicle of this size. They absolutely could go fast enough to cause fatal crashes.

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BasicTelevision5@reddit

“I’m kidding, of course.”

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Wh1skeyTF@reddit

We also lived back then. No social media, no screens attached to us. Went outside and had adventures. Experienced boredom.

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1544756405@reddit

I'm living to this day. And I experienced bourbon as recently as yesterday.

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Wise_Ad_5810@reddit

Ours was the Forest green with the giant Texas Belt buckle on the back door that rolled down the window.. the door could swing out sideways or down flat to act as a kind of table. Inside panel could flip up for backward viewing seat bench. The belts tended to be a bit of a treasure hunt

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shinynugget@reddit

That's just it, many, many did or were horrifically injured. Those of us that didn't were the lucky ones.

I have a lot of miles in the rear facing jump seat of the family wagon too.

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Hyphum@reddit

Survivorship bias

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CaryWhit@reddit

Man, you could take a great nap all the way to Panama City Beach in the back with the window down!

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Background_Half_2573@reddit

That’s literally my dream car.

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RampantDeacon@reddit

Gen X?

Boomer here.

Station wagon with those sideways and back facing seats in the backend, with no seatbelts.

Drinking out of the garden hose, eating raw eggs, eating raw cookie dough

Swinging out into the river on a Tarzan swing - it doesn’t SOUND so bad, and the swing was in a little hollow where tha water was calm. The catch was, that if you got out too far you could get into the actual flowage that had a 4-5 mph current, and about 1/2 mile downriver was a hydroelectric dam. How many 8-12 year olds are swimming out of that if they get stuck in the current?

Getting kicked out of the house by about 8 in the morning and not getting back into the house until supper time - find your own food, water, bathroom - fix your own wounds if you get hurt. We knocked a squirrel out of a tree with rocks one time - stuck him on a stick and cooked him over a fire made of pine twigs by using a magnifying glass. Pretty sure it was still raw. Taste like dirt and burned hair. Yes, at time we were feral - but this was 3 10 year old boys, so…

Walking 1.5 miles to school in 1st and 2nd grade, and crossing a 4 lane FREEWAY to get there

Climbing trees - we built a tree house in one that was about 50 feet from the ground. We built rope ladders and rope swings between them. When I finally fell I was only about 30 feet from the ground, hit several branches on my way down that slowed my fall, then landed in a flower bed. That one took me out for a while. I laid there for a couple hours, and when I finally stumbled home I laid on the living room floor for like another 3 hours. My Dad called the doctor ad they said to bring me in if I lose consciousness, but otherwise not to worry. But, I was pissing blood for a week.

Walking into the horse pasture and getting kicked by a horse - I was like 9, and that horse kicked me so hard under the rib cage that he lifted me about 5 feet in the air and 12 feet backwards (I was with 2 friends) - I was only unconscious for 7-8 minutes, but couldn’t really breathe for about 2 hours. Found out like 15 years later that I had a cracked breast bone and 2 cracked ribs. Pretty sure it was that damned horse.

Racing our bikes down “suicide hill” - nearly a mile of 15-25% slope road - kick off from the top and keep your feet off the pedals. I have no idea how fast we were going by the bottom of that hill. We usually ended up in the bushes. I have so many scars from that type of stupid shit that I’ve had people tell me it looks like I was whipped.

Riding our bikes to the Mall or YMCA - 17 miles each way - crossing at least 2 freeways.

agree to disagree

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lopix@reddit

At the cottage, the BEST trips to the dump always involved riding in the jump seat, or if there were too many of us, on the hood.

I used to love sliding around there

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Illustri-aus@reddit

US road traffic fatalities have remained high, with approximately 40,901 deaths in 2023 and estimated figures around 42,700–44,680 for 2024, despite a long-term downward trend in death rates.

In the UK and Australia, annual road deaths are around 1300 - 1600. Adjusting for population differences, US deaths are still ~ 4x higher on average.

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FloppyFerrett1@reddit

Tragic but also makes me curious, why such an enormous difference & actually not being gun-related deaths for once!

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greyshirtfreshman@reddit

And how many of our parents drove with a drink IN THEIR HAND?!

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sineofthetimes@reddit

And a cigarette in the other.

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tk42967@reddit

Not to be that guy, but that's roughly a 1982 Caprice Classic wagon.

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_yrk_@reddit

Here’s my daily. Reliable as all get out and gets more looks than my 78 Trans Am 😆

Thanks for commenting on the year, bc it solidified my guess that the silver version (no paneling, mint & garage kept) of the pictured wagon my dad just sold a few years ago was an '84.

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bwd77@reddit

I still fondly remember my mom's .... It was the Pontiac version.. white with the fake wood shit, tan , burn your ass seats in the summer.

Drive it from 1975 to 1989...somehow I remember when we got it. I couldn't have been more than three. She had a blue 4 door lemans before it.

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Awkward-Initiative28@reddit

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International-Ant174@reddit

Bombing around at 9 years old on Honda Trail 70s in the woods, then a year or two later on Honda 125 three wheelers with nary an adult in sight. My "safety" gear was the half faced Easy Rider themed helmet I got from one of my cousins for my Evil Knievel costume the Halloween before (was probably 10+ year old "helmet" at the time. Other than that, tee shirt, jean shorts and converse chucks were plenty of gear.

Specifically remember ripping around a corner to rooster tail only to drive straight up a tree - three wheeler went 10-15' up the tree, pushed myself off the machine, and watched it crash back to earth flatly upside down. First though was "hope it still works or I'm getting my ass tanned" and second thought being "huh, bet that woulda hurt".

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EvilDan69@reddit

Specifically, with that EXACT wagon, same colour, I was in the back side facing seats. It was my grandparent's car and we picked up my cousins. Uncle driving, loaded car with camping gear, gravel country road, cresting a light hill going about 70km/h. Crested a hill only to see a T-junction with a ditch on the other side.

We left the ground, flew for a few fit and slammed directly into the dirt on the other side.
We all walked away relatively unhurt except the lantern that slammed in my cousin's hand shattered. He had a cut, but it was superficial. Farmer pulled it out with his tractor, says it happens all the time, due to no proper signage and yeah its a bit surprising for unfamiliar drivers.

We had this same car -- '85 Caprice Estate. On long road trips (1000+ miles), my parents would fold down both back seats, and my brothers and I would sleep in sleeping bags as cargo. WTAF?

In any sort of collision, we would have been turned into pulp.

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Open_Mortgage_4645@reddit

The one is the Pic is the 1980 model.

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ericrz@reddit

Yep. There wasn't much change in the outward style until '86, I think, when the headlights were different, third brake light added, etc.

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iamcamouflage@reddit

I love when someone who is alive will ask how people didn't die from *insert dangerous thing* back in the day.

All these things we use to protect our one or two children are risk mitigation, not risk elimination. Kids still die. We have fewer of them, and we reduce that 2% chance of disaster to 0.4% chance of disaster. Life still includes risk, but every time someone died, it pushed at the mitigation effort a little bit.

Clever people made devices and practices to preserve the lives of the children of all those who empathized with the ones who lost a child. We came to see the ways we did things as reckless, and we were more careful in how we operated.

Up until 50 years ago, there were 8, 10 or even more kids in a family - survival of the fittest!

DickWhittingtonsCat@reddit

Survivor bias is a real thing- especially pre-internet era. I lost 4 classmates by age 20 doing the sort of stuff people make “rub dirt in it” jokes about today.

The number of Gen Xers of every age scraped off the highways or having their organs picked from bushes off the side of the road in the US between 68 and 98 is astronomical.

As are the number of lives cut short by substance abuse brought on by casual trauma, abuse and neglect.

But those folks aren’t here to joke and share anecdotes they heard and claim as their own or sundry risky misadventures- as a child or a young adult- getting pants shitting drunk and driving Van Halen in Omaha, driving the Aries to the city every weekend or dad dragging you through a lake by accident or whatever other flexes you will find.

Xennials and early millennials had very similar risky behavior habits just committed fewer violent crimes after 93, so can be lumped in when it comes to the hilarious subject of hundreds of thousands of unnecessary terrifying and violent deaths on the road.

Whether driver, child passenger or the burned alive sober and frightened honors student pinioned in the back seat of a Mustang driven by her besties stoned boyfriend that a hit a tree, it doesn’t actually seem all that hilarious to me. But the scorched tree was quite near our home and we heard the bang.

My childhood in the 70's consisted of riding everywhere in the bed of a pickup truck. No way we would have survived in a wreck!

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Level-Possibility-69@reddit

Front seat as a small kid, mom has to brake really hard, and right arm comes across you to hold you back.

NeedsMoarOutrage@reddit

Can't believe people are still doing this bit in 2026

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Bokononfoma@reddit

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Yep. From 1962 to 1981, the traffic fatality rate was 20-26 deaths per 100k people. It's currently about half what it was then.

We had a '65 Dodge van that we took on trips. The engine sat between two front seats, and there was nothing but a windshield, thin metal, and a bumper between the seats and the road. The back had no seats at all. There was a bed in the very back, and we would put lawn chairs in the space in between. On one trip, the driver had to slam on brakes, and everyone in the back ended up in a pile behind the front seats. That was an incredibly dangerous vehicle, and we just thought nothing about it.

I ended up owning it, and I built a bench seat in front of the bed, so that I could haul my friends around. Someone always wanted to sit on the center console, though--usually a girl--and of course I let them. It's a wonder no one ever got killed in that thing.

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Chibi-Skyler@reddit

I remember Mom's blue '78 Ford Fairmont wagon. No AC, AM radio, and in the summer setting down old towels so we wouldn't burn our legs.

Seatbelts were always optional, never expected to be used, of course. If she had to pick up Daddy's suits from the dry-cleaners, she'd fold down the back seat so she could hang the clothes on the little hook and tells to "go sit amongst the groceries wherever you can find room, but don't damage anything." We could be thrown around, but don't let a single egg break!🤣

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Smiling_Platypus@reddit

The ones who did aren't here to speak for themselves.

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garitone@reddit

Some did. They are not around to tell their tale of how they survived (see also: survivorship bias).

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WinterExisting5076@reddit

I grew up in this model

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WaterwingsDavid@reddit

Beautiful 72 Coronet!!

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WasLeftUnsupervised@reddit

Putting together plastic models, using a plastic cement that could have been used as rocket fuel.

This is the same risk model as taking preventative medication or care, vs not. Or reducing harmful life choices. Or even regulations which change building or workplace practices to favor safety.

There's no guarantee of anything, but the model is simply to reduce risk of bad happening and then reduce impact when it does.

That's also why people who argue against the prevention methods we have across the board are just imbeciles.

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ChiliSama@reddit

I was in the bed of a 1930s pickup on a dirt road with my 14yo cousin at the wheel. He took a 90 degree turn going like 35; I flew out into one ditch and the truck went into the other. Somehow we were both fine.

19 later I was on the same road on a 3 wheeler; front tire blew on the same corner. There I was in the ditch again. How the 3 wheeler didn’t roll over me I’ll never know.

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timberwolf0122@reddit

Probably wise to avoid that corner in future or really slow down

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Thewayliesbeforeyou@reddit

Lots of protection inside a tank.

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this_kitty68@reddit

My great aunt Betty had one of these, but it was fire engine red. All of the cousins of varying degrees jumped in for shopping trips and chaos ensued. The back window was always open and aunt Betty was always chain smoking. Most of us were left in the car while she went in to get groceries no matter the weather. It truly blows the mind that none of us were hospitalized or dead at some point.

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