For some reason earlier today as I was driving home, I started reminicing about a dear friend and her brown Ford Pinto. We called it the Pinto Bean and it was a fitting name. We'd pile our kids in that little car and head out to all kinds of places. Were the kids in car seats? Did they have on seat belts? Nope, nada, did not.
This was in the late 70s early 80s when laws protecting children in moving vehicles were not even thoughts. That Pinto had been labeled a dangerous car. If someone happened to not be paying attention and plowed their car into the back of that particular model, it (the Pinto) could or might likely burst into flames. Did my friend and I give that a thought? Nope, nada, did not.
Back then, we were young mothers with little kids. We had the world by the tail. Nothing was going to touch us. And it didn't. The kids and we survived just fine. That little brown car, and I gotta tell ya, it was pretty ugly, served us well. She had that car for 12 years before it finally bit the dust. She got a Granada, and that car wasn't near as good as the Pinto. It began to fall apart not too long after she and her husband bought it. They moved on to a brown Chevy van. They liked brown. That was a big old van, and we could put the kids way in the back and not hear their arguing and chatter. By then, did we have car seats or were they belted in? Nope, nada, did not.
My first van I renamed "The van from Hell." Because I firmly believed it was. It was a Plymouth Voyager, bought used from an unscrupulous used car dealer in our little town. I didn't know he was unscrupulous, but I found out quickly. My kids still like to point out places where that van stalled out on occasion as I drove them to school. We lived in the country, and they attended the city school system, so we had no school buses. I don't like to remember that vehicle too much. It brings back painful memories. By then, the kids were belted up because I wasn't sure that sucker would round a corner without tipping over. Somebody t-boned me one time and it bend the frame. I drove it anyway because we were financially challenged at that time and couldn't afford anything better.
Thank goodness, I don't have to drive vehicles from Hell anymore. I think of all the awful cars I drove when our youngsters were growing up taught them how to be strong and resourceful. It taught them to appreciate the little things in life like how great it is to walk in a cold rain with the wind blowing to get to a destination. Oh wait, that wasn't so great.
At one time, they did request that I drop them at the corner so that they could walk the rest of the way to school. They thought that they were fooling me into thinking that they wanted the exercise. Psssshawww. They just didn't want anyone to see them get out of a questionable blue station wagon with a cracked windshield and a smoky exhaust pipe. But that's another story.
I do miss that little Pinto bean, but as for the other disasters I drove, I hope they went back to where they came from....
This was in the late 70s early 80s when laws protecting children in moving vehicles were not even thoughts. That Pinto had been labeled a dangerous car. If someone happened to not be paying attention and plowed their car into the back of that particular model, it (the Pinto) could or might likely burst into flames. Did my friend and I give that a thought? Nope, nada, did not.
Back then, we were young mothers with little kids. We had the world by the tail. Nothing was going to touch us. And it didn't. The kids and we survived just fine. That little brown car, and I gotta tell ya, it was pretty ugly, served us well. She had that car for 12 years before it finally bit the dust. She got a Granada, and that car wasn't near as good as the Pinto. It began to fall apart not too long after she and her husband bought it. They moved on to a brown Chevy van. They liked brown. That was a big old van, and we could put the kids way in the back and not hear their arguing and chatter. By then, did we have car seats or were they belted in? Nope, nada, did not.
My first van I renamed "The van from Hell." Because I firmly believed it was. It was a Plymouth Voyager, bought used from an unscrupulous used car dealer in our little town. I didn't know he was unscrupulous, but I found out quickly. My kids still like to point out places where that van stalled out on occasion as I drove them to school. We lived in the country, and they attended the city school system, so we had no school buses. I don't like to remember that vehicle too much. It brings back painful memories. By then, the kids were belted up because I wasn't sure that sucker would round a corner without tipping over. Somebody t-boned me one time and it bend the frame. I drove it anyway because we were financially challenged at that time and couldn't afford anything better.
Thank goodness, I don't have to drive vehicles from Hell anymore. I think of all the awful cars I drove when our youngsters were growing up taught them how to be strong and resourceful. It taught them to appreciate the little things in life like how great it is to walk in a cold rain with the wind blowing to get to a destination. Oh wait, that wasn't so great.
At one time, they did request that I drop them at the corner so that they could walk the rest of the way to school. They thought that they were fooling me into thinking that they wanted the exercise. Psssshawww. They just didn't want anyone to see them get out of a questionable blue station wagon with a cracked windshield and a smoky exhaust pipe. But that's another story.
I do miss that little Pinto bean, but as for the other disasters I drove, I hope they went back to where they came from....
2 comments:
We got through the kid thing with no car seats too...now when we want to take our grandchildren somewhere the back seat is full of car seats. Life was so much easier before the government got it's hands into things. I remember the Pinto with it's gas tank in the "explosion" position. Scary stuff.
this reminds me of my friends car in high school, The Green Pea.
It was a pea green Maverick, no power steering, and huge seats.
It was the late 80's, so the 70's car was classic. We had a lot of fun driving around for no reason in the Green Pea, when driving was still fun, and not a chore. ah the good ole days...
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