Before seat belt laws and child seats... video

[vegas paul]

http://jalopnik.com/341962/studebaker-wagonaire-its-all-about-the-safety

Las Vegas, NV - Stop by, coffee's on!
'51 Champion Business Coupe G899965 10G-Q4-1434

[billmdonn]

It is amazing, when I was raising my children in the 70's the car seat we had hung over the the back of the front seat. A quick stop and the kid is through the windsheild. When they got to be 4 or 5 years old and misbehaved I would threaten that I would make them put on the seatbelts. With todays cars seats and boosters seats, you could send a child up on the space shuttle. Then when the kids get to be teenagers the parents buy them "crotch rockets" on which they do wheellies wearing no helmet.

"I know nothing"

Sargent Schultz

[50Champ]

Things were definitely a lot simpler in the good old days....





1950 Champion 2 Dr. Sedan

[dclewallen]

I remember sleeping on the package tray under the rear window. Never thought about any danger,

Darryl C. Lewallen Clarkesville, Ga.

[mdelapp]

I believe there are a couple of ads that show the rear center arm rest removable in the C -K bodies and how convenient it is for a child to lay down while travlleing

The "package tray" was preferred place for most kids. Good view, high above the others and able to stretch out.

some may recall the immediate reaction many parents had when making a quick stop to put out your right hand to hold a child. It was an automatic move

[bams50]

I remember all that too[^]

I never wore a seatbelt in a road car until maybe 15 years ago when it became the law here. We used to love riding in the back of a pickup- sometimes sitting on the open tailgate watching the road go by under our feet, or standing up at the back of the cab with the wind rushing by. My brother used to stand on the front seat between my parents everywhere we went, or as mentioned, up on the package shelf. I remember being too little to see out easily from the back seat of the Lincoln, and sitting on a case of beer to see better. We used to have demo derbies with lot cars, and try to roll them over; a couple times I succeeded[)] No belts, rollcages, helmets, firesuits...

And somehow, we lived![:0]

Robert (Bob) Andrews Owner- Studebakeracres- on the IoMT (Island of Misfit Toys!)
Parish, central NY 13131

"Some people live for the rules, I live for exceptions"- 311

"Do they all not, by mere virtue of having survived as relics of a bygone era, amass a level of respect perhaps not accorded to them when they were new?"

[8E45E]

quote:Originally posted by mdelapp


The "package tray" was preferred place for most kids. Good view, high above the others and able to stretch out.

Or in the 'well' behind the back seat in a VW Beetle! Probably the safest place anywhere to ride in one of those!![:0]

Craig

[BobGlasscock]

I loved the package tray in my '50 Champion on trips. The hot sun just making me feel SO toasty!

Us single guys still use our right arm and hand to 'catch' the girl when the brakes go on quickly. hee-hee.

'50 Champion, 1 family owner

[Pckstude]

Do u also remember kids standing up in the front seat? Social services would throw u into a deep dungeon if u tried that now days.
But that was the scenario that lead to a very close call with me. Dad was backing out of the driveway, and I was standing up in the front. Some how, and in ways only children know how to do, the door opened and I fell out. Poor old dad didn't know what to do. Visions of a fatal scene surely rushed thru his worried head. Then what to do? Pull ahead? Stay still? He had no idea if he had already run over me or what. He put the car in park, and shot around the front to the passenger side to see what sort of horrible scene might await him.
Much to his relief, there I laid, my head facing just inches from the right front tire. To this day I can still recall the up front and personal experience I had of tire tread design. Perhaps this is why I have a fascination with the engineering and sculpture of tires.

[sals54]

When I was a kid, we would go on trips in our '66 Country Squire Ford Wagon. It was the 9 passenger model with the sideways facing far rear seats. Well, that was not quite enough for our family of ELEVEN CHILDREN ! ! ! ! !, so my seat was on the hotterenhell "hump" above the rear axle. The ones in the front seat had their sweaters on cuz the AC was blowin full blast.... the middle seat was perfect.... while those of us condemned to the rear of the car sweltered in our kid sized EZ bake oven. Dang that was hot. 75 miles an hour through the desert on a 2 lane highway, with oncoming traffic waiting to collide at a combined rate of 150 mph ! ! !, can you say "blood alley"? No one wearing seatbelts, and my dad was a highway patrolman.! Innocence or ignorance? Don't know.

sals54

[raoul5788]

We had a DKW wagon when I was a kid. You could sit on the LEFT of the driver the way the seat was configured! You should have seen the looks on the faces of the toll takers when we pulled up to the gate!


Chip
'63 Cruiser daily driver
'57 Packard wagon almost on the road!

[whacker]

My Dad worked for the atomic energy commission when I was little. I remember my Mom waking me up in the middle of the night so my older sister and I could go watch them set off an atomic bomb at Yucca Flats. I road all the way out there in my special spot on the package tray. No seat belts in a 1951 Starlight Coupe! I still remember the car, and the bomb. So does my sister.

[jnewkirk77]

Until Indiana passed its seat-belt law (I seem to remember that was in '83 or '84), my parents let my brother Matt and I ride standing up on the front seat ... or wherever else we could find a place to see out of the car. It kept us quieter, Mom said.

Jacob Newkirk - Owensboro, KY

KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL! Drive a Studebaker!

[jnewkirk77]

quote:Originally posted by sals54

When I was a kid, we would go on trips in our '66 Country Squire Ford Wagon. It was the 9 passenger model with the sideways facing far rear seats. Well, that was not quite enough for our family of ELEVEN CHILDREN ! ! ! ! !, so my seat was on the hotterenhell "hump" above the rear axle.

Yep, Sal ... my grandparents drove NOTHING but Ford wagons for many years, up until the last ones. Grandpa is now 86 and drives a Chevy Venture, but he reminisces fondly about our many family trips to Indiana Beach (where his sister lived and worked) in the "Yellow Submarine," his 1975 Country Squire:

Grandpa at the wheel, with two grandkids between himself and Grandma.

My parents and two uncles in the middle seat.

Four kids on the dual facing "way back" seats.

Three or four across the rear axle "hump".

Luggage for all strapped to the roof rack.

Back bumper scraping the highway every time we hit a bump or dip in the road.

Every window rolled down because the air conditioning didn't have a prayer of keeping that many people cool in the hot Indiana sun.

What strikes me is how normal that all seemed 25 years ago!

Jacob Newkirk - Owensboro, KY

KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL! Drive a Studebaker!

[Michidan]

I know somewhere I have read a road test report of 51 or 52 Studebaker. A reprint in one of the Brooklands gold books or something like that. Anyway it was remarked at the time how nice it was to have the dash so far away from the front seat. As this left plenty of room for the kids to get up and move around!
I had to laugh.
I don't know if was Motor Trend or a similar magazine, but this was thought of as a handy feature.

Dan
52 hardtop

https://www.studebakerhardtop.com