[Diana in Wisconsin]

My car didn’t move until the boys were all buckled up. Every week one got to be ‘Seatbelt Monitor.’ I also told them the car WOULDN’T start unless all the seatbelts were latched.

But then, Dad used to put me in the front seat (no seatbelts in the car at all), Mom in the back seat with the dog and the BABY in the cubby in the rear of our VW Bug!!

And we all survived without a scratch. Never even a fender-bender in all of those years of driving from Milwaukee to ‘Up Nort’ every weekend of our lives.

I’m not sure if I’ve been brainwashed by the Nanny Staters or if we were the luckiest SOBs to ever live, LOL!

[freedumb2003]

>>I’m not sure if I’ve been brainwashed by the Nanny Staters or if we were the luckiest SOBs to ever live, LOL!<<

The latter. My wife’s brother was asleep in the back seat of a VW bug when it was broadsided by a sedan. He died, as did the baby who was being carried — foolishly — on the lap of her SIL in the front seat. The SIL (and baby, her neice) went through the windshield and the SIL carries scars (albeit somewhat “cleaned up”) to this day (this was 30 years ago).

My wife was not on that trip, but she was invited to go. Thank God she had other commitments.

[Clinging Bitterly]

The seatbelt habit wasn't native in my family either, lots of our cars from the '60s didn't have them at all. When our dad was killed (ironically in a traffic wreck but he was riding his Harley) we were very young and mom bought a VW bus. It would have been a '60 or '61 maybe, and she took out the back seat and put in a playpen. We went all over the country in that. My sister fell in a quick stop one time and broke her collarbone, but that didn't change any habits. By then the seat was back in the bus but there were still no belts. We would more than likely have been standing up in the back seat so we could see out.

I didn't start using seat belts regularly until maybe 1980 when I was 22 and had a car new enough to have the easier to use retractable lap/shoulder combo. Now it's old habit and it just feels wrong to not use them.

[1951Boomer]

My story is the same as yours. Our family of eight drove thousands of miles on numerous vacations in the family station wagon. We did not have seatbelts, and Dad had a lead foot. I think part of the reason we survived is that there really was less traffic and fewer people back in the 50s and 60s. Nowadays, it seems all the highways are saturated. I keep asking myself what explains it, other than the obvious birth rate and immigration.