[mmichaels1970]

Like crawling from one car window to the other at 75 miles an hour on the freeway for fun

Plain crazy. Never did that

or blind folding the driver and talking him through driving

Never did that either.

or driving cars without windshield wipers in Houston rains

Did that in Cleveland snow quite often.

and cars with no brakes,

Did that up until about a month ago with my 2000 Sable.

towing cars with 4’ chains on the freeways,

Did that but had white knuckles and a shaky brake foot all the way

or flying off the big bump on the country road at 120mph, repeatedly, on bald tires that were bought used,

We used to call that the "end of the earth". But we'd only get up to about 60mph. I could never do 100mph, my entire body shakes.

all before seat belts and air bags, and when the dashboard looked like a work bench that OSHA wouldn’t approve?

Think you've got me by a few years. My first car was an '82 Chevette....an entire car that OSHA would never approve.

Cars used to be the center of our lives, and today some kids don’t even want a driver’s license.

True. I see it a lot around here. But here are a couple contributing factors that I believe have removed teens from cars in Ohio.

- Laws now restrict anybody under 18 from having more than one non-family passenger. I remember in HS piling about 6 friends into a station wagon to go to an away football game. Or getting a ride home from wrestling practice with four teammates. If, unlike us, we have a decent kid who generally wants to follow the law, he has to forego the "car as the center of our lives".

- Driver's Ed (required for all under 18) is a scam. About $400 to see 30 year old movies and ride with a sketchy and/or perverted driving instructor.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Good times eh?

[ansel12]

I’ve only owned one car that didn’t have windshield wipers, and it was the same one that didn’t have brakes for a long time, so stopping had to be well anticipated and traffic lights timed, using your left foot and having a passenger that would jump out and help stop the car, helped.

Is that what you meant?

The first time that I truly drove a car on my own was when I was 12 and visited my father, he owned a giant Cadillac and one day he tossed me the keys and got into the back seat, and had me chauffeur him around Houston the entire day as he did his business, mostly downtown, I drove a 100 city miles that day, wondering what the heck was going on, and he never said a word to me about it, or explained why he did it.

[ansel12]

Laws now restrict anybody under 18 from having more than one non-family passenger. I remember in HS piling about 6 friends into a station wagon to go to an away football game.

I have a story about that also, it made the news.