kids and cars

[p24-1953]

okay, slightly off topic, but how did kids (infants) ride around in our cars? we saw a pram for sale this weekend and the antique store owner told us that it sat on the floorboards and that was all that they used to do. Is that right? in the 70's i remember standing up in the back no seat belts, no booster( and i survived) but how did they transport infants?

Now what prompted all of this is my wife and i are expecting and everyone seems shocked that we intend to carry an infant around in the plymouth. its got seatbelts in the back. why couldnt we put a seat in there and be good?

do any of you carry kids around in your cars?

[Frank Elder]

okay, slightly off topic, but how did kids (infants) ride around in our cars? we saw a pram for sale this weekend and the antique store owner told us that it sat on the floorboards and that was all that they used to do. Is that right? in the 70's i remember standing up in the back no seat belts, no booster( and i survived) but how did they transport infants?

Now what prompted all of this is my wife and i are expecting and everyone seems shocked that we intend to carry an infant around in the plymouth. its got seatbelts in the back. why couldnt we put a seat in there and be good? do any of you carry kids around in your cars?

Same as you would in a modern car..infant seat in the back with it secured by the lap belt. Your baby and Mom, sitting in the back also, both being driven around by proud poppa. I think the baby seat is supposed to face the car seat up to a certain age or weight. Congrats by the way:)

[cwcars88]

If you hook that seat belt threw a infant seat it should work. That is all you do in a modern car. If the child is two big for the infant seat the seat belt alone should be good.

The law does not require a belt that was not installed in the car at the factory, but most of us feel safer with one on, so we install them in our older cars.

[p24-1953]

i am planing on using a seat but when did seats become the norm? what was used in the 40's and 50's? just curious

[Frank Elder]

Mothers lap or bassinet on the floor board.

[randroid]

P24-1953,

When I was a kid there were small highchair-size seats with U-shaped bars that hung over the seat back. Generally they had decals to simulate instruments on small dashboard, and there was inevitably a miniature steering wheel which the cute little tyke could use to assist the driver through heavy traffic. They hung so the kid was square-on to the windshield and in case of an accident could easily launch the youngster into the Great Hereafter, but the general feeling back then was that you could always make another one just like it.

I'm not sure that what we have today is a great improvement, but I've never had kids and I'm sure there's at least one stick-in-the-mud who would disagree with me.

-Randy

[Tony Cipponeri]

Well, When I was 17 my job after school was to baby sit my nephew 4 yrs old and niece 3 yrs old. I took those kids every where, they rode in the back seat, and all most every time I stopped they landed on the floor, we all laughed as they would climb up on the seat till the next stop. Tony C

[Dennis Hemingway]

For our grandkids I installed seat belts in our cars and then use car seats.

Dennis:cool:

[Phil Martin]

When mine were little we always used the one that hooked over the seat back. Only kind there was in late 60s

[PatS....]

The fun part was if your little brother was in one of those over the seat back child seats in a two door '49 Chrysler in which the seat backs folded forward!!

They had no latches on the folding forward seat backs!!

He went a$$ over tea kettle so many times I'm surprised he isn't in an institution. He missed the fancy padded dash each and every time!

As for me, I stood in the middle of the front seat. Once, while driving down the highway heading for 2 weeks holidays in a 46 Chevy, I jumped off the seat and stepped on the starter peddle at 65 mph.

Old Chevy quit, rolled to the shoulder and my Dad said "Well that's it, holidays are over!"

He tried it and it started right up...never missed a beat after. I dodged a bullet there!

[pflaming]

Our kids were born in the early 60's. We had a Chevy II Station Wagon. We put the back seat down and loaded the back with toys!

New parents need to remember: we drive faster today, there is more traffic, we drive more miles! That and more has significantly changed, not the danger, but the odds of an accident.

Figure out how and use infant seats, belts and all. That is how I see it and yes, congradulations and God's blessings.

[Norm's Coupe]

When I was a kid in the 40's and 50's, we always had to ride in the back seat "sitting down". Were not allowed to stand up in the seat.

My kids were born in the mid to late 60's. When they were infants we had a "Car Bed" for infants. It was hung over the top of the front seat. The bed was then hanging over the back of the front seat. Then as the got old enough to sit, we had a car seat that hung in the front seat between us. Kids faced forward just like us. Even had a little steering wheel with a horn button for them to play with attached to the car seat. The car seats and car beds back then were not attached to seat belts, just hung over the seats.

That said, if you have seat belts in the car, I'd follow the same rules for babies in new cars. Here, the infant or kid must ride in a car seat strapped to seat belts. They cannot ride in the front until I believe they are 9 years old.

The reason I say follow what ever laws you have in your state is. If you don't have seat belts in a car that did not originally have them, you don't have to follow the current laws. But........if you install seat belts in that same car, you are then required to go by the modern law. So.......check your local laws.

Congratulations on the upcoming new addition to your family.

[RobertKB]

As a little kid in the 50's, I can remember riding in the back seat most of the time as I liked to look out the back window and watch the road roll out the back of the car. At night, I would often lay on the parcel shelf behind the back seat and look out the back window at the stars and/or moon. Not safe but that was the way it was back then. When I had my own kids in the late 70's we did actually have early style car seats buckled down with seat belts. I think the lap belts went over the kids and the chair as I do not remember strapping them into the chair separately. I remember driving both my kids home from the hospital with my wife in the front seat holding the baby. Times change! We did the best we could at the time. Picture shows the '69 Ford:eek: Falcon we brought them home in and we still have. My wife bought it brand new before I met her.

[Furylee2]

Never forget the Sunday drives in the 47 Desoto when we were little (mid-50’s). Dad would stop at the bar and get a quart of beer in a plain brown sack, and a pack of gum. My brother Les and I each got a stick of gum (usually Dentyne), and we would stand behind the front seat holding on to that rope, while dad would cruise around the country side.

Fast forward to the mid-70’s, and I driving my 68 Satellite. I’m heading out of town on a Sunday, going over to the in-laws for dinner. My 4 year old daughter is standing next to me on the front seat, and I got pulled over of speeding (guess I got to going too fast, before the speed limit increased on the edge of town). Cop lectured me about driving too fast, never said a word about my daughter.

I did put seat belts in the back seat of the 37 this summer, so I could take the grandkids. They love ridding in that old car.

[greg g]

I had a small padded stool the I sat on in the middle of the front seat. If we stopped hard Dad woul throw his arm out across my chest. When my brother was around (he is 7 years younger) he got one of those seats that hung over the front seat made of bent and riveted steel. Think it had steering wheel on a bar that flipped down to provide some restraint.....similar to this

By that time I had moved to the back seat. When we were real small we always were in moms lap. When we were bigger we moved to the back seat.

I always used to kneel in the foot well and play with cars or planes on the seat bottom. That was probably a pretty safe place except for in a roll over.

Only accident I can remember was coming home from grocery shopping. We pulled out of the parking lot, went down about a half block to the stop sign. As we were pulling away from the stop, some one hit us from behind. Our car was pushed into the right side ditch. The trunk was popped open ejecting some of the groceries. Nobody was hurt, and while we waited for the tow truck to pull the car back on the road, I waited in the car, while Mom and dad picked up the groceries.

When we got home, my box of Post Sugar Crisps was missing, so I pitched a fit and Dad went back to the accident site and found them.

It was important, as they had little metal plates in them with Rail Road logos on them.

Glad he did it because this box had the plate for the Great Northern RR with the Moutain Sheep on it. I still have that and about 12 of the 28 others somewhere. C and O, Reading, Lakawana, Atlantic Coast Line, Nickel Plate, Erie, B and O, Milwaulkee, Lehigh Valley,Northweatern, great Northern,and MKT, and Seaboard, I can rmember.

As I said no one hurt, dent in in the bumper, and the trunk lid on the 49 Dodge Meadowbrook bustle butt.

Edited November 11, 2009 by greg g

[P15Mike]

Sorry to jack your thread ... but a pretty funny story here

When i was about 6 or so dad had a 39 Dodge Bus Coupe . We were getting ready to head over to my uncle's and grandma stopped by . She decides she wanted to go with us in the 39 . Hence our dilema , so dad decided to put me behind the front seat ( as we know there's only about 12in maybe of room between the front seat/rear shelf) wedging a 2x4 about 16in in length to give me room . About 10 min down the road dad hit a pothole ... you got it .... out came the 2x4 ... i still remember not being able to breath till dad got the 39 pulled over ... Needless to say it was a crowded trip to my uncle's..

Mike

[Normspeed]

My mom had an old Mopar 4 door '40's vintage, and as a tyke I used to ride standing up on the front seat, over at the window. Our little town had a small low speed traffic circle, and on one trip around, I leaned or pulled on the door handle and I was...flying! Until I hit the street. Surprising, I wasn't really hurt, just skinned knees and stuff.

[Norm's Coupe]

My mom had an old Mopar 4 door '40's vintage, and as a tyke I used to ride standing up on the front seat, over at the window. Our little town had a small low speed traffic circle, and on one trip around, I leaned or pulled on the door handle and I was...flying! Until I hit the street. Surprising, I wasn't really hurt, just skinned knees and stuff.

Same thing happened to a cousin of mine when he was small. That's why I always bought 2 door cars. Once you put the kid in the back seat, they can't accidentally fall out the door.

[BobT-47P15]

When my sister (3 years younger) and I were small in the 1950s Dad drilled a hole

thru each door post of our P15 four door and into the front edge of the back door....then

inserted a gutter nail (used for attaching rain gutter to a house, about 6 to 8 inches

long) thru the hole. Early safety kiddy locks.

We rode in the back seat = probably had one of those seats with

the steering wheel at one point. Kinda hard to remember all the details.

[David Maxwell]

...so my parents always had a station wagon. I remember whenever we all needed to go somewhere together, the easiset way to fit us in the 64 Ford wagon was to fold all the seats flat which created a large steel cargo area. We loved sliding back and forth with each turn, banging into eachother and screaming at the top of our lungs!! Child Protective Services would probably arrest my parents today, but we all remember them as saints for putting up with us and making life a joy each and every day.

[Frank Elder]

Found a picture for ya:)

[Norm's Coupe]

Greg,

I found a baby seat just like the one you posted, brand new, never used back around 2000 at Wizzy's here in Milwaukee. They were having a clearance rummage sale at the time. Could roam the whole building if you wanted. Found that baby seat and thought it would look neat with a doll sitting in it at shows. So.......ask Old Man Wizzy how much they wanted for it. He said, Oh, you can't use that, it's not legal. Told him I just wanted it for nostalgia. Gave it to me for a buck. Year of so later decided I didn't want it after all. Put it on ebay under the old car sections. Think I got about $40 or $50 for it. That person wanted it to put in their street rod.

[windsor8]

Here are a couple of examples of early car seats.

[Don Coatney]

When my sister and I were infants my parents would warm some bricks and place them on the back seat floor of the 1937 Packard for heat. Then they would cover them with newspapers and place my sister and I on top of them wrapped in blankets for the 50 mile trip to my Uncles farm.

At about 6-7 years old I would sit in the middle of the front seat and my dad tought me how to shift gears in his 52 Chevy. He would work the clutch and I would work the gearshift. I recall once I stopped in neutral, not 3rd gear. My dad let the clutch out and floored it. I had never heard that engine spin so fast.

Seat belts, child restraints, and kiddy seats were unheard of in those days. Here is the 37 Packard.

[Normspeed]

Here are a couple of examples of early car seats.

I think this is the one my Mom had on me.