The Arm

I was driving the kids home from school and the front seat was piled with jackets, scarves, gloves, papers, lunch pails, and the show-and-tell lollapalooza. Show-and-tell is Bubba's favorite part of school and he takes it very seriously. He often crafts special displays to lecture about...usually mechanical or robotic in nature. But, I digress. This post isn't about show-and-tell, nor is it about the large styrofoam box that was on top of the pile in the front passenger seat leaning against the dashboard making that irritating squeaky jiggle noise. "What's that? What's that noise?" all the kids start shouting from the back. "Just the box, I reply." And, I put my arm out across the front seat to hold it off the dashboard and thereby eliminate the squeaking. "See," I say, "The noise is all gone..." But the motion of my arm going out across the seat brought back a memory and that memory is the subject of this brief post.

I told my kids, "Look at my arm. See how it's across the front seat? When I was little, we didn't wear seatbelts and there were no carseats. Busy Body & I used to sit in the front seat next to Gigi as we drove around town or home from school. Whenever we would slow down or stop, Gigi would put her arm out like this to make sure we didn't slide forward and bump the dashboard. After the stop, she would put both hands back on the steering wheel until the next time her foot went to the brake and then that arm would come back across the seat. That was safety for us." And Bubba says, "That was a long time ago, right?" And it was. Those were the days of just jumping in the car and taking off, all the way through high school even. When I got my license, seat belts still weren't required and Busy Body and I used to cruise all around town, looking for fun, Busy Body hanging out her window and **GIGI, DO NOT READ THIS NEXT PART, SKIP TO THE END, THANK YOU** one time I even remember cruising through the main street at Knott's Berry Farm and Busy Body with the window rolled all the way down, sitting on the door, holding onto the edge of the roof. Me? I was being a safe driver, going slowly, keeping my eyes on the road and putting my arm out at all the stops.

Yeah, those were the days.

Posted by The Editor.