The Safety of Seat Belts

Now, we all know that my mother is crazy overprotective.  So explain to me how I never wore a seat belt until I starting driving in high school.  Growing up I was the only child so my mother not only let me sit in the front seat where it is now said that every kid will surely die but she never required me to wear a seat belt.  Or sit properly in the seat matter of fact.  


I have memories of mom driving me to school while I sat on my feet so I could reach out the window and try to touch signs and bushes we drove past.  As an adult this sounds horrifying to me!  I would never let my kid lean half out a car window, especially without a seat belt.  Was this just the way it was in the '80's or is my mother insane? 


Now, I was a cute kid and in elementary school I was tall and skinny so I looked older than I really was.  I always fooled those poorly paid teenagers at Six Flags that had to guess our ages and weights to prevent us from winning a giant asbestos filled stuffed animal.  Well, I was always trying to look out the car window to watch the teenagers walking home from school and to see the people in all the cars we drove past.  Of course still being in elementary school and my mom driving a battle tank of a car, I couldn't quite see over the window sill.  That is when I started sitting on my feet so that I was taller.  Little did I know at the time but this also made me appear older.  I realized this when I started noticing the teenage boys we drove past looking at me and waving.  Did they think I was a teenager too?  This was exciting so I started waving at everyone I saw.  Most people waved back.  I started doing this on a regular basis and really enjoyed my older persona in the car.  Until it backfired.


I had been sitting on my feet and waving at people for a long time when finally someone didn't just wave back.  Mom and I were riding on the highway when a pickup truck went by with some guys in the flat bed.  I waved as usual and one of the guys stood up, turned around, and pulled down his pants.  I was mooned at 60 miles per hour on the highway.  What grown man shows his booty to a child?  My mother was horrified and exited the highway immediately.  


She still let me sit on my feet and wave at people but from then on I was a lot more skeptical about who I waved at.  Eventually, years later I started driving myself.  One day mom and I were pulled over while I was driving to school.  The cop was about to give us a ticket for not wearing seat belts when he was called away to an emergency.  That ticket was all the scare that either of us needed to start wearing our seat belts.  I can't imagine not wearing one now and believe me, if I ever have kids, they will be strapped tight into a car seat with no window views until they are married.