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Circa 1970, I was the youngest of four children. Dad would usually have a four-door sedan furnished by whatever company Dad was a salesman for at the time.
In younger years, I would usually sit in the front middle seat, with a lap belt. This was because, being the smallest, this gave my parents the most room. My three older siblings older siblings would be in the back seat, which would also have lap belts.
At one point, my parents would get angry when I changed the station on the radio, or turned on the vent to try to disperse the smoke from my chain-smoking parents (which was far worse inside a crowded car than it was at home). Mom and Dad's solution was to have me lie on the speaker panel, directly behind the seats and under the rear windshield. No one ever stopped us for that. We would go through Canada Customs like that on the way to Ipperwash, and they would not say a word. Hate to think of what would have happened to the whole family if the car hit a wall and I became to 50-pound steamroller.
Finally, in 1975, they bought an eight-passenger station wagon. First car I say with an EPA gas mileage sticker - 14 highway, 9 city. We cleaned out the garage to make room for the new car, only to find out that the car was longer than the garage.
As for common wisdom on children in the rear seat in those days, it was said that you kept children in the rear seat, so that they would not grab the steering wheel or the gearshift and cause an accident.
Let's say it's 1986. You're a parent, and it's you and your baby in the car in a car seat. Your car has no airbags. Do you buckle the car seat into the front seat or the back seat?
At that time, I would have used the front seat for the following reasons:
1) No airbags.
2) The front seat had a 3 point belt, while the rear seat had only lap belts in 95% of cars on the road in 1986.
3) In case of a sudden medical emergency, the driver is right there for the baby and can get to him or her much quicker.
Of course, there are cons to the 1986 front seat as well. There is the dash to deal with, and front windows are far more likely to break in a car crash than rear windows.
I'd love to see opinions on this. It could go both ways.
As for me, I was born on the cusp of history. I was born on December 25, 1992, so I probably got some front seat time as a baby (there were very few passenger airbags around until about 1994, and their dangers were not well known until 1995-1996)
My kids were born in the 80s. If my wife & I were both in the car, the kid would be in his/her carseat in the back seat - facing forward. If it was just me in the car, with one of the kids, I'd put the carseat in the front passenger seat.
I was born in 1953. I don't think we even owned a car with lap belts for awhile. I clearly remember what was used as "carseats" then. Most people would be horrified at what they put kids into them. If they were an infant and could not sit up they had these bed type things with sides and the baby would be laid in it in the back seat, no lap belt. If there would be a bad accident that baby would just fly out of that thing. Once a baby could sit up they were put in what was called a carseat. It had 2 bent bars so that you could hook it over the seat. It had a bar that wrapped around the front of it, a seat and a bar to go between the legs. Cars had bench seats then and if you owned a sedan, like we usually did, you had to put the baby in the front seat because there was no place in the backseat. Really those carseats sort of kept the child contained and propped them up to look out the window, but offered little to no safety. My oldest son was born in 1987. When he was born we had a small truck, so he had to be up front and sat facing the rear when very young. By the time he was 1-2 we had a SUV and then he was facing forward in the back seat.
Yes.....I think that was one of the many songs we had to sing for choir when I was a lad in school back in....1985. We also had to sing the "We Are The World"...song that Michael Jackson led the vocals on.
Anyways, I don't know that I ever had to have a car seat when I was a baby but I did have a booster seat back in the early 80's to ride in. I even remember standing up in the cab of mom's F-100 pick up while she was driving down I-465 in Indianapolis.
My wife was born in the early 70's and she says she remembers when her sister was born (July 1976) that her mom was holding her (as a new born) in the front seat while driving on the way home from the hospital while my wife was standing up on the floor board in the back seat.
I was born in '79 so I grew up throughout the 80's. I also remember standing up on the bench seat in my Mom's '77 Caprice. Nobody ever thought anything about it back then.
I also remember when the study came out saying that rear lap belts alone were dangerous, and that's why the rear shoulder belts started in 1989.
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