Sometimes when you sit around, you think of the way things used to be. For example, I imagine that most of today’s population have no idea that you once had to crank a car window open. Yep, you had to use muscle. This happened a lot if you had to give hand signals since there were no built-in turn signals. Thus, if you were turning left, you had to crank the window down and point your arm straight out. If turning right, then you had to have your elbow straight with the hand up and pointing to the right. This was required whether it was snowing, raining or whatever.
Then, if it were cold, you would yank your arm in quickly and crank the window shut. If it was hot, the windows would be open as there was no air conditioning.
Having all the windows open meant that you had to open the back door windows before you got in to drive, and cranking them shut when you parked the car. Despite all this, most people gave turn signals. Today, with the built-in turn signals too many people don’t bother using them. I admit that there are those who turn them on and then are oblivious to their constant notifying those behind them that they are going to turn – someplace! Ah, life is different today!
Turning window cranks wasn’t the only way folks back then built up their muscles. Cars had no power steering. Therefore, the driver had to turn the wheels by twisting against resistance. My ancient memory doesn’t recall that being a large problem, but power steering was introduced for a reason besides making money for someone. Nevertheless, no power steering was a good muscle builder. It might even be a factor in baseball players back then not needing Tommy John surgery on their arms all the time.
Even leg muscles got more work as you had to use your left leg to push in the clutch so you could change gears. This was often a good deal of fun, especially if you were on a steep hill waiting for a traffic light to change. You had to be able to use a delicate balance with one foot on the brake, and the other foot with the clutch in so you could move quickly when the light changed by switching the brake foot to the accelerator and letting out the clutch. One good aspect about a clutch system was that if your car died and wouldn’t start – a too common occurrence – you had a solution. What you did was try to push the car to a steep grade. The driver would then put the car in second gear and push the clutch in. The others would push the car and as it went down the grade gaining speed the driver would “pop” the clutch and the car usually started.
Try that with the modern cars! When I was young cars had bench seats. There were no gears shifts on the floor. This meant that if you were out on a date, your girlfriend could move over and you could snuggle. There could be unexpected problems as one time the beautiful lady who became The Blonde in the House and I were snuggling. We were going through the Squirrel Hill tunnel in Pittsburgh and a cop pulled us over. I wasn’t speeding or anything. We did not receive a ticket, but just a lecture on safe driving.
Despite the latter incident, if I were young, I would vote for the old cars! They had a lot of advantages.
Barry Evans is a columnist for Villages-News.com.
