In 1974, we were all drunk drivers

I was born in 1971 so I don't remember this law, but in 1974 there was a seatbelt interlocking system that was mandatory in all cars built in the U.S. in 1974. The car would not start unless all front-seat passengers had their seatbelts locked. Without having to read anything further on it, I could imagine how well that worked out. Well, I kept reading because I wanted to get to the section on 1975 Camaros so I quickly learned that the system had flaws (gasp!) and sometimes the ignition wouldn't unlock even though all passengers had their seatbelts on, locked, pinky-promised to always wear them and even crossed their hearts and hoped to die.

This is unfortunate because this silly mandate, along with the front bumper guidelines requiring your car to look like it had wrapped itself around a really long fence post, made several 1974 models undesirable, including the 1974 Camaro. I claim that this is unfortunate because Chevy switched to a 350 2 bbl engine which would have given it more power except that the weight of the bumper kind of zero'd that out. Again, another example of The Man trying to keep us down, rob us of our power to careen around corners of city streets for absolutely no reason at all.

The seatbelt thing is interesting because I remember very well how I never even saw a seatbelt until I the early '80's. The various family cars may have had them in but they were well tucked into the seats to the point that they couldn't be fished out anymore. This combined with my dad's stellar driving skills, it's a miracle we were never in an accident and thrown clear from the car.

People used to do lots of stuff to and in cars that no one would dare imagine anymore. For instance, drinking and driving. That was pretty much standard for anyone over the legal drinking age (wasn't that 10?) and I think it was mandatory for single males between the ages of 18-32. My uncle had gotten so many DWI's that he started to seriously consider not driving drunk anymore because it was such a hassle. And then they came up with those soul-crushing DWI laws like sending you to jail immediately.

My other uncle and a few other family members actually sold me their cars for $1 when I was living in Duluth just to avoid the emissions standards that the 7-county metro area was enacting in the early '90s. At one point, I was the proud owner of four cars. I think there was also some federal restriction against nitro which I don't remember the finer details of but I remember the hushed tones and quick sideways glances used whenever the topic came up, followed by hand-rubbing and Mr. Burns-esque devious facial expressions.

Well I think we've come a long way as a society in the area of car production, ownership, and use. I wish I could say the same thing about driving skills.