For its 1956 models, Ford offered an optional safety package called "Lifeguard Design" which included front and rear lap belts. Yeah, I remember those. But the topic of this thread is Politically Incorrect stuff we remember from childhood, not mere nostalgia. Besides, I thought Space Food Sticks tasted like stale, de-flavorized Tootsie Rolls.
ok, something not PC - well, kindof. My mom is from a noble family but is pretty down-to-earth and practical. We have huge and quite old oriental carpets which you can not dry clean but must wash. As our house is the last one in a coul de sac we usually just put them out in the street and hose them off. It's always been a lot of fun for us kids. When my aunt once visited us and saw a wet carpet hanging over the fence and mom drenched to the skin, she gave her a pretty heavy dressing down in a voice a la Queen Elizabeth (imagine the famous "We are not amused...") We still quote her, after 40 years "Good heavens! We are S***ers! We don't wash our carpets in the street!" (Nobility and its privileges had been abolished in 1918 but someone must have forgotten to tell my aunt )
My parents didn't smoke, which is a good thing because cigarette smoke used to make me ill (though I smoked in my early 20s, by which time smoke didn't bother me any more). The largest plumes of cigarette smoke I remember from my childhood is whenever I had to knock on the door of the staff room at any of my schools. The cloud of smoke that emerged when a teacher opened that door was so thick you could launch an enemy attack and literally no one could see it coming. Ah, being thrown around the back of station wagons! I grew up in the back of Volvos. I'm the youngest of four kids, so was always stuck in the back. It was a right of passage for kids in my neighbourhood. My childhood car rides weren't all reckless, though; my dad had a rule that you had to be at least 11 years old to ride in the front passenger seat, and you always had to wear a seatbelt when driving up front. Apart from the fact that I know several people with lifelong injuries due to not wearing belts in a crash, I feel naked sitting in the front of a car without a belt on, thanks to my dad being sensible. Also, to be a nag, I know a handful of people who may not be here today had they not been wearing bike helmets. It's not the speed at which you ride; it's the force of the car hitting you that sends you flying.
Neither. I edited out the family name for reasons of privacy. (Noblesse oblige ) Feel free to insert any name you like. Windsors, Battenbergs, Romanovs, Hohenzollern. They all work in this context.