Stories

Wood Panel Station Wagons & No Back Seats

ADVERTISEMENT

Many relics from the past tweak our collective sense of nostalgia. And one of them is cramming into the back of a station wagon.

Nobody condemned parents when they threw a herd of kids into big sedans or wagons and headed off on family trips. The wedge principle applied: Cram enough kids into a back seat and they won’t move. We now live in an age when parents are given lectures about inferior child seats and chastised because they don’t comply with the safety standards on the latest kid confinement device. But for us as kids, we sat, facing backwards, often with the back window open, without seat belts, playing I Spy, 20 Questions, License Plates, Geography, or any number of auto games, bingos, toys or cards. And we definitely invented the “Are we there yet” quote that we hate to hear even to this day.

ADVERTISEMENT
This looked a bit like our “Bessie” / moibbk.com

Growing up we had many cars, but our favorites were the station wagons. In the 70s or 80s we had was the faux-wood paneled Jeep Wagoneer. It was a big, tall, wide and strong car and maybe there was a joke involved when us kids gave her the name, “Bessie” but I can’t remember anymore. What I can remember is that Bessie was with us for what seemed like forever.  She never gave up on us, even when the rust became so bad you could see the ground through if you lifted up the rubber floor mats; And we never wanted to give up Bessie either. You could pack like 20 people into Bessie. Whether it was road trips, car-pooling, trips to skiing in Vermont, she took us there and we always had a lot of fun. When we were old enough, we practiced driving in Bessie because dad said, “If you can drive Bessie you can drive just about anything”. But we never took our road test in her cause parking her often involved a few tries.

ADVERTISEMENT

In thinking about how long we had Bessie, I listed all the changes to technology that changed while we had her. Bessie started with AM. We added FM, then 8-track, and ended our relationship years into cassettes. Of course, she also had a CB Radio (and took it out when the fad was over). That’s like 20 years or something!

While cars have improved and changed over they years, I still look back and miss Bessie. She was a part of the family and drove us through our childhoods right into adulthood.

Show comments
Share
Published by

Recent Posts

Louis Gossett Jr., ‘An Officer And A Gentleman’ And ‘Roots’ Actor, Dies At 87

Louis Gossett Jr., renowned for his roles as a formidable yet tender-hearted character, passed away…

21 mins ago

Mick Jagger Dances To ‘Moves Like Jagger’ At Bar And His Son Has Best Reaction

A video featuring Rolling Stone's frontman, Mick Jagger, dancing to the Maroon 5 song "Moves…

37 mins ago

One Of The Famous Conjoined Twins, Abby Hensel, Is Married — People Have Questions

Conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel initially captured the public's fascination following their appearance on…

2 hours ago

‘Land Of The Lost’ Cast Then And Now 2024

UPDATED 3/29/2024 Would you survive if caught in the middle of the Land of the Lost?…

3 hours ago

People Left Dumbfounded After Seeing What 39-Year-Old Man Looked Like In 1964

Richard Vernon made a brief cameo in 1964’s Goldfinger as Colonel Smithers alongside a 34-year-old…

4 hours ago

Dana Carvey Apologizes For “Offensive” ‘SNL’ Skit That Had Sharon Stone Strip Down

Saturday Night Live started in 1975 but it remains as relevant as ever - even…

16 hours ago