You Should Have Worn Your Seat Belt

In 1958, my cousin Frances Kana and I were decorating the gym for our Junior-Senior Prom at La Grange High School. This was one of the very few times I was allowed to take the car, or should I say pick-up, to school. It happened to be a 1954 Chevy truck, which had seen some rough days on our farm, and it showed! But, it was all I had and I was glad to be able to take it to town.

This was one of the few days I could take a vehicle to town and I took advantage of the extra hour after school to drive my cousin and me around town. We stopped at the local Dairy Hart ice cream place for a cool drink and some ice cream. Hamburgers were 25¢ then and shakes or malts were also just 25¢. See how far 50¢ gets you these days! We had no sales tax so those extra pennies went a long way then.

Anyway, after we finished decorating the gym for our upcoming Junior-Senior Prom, we had maybe another half hour to spend riding around in the truck. It just so happened that when I rounded a turn around the courthouse square, the passenger door of that old pick-up truck flew open and Frances came within inches of being thrown out onto the street. Lucky for both of us, I wasn’t going very fast. I was able to grab part of her dress and hold her in place until I stopped!

After that close shave, we figured we had better head for home where we’d be a lot safer!

P.S. Seat belts at that time were yet unheard of.