Blame it on Electric Car Windows…
C.E. Grundler
The other day I found myself aboard a strange train of thought. It started simply enough, with a discussion regarding the once ubiquitous automobile cigarette lighter. Remember those? A little knob on one end, a coil of metal on the other. Push the knob in on the dashboard, and a minute later it would give a satisfying little ‘pop’ as it reached temperature. Pull it out, and you’d be greeted with a concentric coil of metal, glowing orange and radiating heat. Do they still exist? The last vehicle I can recall with one was my old Dodge pickup, and most times it was used to fuse the ends of cut lines. (Was, because the truck is now in the loving care of a friend who needed a truck and had the means to care for a twenty year old pickup.) Beyond that, there isn’t a single car I’ve driven that was built in the last two decades that features one of these nifty little weapons of destruction.
The conversation continued, now reminiscing about the things we, as kids, would do with that nifty little melt/burn/incinerate devices left at our disposal as our parents left us sitting in the car while they ran into the store for a minute, or twenty minutes. “Stay in the car” was a phrase most everyone knew. And stay we did, sweltering away as we grew slick with sweat, which turned the vinyl seats into a Slip-N-Slide. The keys went with mom or dad, so no radio — all three AM stations worth listening to. The longer we waited, the more bored we became, which ultimately led to popping in the cigarette lighter and playing with the resulting coil-o-glow it produced. What was there to burn circles onto? I’m sure the junkyards of this land are littered with the remains of 70′s family cars, the hidden corners of their back seats pocked and looking as though they’d transported colossal squid rather than bored siblings.
As a parent, I realize I never left my child unattended in the car. It was the nineties, and no self-respecting parent left children in cars anymore. But why? What changed? Somehow we all survived childhood, and growing up, I could never recall news of children dying in sweltering cars. And that got me to thinking — what was different? For all of you out there who can related to the second paragraph, who knew what it was like to be left in the middle of the Sears parking lot in August, and who are reading this now, which means you survived as well, what was the difference?
It’s simple, really. Cars changed. Power windows became standard on nearly every car built. As kids, when we were hot, we simply cranked down the windows, and went back to playing with the cigarette lighter. Not anymore. And let’s not forget child safety door locks. Cars are safer now, and at the same time more lethal.
When I write, I try not to peg my stories to any specific period. Dating your story now might make it seem fresh and new, but as I read about Travis McGee moving his prized music collection from vinyl to cassettes, it suddenly seems quaint and old. I try to stick with generic technology and cars with models that span many years, or even decades. If I say ‘Old red Miata,’ you already have a picture in your head. If I say ‘late-model black Mercedes sedan,’ again, you’re good. Same goes for any Mustang built in the last fifty (wow do I feel old!) years. But some things, such as memories of dashboard cigarette lighters and waiting in the parking lot in August, will be lost on more and more readers as the years pass. The Facebook and Twitter of today will be the Myspace of tomorrow (that’s my prediction — just give it time,) which is why I try to steer clear of things like that. The cigarette lighter this all started with, however — I guess I’ll just have to explain that for future readers. That, and the Fairmont in which it resides.
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