[ARC5] Ever More OT: Seat Belts

[gordon white]

Seat Belts:

     Such a sad story. A bit like my late wife, Joan, who smoked two 
packs a day. Back in the long-ago, before we  were married and I did not 
know how bad cigarettes were, she made me promise, if she married me I 
could not chivvy her to quit.

     By the time the three kids came along, we knew how bad. While I had 
promised, they had not. They begged her to stop. "Mommie you're going to 
die!" they would say.

     Did no good.

     When they were in college she dropped dead of a heart attack. The 
autopsy attributed it to the smoking.

as to seat belts - when I got my license in 1949 seat belts in passenger 
cars were not only not required, but were considered bizarre. I was then 
now, as today, an auto racing fan.  The same month I got my license, one 
of my heros, Rex Mays, former national driving champion, was racing at 
Del Mar, California. His car hit the inside fence and flipped, coming 
back to rest on its wheels with little damage, but throwing Mays out on 
to the track. Though seat belts were required in racing then, Mays 
refused to wear his. A following car hit Mays and killed him. I 
immediately went to a local surplus shop, bought a set of belts and put 
them in my car. I have found they hold me in place during incidents that 
could have thrown me out of control, though I have never had an accident 
so severe I could not drive home.

  - Gordon White