Photo Friday: 70's Carseat

Strolee of California Car Seat Instructions
Strolee of California Car Seat Instructions

I've been helping my mom clean out her house, and I found this old instruction sheet from the carseat I sat in when I was a child. The seat's goal was more about lifting the child up to see out the window than about safety, though I'm sure that not having a toddler wriggle out of the lap belt was a real benefit! It's a reminder about how much things have changed in terms of keeping our kids safe when we head out on a road trip.

Related Links
How to Choose a Booster Seat
Best Bet Car Seats for Every Age

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      Comments

      1. walkingon travels on January 26, 2012 at 8:59 p.m.

        My mom still relates a story about our VW van's door opening when I was a toddler and my older sister (only by 3 years) yanking me back before I could go flying out. We really have come a long way. Thank goodness!

      2. Debbie on January 26, 2012 at 9:03 p.m.

        I really did fall out of my dad's car at one point. The car door hadn't latched fully, and when the door opened I tumbled onto the asphalt. Luckily we weren't going very fast and there weren't any cars coming.

      3. Lisa on January 27, 2012 at 6:32 a.m.

        Times certainly have changed. I was a baby in the '60s and rode in a little plastic contraption that sat in the middle of the front seat and I can remember as a little girl how excited we were when we got a new car that had seatbelts in the backseat!

      4. Marina K. Villatoro on January 27, 2012 at 6:56 a.m.

        This is amazing!!! We didn't even have car seats where I was born. Which is probably safer, compared to that seat!

      5. Shelly Rivoli on January 27, 2012 at 7:22 a.m.

        Love it! Reminds me of how my mom told me it was always much easier to get on the road with a baby when you could just jump in the car and start nursing - in the front seat!

      6. Dominique-Midwest Guest on January 27, 2012 at 7:26 a.m.

        I just previewed The Henry Ford's recently redone auto exhibit (in Dearborn, Michigan...it reopens Jan 29). They had a small display of child car seats over the years, and there were a couple there that looked even scarier than these!

      7. Sonja on January 27, 2012 at 9:32 a.m.

        We had a convertible with a canvas roof that had a big hole in it and my brother and I would stand in the back seat with our heads out the hole for the whole drive everywhere we went!

      8. Terumi on January 27, 2012 at 9:35 a.m.

        I've fallen out of a car too! I think there were like 5 or 6 of us in a backseat and I was near the door. I didn't get hurt either, but I think nowadays that would make the news;)

      9. Average Traveller on January 27, 2012 at 12:20 p.m.

        These days I doubt that monster would be legal even for use on the kitchen floor!

      10. Debbie on January 27, 2012 at 2:23 p.m.

        @Lisa my parents were very proud of the fact that they had paid extra to have the back-seat seatbelt option on my mom's Dodge Dart!

        @Sonja I love that!

        @Terumi I'd hate to think of what would happen to the parents if I child fell out of the car these days!

        @Average Traveller You're right. It looks likely to topple if the child leans over!

      11. Jay Kane on January 27, 2012 at 7:18 p.m.

        Surreal to see this. I found some old instruction booklets and manuals when I cleaned out of a property that today serves as a vacation home rental that I post on sites like HereStay and HomeAway. I found some old swingset assembly instructions and a catalog from Sears from the days when men still wore suits to work.

      12. chrissy travels on January 28, 2012 at 2:33 p.m.

        Crazy! That thing looks like it would eat someone up in an accident. My Dad used to drive the three of us around smashed in his convertible Alfa Romeo. The backseat was hardly big enough for me an my Holly Hobby dolls. Amazing we all survived.

        Thanks for sharing!

      13. Debbie on January 29, 2012 at 12:02 a.m.

        @chrissy Yes! When I was a bit older, my brother and I used to sit in the hatchback/trunk of my dad's Mazda RX7. A tight fit for sure, and definitely no seatbelts. That was my car during high school too, and we routinely crammed 4 or 5 teenagers in to head to lunch.

        I'm really not making my parents sound very good, but the truth is that the standards and the perception of danger were very different in the 70's than they are today.

      14. scott on February 20, 2012 at 7:12 a.m.

        Would you be willing to sell them?