We at MyStarCollectorCar are firmly entrenched in the Baby Boomer generation, a giant chronological herd of maniacs who were born during a Level 5 population explosion after World War Two.
Post-war parents were not simply replacing themselves–they were adding huge numbers to the annual census and building large family teams along the way.
The big families required bigger vehicles to accommodate the teams, so station wagons and sedans became the most popular modes of transportation when Boomers were actual babies.
Jim Sutherland
The need to cram a bunch of kids into a vehicle had a negative side effect well beyond the active combat zone in the back seats of the cars. The additional horror story was kiddy car sickness, a very spontaneous release of stomach contents inside the vehicle, usually a mix of partially digested food with a powerfully bad stench that seemed to soak right into the car’s interior.
We at MyStarCollectorCar were world-class hurlers when we were kids in cars, so we believe we are well-seasoned experts in the field of car sickness. Consequently, we decided to reveal a few of the reasons behind our own volcanic activity during family road trips from a bygone era.
The first reason was the cars themselves because they were built with old-school engineering and functioned under those parameters. Retro technology was primitive compared to today’s computerized rides that adjust for conditions on a road trip.
Rock-and-roll was not confined to music because it could be found in any yesteryear car dodging potholes on a road. Kids were particularly sensitive to the uneasy motion, and it made them queasy enough to rival the Pompeii eruption inside a car.
Secondly, the retro automotive engineering label also applied to the functions of an older engine because they were equipped with carburetors instead of sophisticated fuel injection systems with incredibly precise air/fuel mixtures that maximized the newer engine’s efficiency. The retro relics’ carbs produced raw gas odors easily picked up by a kid’s superior and sensitive sense of smell. The result was an explosion from the kid’s hair-trigger stomach.
Thirdly, half-burnt fuel odors from poor carb mixtures channeled through a catalytic convertor-free exhaust and did not go unnoticed by young passengers from that era. Eventually the bouquet from a poorly tuned car was too much for the kid. Cue the vomit eruption.
The fourth reason: most cars from earlier generations’ childhood days were not equipped with AC, so car passengers were subjected to a hot environment while serving time in the middle seat of a crowded vehicle filled with young Boomers. The rigid kid caste system meant older occupants never sat in the middle and were closer to cooler fresh air via the open windows.
The center position in the rear passenger was reserved for the weak who were unable to fight their way to a window seat. The view from the middle included a straight-ahead view of a moving road in a rocking, fresh air-free environment with predictable results in the puke department.
The fifth and final reason for car sickness was painfully evident when we dove into an appealing array of new comics with an intense new pulp paper aroma that mixed well with the car’s swaying motion and suddenly put us right on the outskirts of Puke Town.
These are MyStarCollectorCar’s five good reasons why kiddy road trips were so unpredictable in days of yore. We speak from personal experience in this matter.
Jim Sutherland
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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