Paul,
I'm actually pleased to be able to remind folks to wear their seatbelts. I
don't often reveal why, but I feel close enough with many of you listers to
become a bit more intimate. When I was growing up, we really didn't wear
seatbelts all that often. Off and on. When I had driver's ed. in high
school, I learned the importance of wearing them, but still didn't always
remember to buckle up. Then, when the front right wheel of my first
Spitfire fell off due to worn splines while I was exiting the freeway at 60
MPH in '78, I religiously wore a seatbelt ever since. I was 18 at the time.
In the case of my mother, she was even LESS used to wearing seatbelts,
having been born in 1920. I don't believe seatbelts were federally mandated
as standard equipment in U.S. cars until the early '60s. My mom would wear
hers on the freeway - and whenever we made her put one on whenever we rode
with her locally, but the day she was killed, she was just driving back from
a visit to her doctor. She felt safe. She was driving on the street she
lived on for 33 years, less than two miles from her home.
If you've ever visited my website, that's why at the bottom of each page, I
have a little blurb urging readers to please remember to buckle up --
especially their children. I never, ever dreamed that I'd lose my own
mother in such a sudden, tragic way. She was rounding a sharp corner, going
no more than the posted 25 MPH. She had a McDonald's coke on the seat,
along with some other lunch and as best we could figure it, the centrifugal
force of the curve probably caused the drink to tip over, which diverted my
mom's eye from the road just long enough for her to not quite make it out of
the curve, jump the curb and hit a tree. She probably had about 3/4 of a
second from the time her front wheels jumped the curb until the time of
impact.
I remember going to the spot, noting no skids; the tire scuffs on the curb
and the bus bench she narrowly missed. I replayed the crash in my mind at
least 500 times -- like watching a video over and over again. I thought
about the panic she must of felt for that 3/4 second before she hit the
tree. I thought of many things. Over and over and over again.
It was a terrible shock and it was a good six months before my world finally
started to turn again. I still think about her every day -- and if my
reminders to wear seatbelts can somehow even encourage one person to wear
theirs and their life or the life of their child is somehow saved someday,
it will do my soul a lot of good.
Best wishes,
Jeff in San Diego
----- Original Message -----
From: Mostrom, Paul <Mostrom.Paul@principal.com>
To: Spitfire List <spitfires@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2000 9:04 AM
Subject: RE: Tense driving lately
>
> Jeff,
>
> I whole-heartedly agree with your post script.
>
> I served as a Paramedic with the local rescue squad for 17 years. I will
> never forget the man who we found face down in the ditch, next to his car.
He
> had been thrown from his car, which then rolled over him. The air bag was
> deployed and the passenger compartment was intact. I am firmly convinced
that
> he would have survived, with only minor injuries, if he would have
remained in
> the car.
>
> Sometimes I wish I had one of those brain zapping - 'flashy thingys' from
the
> movie 'Men in Black'. Just another one of a thousand memories I would
like to
> forget.
>
> Sorry for being such a downer....
>
> Thanks,
> Paul Mostrom
> '77 Spitfire 1500
> '80 Ford F-100 (Triumph Support Vehicle)
>
>
> 'Black holes, where God divided by zero......'
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeff McNeal [mailto:jmcneal@ohms.com]
> Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2000 10:30 AM
> To: Mostrom, Paul; 'Carter Shore'; Spitfire List
> Subject: Re: Tense driving lately
>
>
> Just be glad that you don't have to deal with Southern California freeway
> driving with your kid, Paul! I'm going to be a nervous WRECK!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jeff in San Diego
> '67 RHD Spitfire Mk3
> www.ohms.com/spitfire/spitfire.shtml
> Jeff's Classic '67 Spitfire Mk3 Site
>
> P.S. The religious use of SEATBELTS can never be emphasized enough. I
> speak from experience. lost my mother five years ago because she wasn't
> wearing hers...
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Mostrom, Paul <Mostrom.Paul@principal.com>
> To: 'Carter Shore' <clshore@yahoo.com>; Jeff McNeal <jmcneal@ohms.com>;
> Spitfire List <spitfires@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2000 5:53 AM
> Subject: RE: Tense driving lately
>
>
> > Thanks you two for making me feel so much better!
> >
> > My son just turned 14, the age that he can get his learner's permit in
> Iowa.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Paul Mostrom
> > '77 Spitfire 1500
> > '80 Ford F-100 (Triumph Support Vehicle)
> >
> >
> > 'Black holes, where God divided by zero......'
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Carter Shore [mailto:clshore@yahoo.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2000 7:37 AM
> > To: Jeff McNeal; Spitfire List
> > Subject: Re: Tense driving lately
> >
> >
> >
> > Jeff,
> > Waaay back when, SCCA used to require both passenger
> > and driver seats in cars used for driver's school.
> > This, so that the instructor could 'take the student
> > for a ride', to familiarize them with how a racecar
> > should be properly driven. My instructor was Hurley
> > Heywood, and I still remember that ride. We were using
> > the infield portion of the Daytona course. Up to that
> > point, I had no idea that a car could be made to go
> > around a corner at such speeds (and slip angles).
> >
> > But it was nothing compared to riding with my teenage
> > son on our first outing.
> >
> > So I feel for you, buddy! (It does get better, if you
> > survive)
> >
> > Carter
> >
> > --- Jeff McNeal <jmcneal@ohms.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > It's been a real strange three days of driving.
> > > ... Then, this
> > > evening, I let my 15-year-old son drive me around in
> > > our 12-year-old Maxima ...
> > >
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> >
>
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