of horizontal tunnels through the buildings.

• +..pseudo60s


• +..not a wicked game...


• +..

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A 1955 article described a customer’s letter to GM about how he had suddenly stopped his car to avoid a kitten, and his young son flew into the dashboard and broke a tooth. The customer suggested that if the company would just pad the dashboard—something doctors had been urging for years—it would help “save faces and maybe lives.” Gandelot wrote back with an alternative suggestion for keeping the little ones safe. He noted that as soon as they get large enough to see out when standing up, that is what they want to do, and he did not blame them. With his own youngsters, he said, “I made it a practice to train them so that at the command ‘Hands!’ they would immediately place their hands on the instrument panel if standing in the front compartment, or on the back of the front seat if in the rear, to protect themselves against sudden stops.” He explained that he frequently gave these commands even when there was no occasion to do so “just so we all keep in practice.” (Gandelot also wrote later that padded dashboards would “make it impossible for front-seat passengers to cross their legs.”) Gandelot did not overtly claim that seat belts were useless or dangerous. He told journalist Harold Mehling in a 1955 interview that “General Motors hasn’t said they’re no good. We’re just waiting to find out if they are any good. Nobody knows.”
Freese, Barbara.