Ark Valley News - Hope and hilarity

Hope and hilarity
By Chuck Terrill
Last Updated: June 25, 2015

Moms were our airbags

When we brought our firstborn son home from the hospital he was cradled in his mother's arms. We didn't know anything about a car seat. Our old car didn't even have seat belts; they hadn't been invented, yet. Nonetheless, we survived the trip.

Five years later, when our next son was born, we had acquired what was called a "Pumpkin Seat." If you've never seen one, it was akin to an aluminum painting tray, the kind you use a roller with. It did have a little seat belt on it. You would set the child on the seat next to you, in the car with no seat belts, in the Pumpkin Seat. Hopefully, in an accident, he wouldn't land on the car floor like buttered toast always lands.

If you grew up in my generation, you remember what your first line of defense was in any automobile emergency. Any time your mom had to slam on the brake, she would throw out her arm. There was no air bag to protect you. No one had even thought of an air bag 40 years ago. Your protection was your mother's strong right arm! Your mother was the safety device in your car. Do you remember that? You could stand on the front seat. If there was an accident or trouble, she'd save you. Do you remember? Skreek! Flaboom! Rubbing your bruised chest you said, "Mom, why did you hit me?"

"I did that to keep you from going through the windshield," she would say.

"Mom, please, could I go through the windshield next time?"

My wife still does it. Throws out her arm. All the grandkids are buckled up in the car seats, in the back seats of the van, where all kids belong. Mary is in the front seat, driving. God help her adult passenger if she has to slam on the brakes. Out comes that powerful right arm. Kaboom! It must be a God-given instinct for women.

But the good thing about riding with a grandma is that she has that hangey-down thing on her arm. She has that floppy, cushion-y thing, there. It was the forerunner to the airbag. And it won't break your nose, either.

"A noble woman who can find? ... she sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks" (Proverbs 31.17).

Chuck Terrill is pastor of Valley Center Christian Church. He can be reached at chuck@valleycenterchristianchurch.org or 755-1233.