The Back Of The Station Wagon: It’s Not The Heat, It’s the Fumidity
Transcript
00:00The back of the station wagon. It's not the heat, it's the humidity. The only thing better than
00:06riding in the family station wagon to grandma's house was riding backward in the communal pit
00:11in the back. The open floor plan allowed select passengers to roam about the cabin freely.
00:17Once the captain had issued the, you kids settle down back there right now speech,
00:22the back became everything from a rumpus room to a picnic area to sleeping quarters.
00:27There was no seat belt in sight either. The view out the tailgate reminded us of where we'd been,
00:33not where we were going. We could watch everything we knew slowly fade into obscurity
00:39or find new and interesting ways to distract the other station wagons behind us on the highway.
00:45When it was time to refuel, eat, or use the facilities, one of the parents would release
00:50the gate and let the cattle out. Life was good in the back of the station, except for one glaring
00:56design flaw, the exhaust pipe. The exhaust pipe on a 1970s land barge couldn't help but funnel
01:03fumes back into the cabin. We weren't just getting sleepy organically, we had a little help from
01:08mother carbon monoxide. The combination of heat and fumes took a lot of the wind out of our sails
01:16long before we ever pulled into grandma's well-ventilated driveway.