Bangor, Maine, has made it illegal to smoke inside a car if there are children present. That’s going to stifle some travel, I suspect. My parents were both two-pack-a-day smokers. I’m not sure there were many times in the life of me or my twin sister when a cigarette was not lit in our presence in the home or the car, say from 1947 to about 1965. Somehow we both survived. And we’re both non-smokers, maybe because of that experience. So, you see, something good can come from second-hand smoke.
And then there was what I call “the Mommy seat belt.” This was employed when my sister and I were standing up on the front seat of the car leaning against the seat back while the car was in motion. And when my mother would have to put on brakes she would reach out with her right arm and hold us against the seat back. The Mommy seat belt. And we survived without government interference. Imagine that.
