Back in my dating days sitting side by side in the car was a dating ritual. It felt great having that warm body pressed against each other.
If the girl was sitting next to the passenger door it was an early sign the relationship was growing stale. Or she was pissed about something. I knew a first date was going badly if she wasn’t sitting close in the car. The chances of a 2nd date were slim.
Seat belt laws may have ruined a great teenage ritual. Do young couples still sit close in the car or truck while driving?
Not sure that it has much to do with seatbelt laws. IMO fewer cars have the bench seats required to sit side by side. Two many bucket seats and arm rests between them.
My first girlfriend sat next to me and if she’d wanted to she could have worn a seatbelt. Every car with a bench seat I ever owned had a center seat belt.
The last time I drove a car with a bench seat in front, my girlfriend sat next to me (in the middle seat). But that was a 1984 car, and a 1989 girlfriend. It’s been a long time since I’ve driven a car like that.
I well remember my then-girlfriend sitting right next to me on the bench seat of my Dad’s 1970-something Dodge while I drove. But then Dad bought a car with bucket seats, and later, I did too; so that never happened again with anybody else.
I had the misfortune of dating back when our family car was the first minivan, the Dodge Caravan. The original family truckster. But then my high school girlfriend discovered that there was enough room for her to kneel next to the driver seat while I drove, so sitting close didn’t seem like such a big deal anymore.
Just another note that I haven’t driven a car with a bench seat in front since my parents’ Cadillac and Buick in the early 1980s. Every car I’ve owned had bucket seats in front.
Cars have individual seats nowadays, not bench seats like in the 50s. It is no longer possible to do so. Maybe in a pickup truck? I dunno, I’ve never done that. It seems like a massive distraction tbh. When you’re driving, eyes should be on the road and not mooning over your lover.
Sorry if my answer is a duplicate, cba to read the thread for such an easy answer.
Ugh, I never liked that in my high school days and looked askance at any boy who wanted me to risk my life like that. No thank you, I’ll take the seat with a proper seat belt!
I had a 90-something Ford Taurus that had individual seats (they slid back and forth independently), but there was only a thin crack between them, so they functioned largely like a bench seat. I used to cuddle with the gf while driving if I remember correctly. I blame not thinking about the seatbelts on the stupid teenager (cough early 20s) mindset.
My father claims this was popular slang among guys during his teen years in the 1940s to describe a date that wasn’t sitting at all close; it stood for ‘God Damn Door Hugger.’
Every car I’ve been in has had a big ass gap in the center of the front seat where cup holders, brake, gear-shift, etc, go. You wouldn’t believe how uncomfortable it looks for the girl to give head with all that crap there.
Sure. But I’m not 12 years old, so I don’t go on dates. If I were on some outing with someone I liked, yeah, she could sit close. In fact, I’d like it.
