I had decided to take a temporary break from college in my early 20s (in the mid-1990s), and ended up moving back in with my parents for a year. What had begun after the end of spring semester 1995 as my usual summer routine of moving back home and working at the local country club turned into my decision to take the next year off from school to reassess my planned life course. My younger brother was still in high school at that time, so it felt a little like old times.
My parents seemed okay with this, but they didn’t make things particularly easy for me. They still fed me and all of those great things that are important for sustenance, but once I had announced that I wouldn’t be returning to the university that fall, I was moved from my bedroom (which doubled as Dad’s office) to the screened-in porch (the “lanai”) directly adjacent to my parents’ bedroom. I was also asked to pay rent. They were going to accept no shenanigans from me, even if I had proven myself to be a mostly shenanigan-free young adult up to that point.
Regardless of all of that, my mom and I would sometimes run joint-errands together if we needed to go to the same store (i.e. Walmart, Target, etc.). Mom, at one point, had all of a sudden decided that when I was driving (their silver 1992 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera), she would sit in the back seat. I was then (as now) a very attentive, capable, good driver. Also, my mom had grown up on a farm in northwestern Ohio, so there is absolutely no fanciness ingrained in her, whatsoever. When I perplexedly asked her why she had started sitting back there, I seem to recall her saying something to the effect that she just “liked it back there…” Nope.
The characters of Hoke Colburn and “Miss” Daisy Werthan from the motion picture “Driving Miss Daisy”. Warner Bros., 1989.
I put the kibosh on this budding behavior very quickly by reminding her that she was not “Miss Daisy”, and that I was her son. She complied by returning to the front passenger’s seat from that point on. I honestly don’t know why she was doing that – whether she had wanted to feel chauffeured, or if the Florida sun had simply been too bright for her, as she has very fair, light-sensitive skin. Some might have called “b.s.” on the latter, but for the sake of diplomacy, let’s give my mom the benefit of the doubt. (Witness just another baffling moment for me of Growing Up Dennis, but I have learned to embrace my own idiosyncrasies and laugh at them.)
I will say that this experience, and others, have been why, to this day, I still feel awkward when riding in the back seat of a ride-share vehicle (i.e. Uber, Lyft, etc.). I think I’m a reasonably classy, intelligent guy, but I’m also neither fancy nor extravagant. I’m originally from Flint-freaking-Michigan. There is little, if any, pretense in me. With that said, I often feel like such a jerk when sitting in the back seat of some nice vehicle, while making chit-chat with some driver like it’s beneath me to sit next to them. “Pardon me, Driver… Would you happen to have any Grey Poupon?”
I suppose the general, unspoken “back seat” rule is as much for a driver’s protection as for a passenger’s, but my question is this: Is a driver any safer from a potential attacker if said assailant is behind them versus next to them? I honestly can’t think of any tactical advantage to having your passenger behind you, unless your (personal) vehicle has one of those old, taxi-style Plexiglas shields dividing the passenger compartment, which would almost never be the case. I’ll qualify all of this by stating that I’m fully aware that the ride-share experience and protocol are intended to mirror that of a taxicab, in which the back seat is just where passengers go. This doesn’t stop my curious nature from asking these questions.
Most of us know that this final generation of Eldorado (which ran from 1992 through 2002) was not offered from the factory in convertible form. I think it should have been, as I think the Eldo looks great like this. And while I generally do like the coupe’s sloping roofline and triangular C-pillars, I realize that they’re not to everybody’s liking. Being shorn of its roof rids the twelfth-gen Eldorado of any difference of opinion on the matter. I’m guessing as to the model year, as this particular example sports the mild facelift that appeared for 1995.
As I snapped a couple of frames of our featured car while walking from the office to my evening rush hour CTA Red Line train, I wondered what was going on in this scene I was witnessing. The gentleman in the back seat looked a little young to be a superfan of any Eldorado, though I realize that some youths (or those with youthful spirits) like or love these cars, which I very much respect. I thought it possible that maybe the passenger owned a fleet of cars (Joe, ya shoulda stayed the course in college besides merely graduating) of which this fine Cadillac was just one.
The driver certainly picked a beautiful theater venue to parade past, the CIBC (née The Majestic) Theater, where the musical stage production “Hamilton” is still playing. I think that “class” is a state of mind. I wear nice, vintage clothes all the time. This gentleman was rocking his vintage, coach custom Eldorado convertible with style, even “accessorized” with a chauffeur. This setup may be too rich for my blood, but there’s no denying that the car, driver, and passenger all made a high-class statement on this particular afternoon.
Downtown, The Loop, Chicago, Illinois.
Thursday, August 8, 2019.
I’ve never thought about it before, but I too have a similar aversion to being chauffeured around; it just makes me uncomfortable, but for no easily identifiable reason. I’m OK if I never have to deal with that again.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an Eldorado convertible from this generation before. It’s beyond the era when coachbuilt convertibles actually had a reason to exist…by the mid-1990s, there were lots of factory convertible models available, which (usually) came without the leaking, flexing, and quality hassles of aftermarket conversions. But I suppose if one absolutely had to have an Eldorado, then there was this car. It’s a good- looking convertible, too.
Those customized convertibles have long fascinated me, ever since I first saw a brand new one at a Lincoln-Mercury dealer in the late 70s, Their execution is often a trifle off (at least). This one is not bad, but the shape works better for me with the roof on.
Having owned a convertible, my guess is that the driver’s young friend was looking for the excuse to hop in and out of the car without opening a door. This used to irritate me when people did this in my car, but trust me, it’s a thing among younger folks. And it’s much easier to do into/out of the back than the front. Or perhaps the guy is practicing in case he is ever tapped to be a grand marshall in a parade?
My back seat aversion comes from a different place – in my 3 person family, the back was the loser seat. As the eldest child, I considered the front passenger seat as a birthright. My younger sister would probably have disagreed. But here we are.
Ha!! JP, I will see your back seat story and raise you one… the *middle* of the back seat was the loser seat. You had to deal with that transmission hump, and also without your “own” window. LOL
Yes this, I was the youngest of three kids. Guess where I usually got to sit? I believe this has everything to do with why I thought FWD cars were awesome the first 40 years of my life….
In Australia, it is customary for a taxi passenger, if riding alone, to sit up in the front passenger seat next to the driver.
Good for you on insisting your mother sit up front with you, Joseph.
Silverkris, this makes complete sense. I think I might do an experiment the next time I take a ride share somewhere and get in the front seat like it’s not even a thing, and see what happens.
So culturally ingrained is this in Aus that even the Prime Minister sits up front of his limo (an amoured BMW 7 series these days). And that, though it sounds like a typical Aussie tall tale, is actually true!
I suppose the back seat for paying passengers is the byproduct of actually having a chauffeur. With a taxi, one was simply renting the car and driver, as opposed to owning the car and hiring the driver. The back seat, along with the partition usually associated with a chauffeured car, allowed one to stay separate from staff. Hell, many town cars had open roofs for the driver and front seat, as staff apparently did not deserve to be protected from inclement weather. Sitting in the back showed that you could afford not to have to drive yourself.
I don’t know that your mother felt entitled when sitting in the rear seat, but it probably felt “correct” in the back of her mind when she was being chauffeured by you. We all have presuppositions on how to behave that come from background influences, so chalk it up to unconscious thinking on her part.
JFrank, thank you for your perspective. I’m sure my mom didn’t really mean any harm. I just thought it was (extremely) weird at the time. 🙂
My experience being driven while sitting in back goes back to my childhood. Usually both my folks were up front, but when my Mom wasn’t there I would sit in front. As an adult I’ve never had the opportunity to ride in back for any distance. Now that I’m older, I can imagine that I might like riding in the back seat, of the right car. A nice big sedan or SUV. Being stuck in the back seat of a small coupe or convertible, not so much. I guess that was why big luxury convertibles were once so coveted. The back seat of a Cadillac or Chrysler would have plenty of room and be easier to exit. Lincoln had the right idea with their four door convertible, which was once a pretty common design.
You can usually tell where the Uber/Lyft driver wants you to sit by looking at whether the front seat is pushed all the way back or forward. In Oklahoma, the passenger usually sits up front (though women drivers often set up the seat to encourage the passenger to go to the back). But in the big coastal cities (Boston, NYC, DC, SF), the passenger almost always sits in the back.
David42, I am going to pay attention to the positioning of the front passenger seat the next time I take a ride share! Thanks for pointing this out.
Whenever, I take an Uber I always take the front seat.
I’m like you, but last Sunday I tried sitting in the front when I rode from O’Hare to my hotel (across the river from the Loop), and let’s just say that my Uber driver’s hygiene habits were not quite first-rate.
After that experience, I resigned myself to sitting in the “Miss Daisy” seat for the remainder of my Uber rides on that trip.
It’s common in Denver to ask your Uber/Lyft driver if it’s OK to sit in the front seat. Most will let you. The ones that won’t probably want you in their camera in case you turn into a lunatic.
The camera! Of course. This makes so much sense.
In the late 1970s, the hinge pin for the front passenger door in our Alfa Romeo 1750A Berlina broke. Living in Dallas, Texas meant a long wait for the rare part to be shipped directly from Italy.
I had to sit in the rear for a several weeks while my mum drove. It felt so weird because our car wasn’t a limousine or fancy British or German saloon. My classmates teased me because I was too “snobby” to sit in the front.
Once the pin arrived, I started riding shotgun, but it felt so weird to be back in the front seat and to wear seat belt (our Alfa Romeo didn’t have rear seat belts) again.
I usually ride in the back seat of an Uber, just because at the airport I usually walk across the lanes to wait further away from the crowded arrivals, and I’m getting in on the driver’s side.
I also feel like getting in the front seat is a little in the driver’s personal space too, not because I like pretending to be fancy in the back.
I’m usually emailing the whole ride, so I’m not great conversation. I tell them they can listen to whatever they want on the radio at whatever volume they want, just pretend I’m not there. It’s how I’d want passengers to be if I was a driver, low impact.
Ltd, as a naturally introverted person, I would most often (as a passenger or driver) want to be left alone to do whatever or simply think my thoughts. I do see how sitting in the back as a passenger would give both me and the driver “space”.
This brings up another topic – the endless banter that can sometimes come with a ride-share or cab. I’m all about making some conversation – absolutely, 100%. But once the usual topics have been exhausted, and depending on the length of the ride, it’s not necessary for me to be engaged in conversation the rest of the way.
I can imagine there are some Uber/Lyft drivers who feel the same way about a passenger who simply won’t stop talking to them.
Thank you for this.
Very interesting post, Joseph.
I might share the perspective, which I suppose is not a common one on this website, of someone who actually had a chauffeur.
When we lived in Myanmar from 2013 to 2017, Mrs T87’s work allowed us to import a car and have diplomatic license plates, but strictly forbade either of us from driving the bloody thing. The reason was that insurance doesn’t exist in Myanmar, so if you’re in an accident, you’re in a heap of trouble.
So we imported a Crown Comfort I found online (featured in this post: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/uncategorized/curbside-classic-2002-toyota-crown-comfort-super-deluxe-g-time-for-a-change/) and hired a Burmese guy to drive it. And I have to say, like you, that sitting in the back seat made me feel quite uncomfortable, assuming I was alone in the car.
Mrs T87, for her part, *always* sat in the back. That’s not because she is particularly snobbish or class-conscious, but from a female perspective, especially in Asian countries, if you’re in the front passenger seat, the male driver is not your chauffeur – he’s your partner.
I’m not saying your Mom felt the need to sit in the back to avoid any onlooker to wonder whether you two were an item – mentalities are different in the US, of course. But it might have felt more comfortable for her to nip any such notion in the bud, just in case. And once you told her how bad that made you feel, she probably did what most mothers do and put your needs ahead of hers.
I might be way off base in this particular example (your Mom may have had completely different reasons), but in general and for taxis espexially, gender matters a lot. If you were a woman, you wouldn’t think of sitting in the front of an Uber, unless the driver was also female.
Coming from a US legal background, it is fascinating that in Myanmar you could avoid liability for accidents by hiring a driver to drive you 1) where and when you want to go and 2) in your own car.
Tatra87, thank you so much for this added perspective. As an “insurance guy” by day, I find it fascinating (as JP Cavanaugh referenced above) that the burden of responsibility would follow the driver and not necessarily the owner of the car.
As for my mom (LOL), I think she was just being goofy. She was only in her early 50s by that point, and I was clearly barely out of my teenage years, so there was no fear of misperceptions of she and I being an “item”.
What you say about gender and taxis, though, does make complete sense. Being a guy, my gender having something to do with where I would (or would not) sit is something I wouldn’t even have thought about, but is completely legitimate.
It’s Fred Armisen being chauffeured. Not surprised.
Taking Fred out of the picture, that’s actually a fine looking motor vehicle.