The fear of the day.

[Strangler Lewis]

Back in Queens my mother would send me to buy her cigarettes at a convenience store that, if vague memory serves, openly sold child pornography. Stole a lot of baseball cards and candy bars from that place.

My mother's one safety caveat was that I was forbidden to cross Queens Boulevard, which was a fairly large main street. To be safe, I had to go down into the subway and up the other side.

I, too, spent most of my youth without seatbelts. Though I miss the one-arm driving, I think that was kind of stupid considering that as a kid I did hit the windshield once in an accident. Not that changed our habits.