She needs to be taught when to take risks, not how.
It’s best, in this case, to open the “picture” in another tab where it’s easy to see details.. He’s thinking, smiling,.. Then asks her about what, in my case, is the opportunity to have the same experience as I had (and I’m sure, Baldo had) had as a child. She goes into wide-eyed astonishment, but it’s not so much amazement as maybe a momentary concern for her dad and her own grip on reality. (I find the emotional expressions in the Baldo strip to be very clear. That’s why I like it so much.)
My answer to Bill’s question is: A very good thing. (on open country roads that go straight and don’t have ditches on either side. I think that was my experience in the outskirts of Whitehall, NY).
Kevin A.
Wow. I think you’ve had an experience that you and the cartoonist either assume is more universal than it is or I assume is less than it is. I have no idea what you are talking about nor have I ever had the experience. Your parent drove with you in the lap? And it was the parents idea? And *they* liked it? And they let you stir?
I have to say even with your explanation I don’t understand this one.
In my experience a common practice that is potentially very dangerous. Any event causing the airbag to deploy – spontaneous deployment is not unknown – would likely injure and possibly kill the child.
Yeah, I had the same simple explanation as billybob, but Kevin’s response is confusing me.
I think billybob has it. The father acknowledges teaching the girl that it is OK to take risks (this is the last of a series of strips on the topic) but the father also wants to be sure he hasn’t taught he to do stupid stuff.
Most amusement parks* offer a ride experience that consists of “driving” a car along a guided path. The most familiar example, though I don’t know if they still have it operating the way I remember it from my youth, is Disneyland Autopia. You put your foot on the gas to go forward, or take your foot off the gas to stop, and the steering wheel isn’t connected to anything because the car follows the rail through the ride.
*Not based on scientific sampling, but there’s been a ride like this in every one of the very small sampling I’ve experienced personally, which is Disneyland in California, Busch Gardens in Virginia, and Dollywood in Tennessee.
Okay, I can imagine that a few were totally confused because I said “Baldo” instead of “Papi”, (I often make that mistake because Papi is so central to the family). Again, that may only be a few of you.
However, I can also see Papi dreamily remembering how great an experience it may have been to have Baldo in his lap driving. (I have no feeling that ever happened.)
Instead, I was thinking that Papi was dreaming about his own experience as the youngster at the wheel.
What I find unmistakable (looking at the full resolution picture) is that Papi is in a wonderful dreamy state of remembrance in the middle 2 panels.
Looking closely at his expression and Gracie’s in the 4th panel, I’m fairly sure (I’m lying there; I’m very sure) that Papi is happily expressing his idea of an exciting/risky-feeling experience.
(It’s a risk in the way we might call walking up to a girl to ask her to dance a risk, especially since a young fellow might become so nervous that he faints before he gets there. But a person has to do something like that at some time, or there won’t be any new people!)
(always love getting feedback on my communication skills, even while I’m also cringing.)
“Okay, I can imagine that a few were totally confused because I said “Baldo” instead of “Papi”, ”
Umm, that was the least of my confusion.
“Instead, I was thinking that Papi was dreaming about his own experience as the youngster at the wheel.”
See? *That’s* my confusion! You seem to be under the impression that kids being given on opportunity to drive while sitting in a parents lap is a common experience. And one to be remembered fondly. I’m pretty sure this is *not* a common experience. I never did it and I’ve never heard of anyone else doing it. And… It’s frigging dangerous!
It may be common, or it may be that those who did it believe it to be common. You are probably correct that this is what the *cartoonist* meant. But my point is, it isn’t common. (And it’s dangerous!)
Oh, wow, I did not parse this cartoon correctly at all, even with the first explanation. I thought this referred to him putting her in his lap while he drove the car, like Britney Spears did with her baby. i.e. really just for convenience. Yeah, now that Kevin has explained, I assume that he’s right, and it’s so that she can steer, but I’ve never heard of this practice before.
re “You seem to be under the impression that kids being given on opportunity to drive while sitting in a parents lap is a common experience. And one to be remembered fondly. I’m pretty sure this is *not* a common experience. I never did it and I’ve never heard of anyone else doing it.”
I have a very very vague memory that my father may have done this with me. For what it’s worth, I grew up on a farm, flat area, straight gravel roads, one could see traffic coming from a long distance away, so (if it did happen) it wasn’t a case of “well, let’s try this on a freeway through downtown during rush hour” thing. But it may be a false memory (and as I said it’s at best a vague one). And the 1950s were a very different time. . .
” You seem to be under the impression that kids being given on opportunity to drive while sitting in a parents lap is a common experience.”
Not “is”. “once was”.
Woozy, I agree that it’s dangerous.. if the parent is driving. :-) (no, really, I mean in traffic.)
My picture is the parent driving their adored young’n for however many hours it takes to get to an open, flat, spacious.. space. Just like when the child is a teen and they drive them to the high school parking lot.
I agree it’s not a common experience; just a good one.
Okay, my mom wasn’t very affectionate (she read a ’50s/’60schild-rearing book that said not to be). Any teaching experience, especially with body contact, is so comparatively good, that I may have generalized it a bit. Still, once I’d experienced holding the wheel, I’m sure I saw it more places than others might. They used to say that once you noticed a yellow car the first time, you started seeing them all over. (now I think that applies to any car that isn’t black, white, or silver, (or Toyota tan)).
I digress..
Papi and Gracie did not pick the “Hammering a nail” experience from the list suggested by the computer. (just thinking about that idea makes me near-weepy, I like her so much.) Instead they gathered wood and she lit the fire.
(By the way, I thought they were sitting in a dark ally at first; not the sprawling yard with star-lit sky outside their house. .just in case anyone else had the same experience.)
I think this strip may fit into the Geezer category. Maybe “geezers who lived in a town in the country”; which were much more rural than they are now.
I lived only 40 miles from the George Washington bridge crossing into New York city. My experience of taking the wheel was way up near Canada in Whitehall, NY, a little East of Lake George.
You know what’s another Geezer driving thing? extending my right arm across my passenger’s chest when I have to slam on the brakes. We didn’t have shoulder straps. (It was one of those I’ve become my mother moments.)
There were no people, and no cars (good, that part, ’cause no people., just fields and flatness (and the high school way off on the fork to the left that we’d passed (to show you how memorable a moment in the 60s can be).
It’s true that I was sitting *next* to my Mom on the bench seat in our 1965 Chevy wagon. (I was in 4th grade.) Lap seating was not necessary for having a good grip on the wheel (also considerably larger in diameter).
Papi could be into 50s now (with non-aging kids). I’m only considering his thoughts.
I am internally terrified of air bags. Also I’m not much of a fan of bucket seats. For a while, the U.S. had head rests that would protect you in case of a rear collision. Now, most are permanently tilted forward and will snap your neck in a serious rear-ender. (What group would lobby for such a thing?)
My mom made the driver install seat belts in the country taxi that I and 3 other kids took to grade school
I’m constantly informing people about just how hard they’ll hit the window if they hit a tree at 15 mph. And more recently, also about the deaths caused by occupants who were not belted and killed their co-passenger(s) and or themselves with their head.
I wanted to say “horrified” when describing Gracie’s expression. You might be able to feel how I awkwardly tried to get around it. Gracie’s pretty hip for her apparent age.
Dad never took me driving on his lap – nor did either of my grandfathers. I am pretty sure that Robert’s dad never did either. One of his grandfathers might have – but then again, whenever he rode with him, grandma seemed to be there from what I have heard and she would not have allowed it.
James Pollock, when I was young we were somewhere with the go karts, as you mentioned at amusement parks, and dad did let me “drive” while he dealt with the foot pedal as my legs were too short. I had to be at least 8 or so as mom took my sister on another go kart as I recall and I am guessing she had to be at least 3 for them to feel comfortable taking her. I would say that this was Freedomland – it could not be NYC World’s Fair as I had another sister by then, but it seems to me that I (and sister) would be older – or maybe we were and I was 12 and she was 7?
I next encountered the go karts when Robert and I went to Busch Gardens Florida. Strangely even though I had been driving a car for years the first time we went there, it was just as much fun and we made sure to ride the go karts every year when we went – then they discontinued them – and most of the other “wimpy” rides we went on.
Bruce knew how to sell a memory:
“I’d sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through town
He’d tousle my hair and say son take a good look around
This is your hometown.”
I was at Dollywood earlier this year.
In the park itself is an Autopia-style ride, where the steering control by the passenger is effectively nil. In other words, there is no driver of the ride vehicles, only passengers.
OUTSIDE the park are at least half-a-dozen different establishments that offer go-karts, where the passenger is in fact a driver. I was amazed that so many competing establishments all find sufficient business to remain in business, but they all seemed to be thriving the night I walked down the strip.
Thanks for that, Daniel. I’ve been wracking my brains trying to remember some movie where that act is featured, because I know it was a common — certainly not unknown! — thing back in the day. So unnotable that it’s hard to find anyone noting it!
larK, it’s also suggested in a bit of the opening sequence of “The Simpsons”, although it’s presented differently. The sequence starts with Marge’s car driving, then cuts to Maggie steering, then wider to see that Marge is actually driving and Maggie is in a car seat that has pretend steering wheel in place.
Marge, being the responsible one, only lets Maggie pretend to drive. I guess.
When my daughter was in an infant seat, I drove a truck, so she was beside me, not behind me. She was amused by turns that would cause the car seat to lean over from centripetal force.
Comics I Don't Understand 
She needs to be taught when to take risks, not how.
It’s best, in this case, to open the “picture” in another tab where it’s easy to see details.. He’s thinking, smiling,.. Then asks her about what, in my case, is the opportunity to have the same experience as I had (and I’m sure, Baldo had) had as a child. She goes into wide-eyed astonishment, but it’s not so much amazement as maybe a momentary concern for her dad and her own grip on reality. (I find the emotional expressions in the Baldo strip to be very clear. That’s why I like it so much.)
My answer to Bill’s question is: A very good thing. (on open country roads that go straight and don’t have ditches on either side. I think that was my experience in the outskirts of Whitehall, NY).
Kevin A.
Wow. I think you’ve had an experience that you and the cartoonist either assume is more universal than it is or I assume is less than it is. I have no idea what you are talking about nor have I ever had the experience. Your parent drove with you in the lap? And it was the parents idea? And *they* liked it? And they let you stir?
I have to say even with your explanation I don’t understand this one.
In my experience a common practice that is potentially very dangerous. Any event causing the airbag to deploy – spontaneous deployment is not unknown – would likely injure and possibly kill the child.
Yeah, I had the same simple explanation as billybob, but Kevin’s response is confusing me.
I think billybob has it. The father acknowledges teaching the girl that it is OK to take risks (this is the last of a series of strips on the topic) but the father also wants to be sure he hasn’t taught he to do stupid stuff.
Most amusement parks* offer a ride experience that consists of “driving” a car along a guided path. The most familiar example, though I don’t know if they still have it operating the way I remember it from my youth, is Disneyland Autopia. You put your foot on the gas to go forward, or take your foot off the gas to stop, and the steering wheel isn’t connected to anything because the car follows the rail through the ride.
*Not based on scientific sampling, but there’s been a ride like this in every one of the very small sampling I’ve experienced personally, which is Disneyland in California, Busch Gardens in Virginia, and Dollywood in Tennessee.
Okay, I can imagine that a few were totally confused because I said “Baldo” instead of “Papi”, (I often make that mistake because Papi is so central to the family). Again, that may only be a few of you.
However, I can also see Papi dreamily remembering how great an experience it may have been to have Baldo in his lap driving. (I have no feeling that ever happened.)
Instead, I was thinking that Papi was dreaming about his own experience as the youngster at the wheel.
What I find unmistakable (looking at the full resolution picture) is that Papi is in a wonderful dreamy state of remembrance in the middle 2 panels.
Looking closely at his expression and Gracie’s in the 4th panel, I’m fairly sure (I’m lying there; I’m very sure) that Papi is happily expressing his idea of an exciting/risky-feeling experience.
(It’s a risk in the way we might call walking up to a girl to ask her to dance a risk, especially since a young fellow might become so nervous that he faints before he gets there. But a person has to do something like that at some time, or there won’t be any new people!)
(always love getting feedback on my communication skills, even while I’m also cringing.)
“Okay, I can imagine that a few were totally confused because I said “Baldo” instead of “Papi”, ”
Umm, that was the least of my confusion.
“Instead, I was thinking that Papi was dreaming about his own experience as the youngster at the wheel.”
See? *That’s* my confusion! You seem to be under the impression that kids being given on opportunity to drive while sitting in a parents lap is a common experience. And one to be remembered fondly. I’m pretty sure this is *not* a common experience. I never did it and I’ve never heard of anyone else doing it. And… It’s frigging dangerous!
It may be common, or it may be that those who did it believe it to be common. You are probably correct that this is what the *cartoonist* meant. But my point is, it isn’t common. (And it’s dangerous!)
Oh, wow, I did not parse this cartoon correctly at all, even with the first explanation. I thought this referred to him putting her in his lap while he drove the car, like Britney Spears did with her baby. i.e. really just for convenience. Yeah, now that Kevin has explained, I assume that he’s right, and it’s so that she can steer, but I’ve never heard of this practice before.
re “You seem to be under the impression that kids being given on opportunity to drive while sitting in a parents lap is a common experience. And one to be remembered fondly. I’m pretty sure this is *not* a common experience. I never did it and I’ve never heard of anyone else doing it.”
I have a very very vague memory that my father may have done this with me. For what it’s worth, I grew up on a farm, flat area, straight gravel roads, one could see traffic coming from a long distance away, so (if it did happen) it wasn’t a case of “well, let’s try this on a freeway through downtown during rush hour” thing. But it may be a false memory (and as I said it’s at best a vague one). And the 1950s were a very different time. . .
” You seem to be under the impression that kids being given on opportunity to drive while sitting in a parents lap is a common experience.”
Not “is”. “once was”.
Woozy, I agree that it’s dangerous.. if the parent is driving. :-) (no, really, I mean in traffic.)
My picture is the parent driving their adored young’n for however many hours it takes to get to an open, flat, spacious.. space. Just like when the child is a teen and they drive them to the high school parking lot.
I agree it’s not a common experience; just a good one.
Okay, my mom wasn’t very affectionate (she read a ’50s/’60schild-rearing book that said not to be). Any teaching experience, especially with body contact, is so comparatively good, that I may have generalized it a bit. Still, once I’d experienced holding the wheel, I’m sure I saw it more places than others might. They used to say that once you noticed a yellow car the first time, you started seeing them all over. (now I think that applies to any car that isn’t black, white, or silver, (or Toyota tan)).
I digress..
Papi and Gracie did not pick the “Hammering a nail” experience from the list suggested by the computer. (just thinking about that idea makes me near-weepy, I like her so much.) Instead they gathered wood and she lit the fire.
(By the way, I thought they were sitting in a dark ally at first; not the sprawling yard with star-lit sky outside their house. .just in case anyone else had the same experience.)
I think this strip may fit into the Geezer category. Maybe “geezers who lived in a town in the country”; which were much more rural than they are now.
I lived only 40 miles from the George Washington bridge crossing into New York city. My experience of taking the wheel was way up near Canada in Whitehall, NY, a little East of Lake George.
You know what’s another Geezer driving thing? extending my right arm across my passenger’s chest when I have to slam on the brakes. We didn’t have shoulder straps. (It was one of those I’ve become my mother moments.)
There were no people, and no cars (good, that part, ’cause no people., just fields and flatness (and the high school way off on the fork to the left that we’d passed (to show you how memorable a moment in the 60s can be).
It’s true that I was sitting *next* to my Mom on the bench seat in our 1965 Chevy wagon. (I was in 4th grade.) Lap seating was not necessary for having a good grip on the wheel (also considerably larger in diameter).
Papi could be into 50s now (with non-aging kids). I’m only considering his thoughts.
I am internally terrified of air bags. Also I’m not much of a fan of bucket seats. For a while, the U.S. had head rests that would protect you in case of a rear collision. Now, most are permanently tilted forward and will snap your neck in a serious rear-ender. (What group would lobby for such a thing?)
My mom made the driver install seat belts in the country taxi that I and 3 other kids took to grade school
I’m constantly informing people about just how hard they’ll hit the window if they hit a tree at 15 mph. And more recently, also about the deaths caused by occupants who were not belted and killed their co-passenger(s) and or themselves with their head.
I wanted to say “horrified” when describing Gracie’s expression. You might be able to feel how I awkwardly tried to get around it. Gracie’s pretty hip for her apparent age.
Dad never took me driving on his lap – nor did either of my grandfathers. I am pretty sure that Robert’s dad never did either. One of his grandfathers might have – but then again, whenever he rode with him, grandma seemed to be there from what I have heard and she would not have allowed it.
James Pollock, when I was young we were somewhere with the go karts, as you mentioned at amusement parks, and dad did let me “drive” while he dealt with the foot pedal as my legs were too short. I had to be at least 8 or so as mom took my sister on another go kart as I recall and I am guessing she had to be at least 3 for them to feel comfortable taking her. I would say that this was Freedomland – it could not be NYC World’s Fair as I had another sister by then, but it seems to me that I (and sister) would be older – or maybe we were and I was 12 and she was 7?
I next encountered the go karts when Robert and I went to Busch Gardens Florida. Strangely even though I had been driving a car for years the first time we went there, it was just as much fun and we made sure to ride the go karts every year when we went – then they discontinued them – and most of the other “wimpy” rides we went on.
Bruce knew how to sell a memory:
“I’d sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through town
He’d tousle my hair and say son take a good look around
This is your hometown.”
I was at Dollywood earlier this year.
In the park itself is an Autopia-style ride, where the steering control by the passenger is effectively nil. In other words, there is no driver of the ride vehicles, only passengers.
OUTSIDE the park are at least half-a-dozen different establishments that offer go-karts, where the passenger is in fact a driver. I was amazed that so many competing establishments all find sufficient business to remain in business, but they all seemed to be thriving the night I walked down the strip.
Thanks for that, Daniel. I’ve been wracking my brains trying to remember some movie where that act is featured, because I know it was a common — certainly not unknown! — thing back in the day. So unnotable that it’s hard to find anyone noting it!
larK, it’s also suggested in a bit of the opening sequence of “The Simpsons”, although it’s presented differently. The sequence starts with Marge’s car driving, then cuts to Maggie steering, then wider to see that Marge is actually driving and Maggie is in a car seat that has pretend steering wheel in place.
Marge, being the responsible one, only lets Maggie pretend to drive. I guess.
When my daughter was in an infant seat, I drove a truck, so she was beside me, not behind me. She was amused by turns that would cause the car seat to lean over from centripetal force.