DEEP IN THE HEART OF JERSEY

RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS

By "Uncle Floyd" Vivino

Nowadays in cars, you can no longer see the faces of children in the back seats. You can only see the tops of their heads as they look down at their handheld devices or cell phones—oblivious to all their physical surroundings, absorbed solely in the images produces on their computer-generated phones or pads.

Gone from our roadways’ landscape are the faces of children pressed tightly against the vehicle’s glass windows, some squished so flatly they resembled a human pancake face. Children today just don’t look out the car window. Often their eyes are fixed on some kind of TV screen above the driver’s dashboard. The fare here is usually of the cartoon variety, or sometimes an athletic event. For sure, they look not at the geography around them.

When I turned seventeen and borrowed my father’s car, I was able to drive anywhere he did, without a road map or aid of a woman’s voice through a computer-based advisor. I knew much of Routes 46, 22, 17, 3, 208, 18, 4, the Garden State Parkway and its exits to Seaside Heights, Point Pleasant and Asbury Park. I also knew how to drive to Yankee Stadium, the local outdoor drive-in movie theaters and all of the homes of my relatives in the Garden State.

Most nostalgically sad, however, is the lack of seeing young children looking out their car windows and making grotesque, strange and comical faces at adjacent motorists. As for me, I would put on puppet shows from my car’s back window for the entertainment of the drivers following us. Some little boys used the same setting to shoot toy guns at motorists. Some would shoot back using their hands as finger guns. It was all in fun, innocent youthful laughing fun.

Yes, time, political correctness and social behavior have all changed, perhaps for the better I am told. Yet, I cannot forget a time when little boys such as myself freely interacted with strangers in adjacent cars, smiling and laughing together, instead of staring into some kind of computer-driven object—one which could not return a smile…

“Uncle Floyd” Vivino performs for all occasions; to learn more, call (973) 633-8856. He is best-known as the host of “The Uncle Floyd Show” on television from 1974 to 2001.