2291 Venting

A friend and I were venting about the past recently. We remembered a couple of vents you don't see anymore. Like windwings.

Windwings were little triangular windows in the corner of the front side window of a car. The driver and the shotgun passenger had them. You could unlatch and swivel them in such a way that they'd scoop the air in from the outside and direct it directly where you wanted. Right in your face perhaps, or across to the driver to muss his hair.

"Knock it off, Son," my dad would say, "or I'm stopping the car and whipping your butt."

Adults also used the windwing to let out cigarette smoke on cold winter days so they wouldn't have to open the larger window. An expert 50s driver/smoker could flick his ashes out the windwing as well. 

What happened to the windwing? The two A's. Not Alcoholics Anonymous, air-conditioning and aerodynamics. Windwings created aerodynamic drag and reduced fuel efficiency. Air-conditioning improved aerodynamics and made windwings redundant. 

I'm guessing one or two collisions without benefit of seatbelts led to windwings controversially lodging in various heads too. The nostalgic age of windwings did not overlap the age of seatbelts.

The other vent we discussed was the pop-top. One once opened a can using a church-key -- a small tool with a triangular stabber that poked a hole into the can. Then they invented the removable pull-tab. That led to ordinary people and parrotheads cutting their feet on razor sharp discarded pull-tabs-slash-pop-tops. 

So someone came up with the idea of just having the pokehole that today's non-removable pull-ring now presses into the can. But the original version you poked in with just your finger.

They had to discontinue that. Turned out not many folks liked having their fingers circumcised.   

 

America, ya gotta love it.