Chapter 12
The Parent Puzzle
There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.
—Hodding Carter, Jr., noted Mississippi editor
A 1964 New York Times article reflects the nostalgia of the time and reminds us how much (and little) has changed for parents of adolescents. The piece, entitled “And Now He (She) Drives,” recounts the fiery social debate surrounding teenage driving during the liberating 1960s. To put the timing of the article in context, the 10 years between 1958 and 1968 were marked by unprecedented economic prosperity in the United States, stimulated in part by a federal tax reduction in 1963.1 Families found themselves the beneficiaries of greater household income and a new level of affluence that accompanied it. Among the more expensive household possessions on the rise? The family automobile.
With automobiles gracing the driveways of an increasing number of households, parents found themselves in an interesting conundrum: how to protect the safety of immature teenage drivers without robbing the adolescents of social freedom in the process. Consider the commentary captured by the 1964 article from concerned parents of the time. “My personal attitude is that I’d be darned before I’d let my teenager drive a car,” expressed a passionate father who also happened to be an official of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.2 “If driving licenses were withheld from anyone who hasn’t graduated from high school, it would be ...
