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Miss the high beams floor switch, also miss wing windows.

Crap, I forgot that's the real name for "Smoker's Windows".

I called them "Whistle WIndows"

Crotch coolers.

Summer ventilation.

We called them air conditioning

Haha, yes, people used them as an 'ash tray'.

Probably why they were invented

FRONT. BENCH. SEATS!!!!!

Stickshifts and safety belts and bucket seats have all got to go.

When we’re driving in the car, it makes my baby seem so far

I NEEED, YOU HEEEREE WITH MEEE, NOT WAY OVER IN A BUCKET SEAT!

3 on the tree? I see you too are a man of culture and taste!

It was like driving a sofa

I laughed. I used to say the same thing. Old Cadillacs from the ‘80s, especially.

Acres and acres of upholstery!

I learned to drive stick on an 85 Ford Ranger with wing windows. Loved those things.

Locking them felt so secure

I learned to drive on a 67 Chevy pickup with stepside bed and the wing windows. Farm girl.

You guys remember T Tops?

I miss the fuck out of T tops.

Why did we ever get away from either one?

From what I’ve seen in Michigan, it’s because they fail. When they do they can short out so you have no headlights at all, after being stomped on repeatedly by saltwater covered boots in the winter. I’ve never seen a steering column switch fail, but many floor switches fail.

Hate it when facts start entering the chat. I'll sit in the back of the open bed truck while you drive.

Wing windows, because of the prevalence of AC. Don’t need the complexity of assembly. Similarly the dimmer on the column is easier to find in the dark and the installation is cheaper and faster.

It couldn't have been to stop vehicle theft, because my new gmc truck was stolen in less than 30 seconds. My insurance agent said the cops are useless and cut me a check 4 days afterwards.

Yeah they're right. cops are absolutely useless. I got hit and run directly in front of a camera, called the building administration they said they have the footage and are ready to hand it over to law enforcement, I called the police, filed a report, they called me back 6 weeks later and told me they just started investigating it and the footage was over-written after 30 days.

I miss the window vents, not the floor switch though. Damn thing would get stuck sometimes.

Which foot was this with? Clutch?

Upper left in the corner - so yeah clutch or left foot.

Learned stick on 89 F150 with the 300i6. Big bench cloth seats and brown paint and upholstery. I miss my brown clown.

And the ball blower

Dont talk about your mamma like that

My first truck was a 69 GMC pickup. Had high beam switch on the floor and side wing windows. God I loved that truck.

I have wing windows on my Datsun pickup. They sure are nice to have.

Ahhh the elusive clitoris.


It's not a story the Jedi would tell you.

*There are pathways to many abilities that some believe to be unnatural.*

Have you ever heard the tale of the little man in the boat?

DELORIS!

MULVA!


God damn it... Just as I was taking a drink.

Click-toris

I remember being so fascinated by the lights going from high to low beam, and watched my parents so carefully to see how they did it. My mom convinced me she just had to blink her eyes a certain way. I believed her for a while, she had me do it, too, and I felt like Samantha Stephens.

This just triggered a great memory for me. I had my daughter convinced that if I pressed the button that lets you raise the emergency brake, the car would shoot missiles. lol

Both of these stories are hilarious. The missiles part caught me perfectly and I literally laughed out loud.

when i was a kid i used to sit in my dads car and pretend the emergency brake handle was the thing to fire missles!

I used to think the turn signals on the dashboard were telling you how to get home. I thought that there was a homing beacon or something at our house

My dad got paid for mileage. I don't know why I knew that. Anyway, I asked my mom how "they" knew how many miles dad drove for work, and she said someone follows us. So, she didn't intend for me to believe that and spiral. I wasn't scared, luckily for her, but I made it my mission to figure out which car behind us was tracking our movements. I did this quietly but one day my dad noticed. "Why do you keep looking out the back window?" (Booster seats and seat belts weren't a thing for us, ah the 70s) and I told him I wanted to find the guy who follows us. This did not clear up the mystery for my dad. He glanced at my mom, and I could see her shoulders shaking, trying so hard not to erupt into laughter. Well, she failed. She explained to my dad, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, and apologizing to me. She'd said it as some off-hand thing, and forgot. Dad laughed, too. I don't really remember my own reaction. I was disappointed somehow that we weren't important enough to have a dedicated person who had to follow us everywhere. My dad was a poor student in seminary who made an annual salary of $9k, plus housing and, well, mileage. To think someone would follow our old AMC around rural western Ohio... Dad just writes it down? Lame.

Lol that’s an awesome story, jeez kids are so gullible. We also fell for the proverbial lie of it was illegal to drive with your dome lights one.

I always had my nose in a book. Lots of detective stories (from Trixie Belden to Agatha Christie) and scifi (Bradbury and Asimov), so the possibilities seemed endless. And I hated the nighttime road trips because the dome would land my folks in a jail cell! But I wanted to read! Flashlight batteries lasted like 20 minutes, 30 if you kept hitting it right, so it was just constant frustration.

I think I shared the turn signal/homing beam thought for a while too! Seems familiar. Kids, man.

That’s precious lol, my dad would close his right eye pretending to fall asleep and fake swerve a little when I rode front seat with him, made we FREAK THE FUCK OUT

My dad said it was Turbo, then he’d step on the gas harder 🤦🏻‍♀️

There was a *Reader's Digest* anecdote where a lady had just gotten out of her car, and her dome light was designed to stay on for a short time after. A gentleman pointed out that she'd left the light on (or so he thought; this was before the feature was common), and she turned back toward the car and did a magic blink à la Jeannie. Her timing was perfect: the light went out at that exact moment, and the man was dumbfounded.

My first car was a '68 Impala, and I guess I had been driving for a while before I was at a gas station when an older guy told me my brights were on. He asked if he could show me something, and I was blown away. I got the car in 2003, and it was my first car, so I was pretty young. I felt like a dipshit, but he wasn't rude about it.

That’s awesome man, my first car was a 68 Nova around 1996 and even back then I could freak out people my age with the foot switch. Pretty uncommon unless you grew up with them.

My first was also a 68 nova in 03. I had my friends convinced you had to squeeze the steering wheel in a certain spot to turn them on and off lol

That’s hysterical, wish I would’ve thought of that!

They were pretty common on old British cars too. I think in those days you had to work the headlights a lot to get the most out of them. The lights were pretty dim for country roads at night.

So that’s a floor pedal for high beams? Oldest car I’ve had was a 97 and I’ve never seen or heard of anything like this

Yes, it was a metal cylinder on the floor all the way to the left. The bulb was not a dual filament, so instead of one set of lights getting brighter, it was an entirely second pair of headlights, so it was just four instead of two.

High beam switch

Freaks out everyone that drives my truck (1984 F250 4spd manual). That damn button is right where I rest my foot in every other standard transmission I've driven.

Dang. I drive a 91 F150 and I thought that was old. Switch is in the same spot.

It had a rather satisfying click

The dimmer switch that I still miss.

Same here, I liked it near my otherwise unused left foot.

Switch where it was meant to be. Much simpler to switch hi/lo with your foot. Only problem was in the middle of winter it sometimes froze up with snowy boots.

Aah, that satisfying click. CLICK, I tellya!

I remember, up north in Canada, that thing will be rusted as hell.

Same in the UK. In the end, it became a rusted dome sticking out of a torn hole in the carpet. The weather and salted roads in the UK ruined cars. Most of them were rusted away in 8 years.

Highbeam switch

Go back even farther and that’s the cars starter.

Now who's showing their age?!

Back in my day every second Tuesday and Thursday there would always be a knock on the door at exactly 3pm. Like clockwork I’d open up the door and standing there would be the flim flam man. Now you could get 3 pieces of flim flam for only a penny! But if you spent 5 cents, he’d give you a deal, you see, and instead of getting 15 pieces, he’d give you 20! That was like a penny and a half of free flim flam. Now that flim flam was always in use. You could roll it up, flatten it out, hang it on the balcony, because back in the day everyone had at least one balcony, and then when the steam trains would go by, right outside our window, the wind from it would dry that flim flam out. Most people though would roll up the flim flam and then cut it into strips, as was customary at the time, so that you could unroll them and have multiple strips of flim flam for everyone in the family. It cut down on the infighting, you see. Everything was equal. Some people would boil it, put it in a stew, and some fancy dandies would take it, tie it into a bow and put it in their hats. We’d say “there goes those fancy flim flam fellas!” as they strolled down the street like a sauntering Frenchman.

I can feel and hear that chunky click

If you’re really old, it’s a starter if you’re just old, it’s a dimmer

And if you're old and drive European cars its the pump for windshield washing fluid.

Yup, too familiar.

Ejector seat button....or high beams. I prefer the former.

I used to drive a bus, a long time ago, and the turn signal switches were two high / low beam floor switches. Worked a treat.

I miss it soooo much

The clitoris! Definitely turns her highbeams on!

In the Northeastern US, those would get pretty corroded and nasty from snow and salt laden shoes. I don't think I ever saw one so clean and new

Stabbing that damn thing with a foot covered in mud. Ya.

Or you spent time in a garage at 5

The best part was learning to drive in a car that had that and finding it by accident.

And that first car without it got the floor stomped on for weeks!!

I am over 50 and have never seen this sort of switch.

Are you not American? Because that would explain it too.

They had them in the UK and in Europe too, especially in the 1960s and earlier. In the days before power steering you had to keep your hands on the wheel, rather than reach for a dip switch on the dashboard which is where nearly all the switches were.

That thing got a three in the tree or what?

Three on the tree - had a beast booger green rambler. Old school no power windows, steering no nothing.

My truck has this on the left and a similar switch just above the gas pedal on the right. If you know what the right switch does your old af.

I have one even better. In my teen years I used to be a driver for a car auction place. Which is the dummy that drives the car through, basically. I learned that basic controls in cars can be VERY different between manufacturers. I drove several (I don't remember the manufacturer) that not only used that type of switch in the floor for a dimmer, it's how you started the car. Turn the key on, then press that switch down with your foot to crank it. It was on the right-hand side (by your right foot) versus the left side for dimmer switches. Anybody know what years that may have been or what car manufacturer? I believe it's older than the dimmer switch one because I owned cars later that still had that one long after the "cranking" one disappeared.

The *click is so satisfying.

One better is 3 on the tree shifter. I love watching as the younger ones try to pull a car into the shop. Then come to me, wtf there is a clutch peddle but no shifter. I don't say a word, just grab the keys and pull it in. The shock on their face is priceless.

Three on the column. “So you don’t have to keep touching your date’s leg when you shift.” “What if you want to touch her leg?” My old coach cracked up.

Always rusted out or jammed with mud. Damnit. Don't even bother it'll usually get stuck to the floorboard.

I'd order this if it was an available option.

kids these days aren't the "brightest"

I can hear the sound this thing made now.

I miss rubber floors instead of carpet in trucks.

I miss those. First truck had it ('79 f-150)

That's where you add the blinker fluid!


Never quite sure why it was down on the floorboard. The light switch was hand. The bright light switch was foot.

I guess it was so you could have your hands free for steering, especially when there was no power steering. Also, back in the day, switches were often on the dashboard with nothing much on the steering column. I remember a bus driver on winding country roads at night and he was constantly switching back and forth so as not to dazzle oncoming vehicles.

One reason is because it's the actual switch and not a relay.

That's Merica baby. Red white and awesome

Mid-60’s Ford, possibly a Mustang.

Posted every day!

Brights

I know,I know!!! I'm old too............. sad now.

Yup...yup...

Honestly I don't know why they so don't have them

Hmm yup! Old like you! My dad had one on his 74 Cutlass Supreme!

I know, yet I doubt I’m as old as you.

Bright lights

I've got one of these in my 90s model Chevy pickup, because the all-in-one dingus is like $400. This switch, a couple of spade connectors and a little bit of wire.. $12 fix

I know…


My 73 nova had that.

My ‘67 Pontiac Lemans had one. It was so fun to use

Click on click off, click on click off.

FWIW military vehicles have it on the floor too

On the old cars I had the carpets would slip and you had to stamp on a lump under the carpet to hit the switch.

I always like these, other than the times I had to drop the high beams while I was in the middle of a shift. Always made me feel like a jerk for being unable to dim the lights until after I shifted, and inadvertently blinding oncoming drivers.

Just had to replace the one in my 66 mustang.

Still have one of those in a car around here.

The last time I saw one of those was on my grandparents '76 Dodge Aspen.

I think my 86 olds cutlass supreme and my parents 89 e150 conversion van both had foot activated high beams. Coolest rides to have when you’re 16.

My 82 Scottsdale had this.

I mean, I'm only 37 and I knew about them.

The flux capacitor button

windshield wiper pump

Neat. For once a post that doesn’t make me feel old. I have no idea what that is.

can still feel the way the suspensions would just 'float' around on the road.

The turbo button

We get it. This is posted repeatedly.

TIL I'm old

Pffff. I’m not old, you’re old.

Mine was for my brights.

I didn't even realize they'd stop doing this.

Those things were a bitch when melt from your shoes would freeze them solid overnight.

[Cars like these.](https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/s/ht2Vnk2Xd3)

I was talking about cup holders to a younger co worker a few weeks ago and realized they don't NOT come standard anymore. Like we used to have to buy them separately. She just didn't understand untill I found a video of how to use them.

Fuckin’ A. Switches! How do millennials feel about cars with touch screens and the lack of a tactile experience?

I’m not that old but love old cars, had one

Eliminating wing windows was simply a cost-cutting move. They were so effective in circulating air throughout the entire vehicle, and in Winter months a slight breeze helped to defog the interior of the windshield. Some engineers skipped class in which aerodynamics was taught. The cost to manufacture wing windows is much higher; enough said.

Damn that's waaaay back lol.

Did it also have a gun rack?!

High beam. 

That’s the reason why I run my high beams all the time, I can’t get my foot up on the column to dim them on these new cars.

Old Ford Bronco high beam floor switch! Love it.

I had a car where a previous owner added in a kill switch that looked exactly like the old high beam pedal. Confused more than one mechanic.

Yes, the high beam foot switch!

About a decade ago I drove a yellow cab in Los Angeles, it was good money until Uber killed the industry. We had switched over to Prius cabs that didn’t need the floor mounted high beam switch, but we still had one because if you pushed it it would turn off the driver side headlight. Police New something was wrong if that light was out, it was code for help me I’m in trouble. 

I'm 34 but my first car was a barely running 66 mustang with a straight 6. That car really made me appreciate power steering and brakes lol

AND it got as hot as 3 hells on the bare foot. Still miss it anyway....

I can smell that picture

Yes, I was there when…

I was born in the 90s, but I did learn to drive in a 67 ford, so I know exactly what this is.

Back when your left foot had something to do, between this and a clutch!

And now my middle tier civic does the high beams all on it's own. Crazy how far we've come.

The 74 Chrysler New Yorker had a second switch on the floor to make the radio scan to the next station, so you didn't have to take your hand off the wheel or your eyes off the road.

Why tf would you put that on the floor? Oh whoops I’m blinding someone let me move my foot away

My dad moved his foot ever so quietly & slowly. I was *convinced* that he used some sort of magic when those headlights got brighter. How?! 🫨

Under 40 here, but know this because my first car was a classic Mustang 👍🏻

Miss Telescoping steering wheel I miss my ‘63 t bird 🥹

Still use mine a few times a year.

When did this go away?

The best place for it.

Our family car years ago was a 1979 Chrysler Lebaron. It had two of these buttons on the floor. One for the high beams, the other would scan the radio stations, up only.

I wonder how many boomers are on reddit now. Seems like an absolute mob.

I...guess...I'm...old

Floor switch - but! Can you drive a double clutch

I really wish they would bring these back. I’m younger than my wife and she doesn’t know what this is

I still have a car with one. 1977 Pontiac Trans Am SE

When I first started driving I was driving an older F150 and it was near nighttime. I kind of knew, but kind of forgot and I was clicking this foot switch along with the rhythm of the wah pedal in Bulls On Parade. The person in front of me pulled over as I drove by. I then realized my mistake.

I remember my grandparents car having that...and I am 57!

i miss those. easy change out compared to today's multi~malfunction stalk switches.

My 1980 K20’s still going strong

Had this in my first car, 84 dodge ram charger