Alternatively, loading bulky cargo was a lot easier when the door simply slid out of the way. was supposed to have a sliding second door, for rapid ingress and egress, en masse, of the little passengers. Additionally, the first Honda offering utilized traditional front-hinged doors for the second row, which was a bit away from American expectations. The Japanese vans generally weren’t optimized for large populations of big kids, often because of quirky Japanese home-market rules and tax rates on car size and engine size. The older version, like so many Japanese van offerings of the day, was a bit small and lightweight. The Odyssey had sort of come out of nowhere in 1999. We had gotten good use out of the Dodge, but it was time to move on the stars were aligned for such a change. Beyond the limited seating and the spectacular transmission explosion, the car was simply getting on in years, and things such as switches and dashboard controls, along with all the innards of the doors, were getting a bit sloppy and undependable. The Intrepid was also getting on in years and miles. DUTCH SCHOOL OF MAGIC DRIVERA seat for the driver plus six more for the little persons was what was expected. And to have a capacity of five instead of seven let down the side, and also messed up the carpool scheduling. The level of parental helicoptering in 2000 demanded certain minimums, such as a seat and seat belt for every smaller-sized person. There was no way that kids could simply be stuffed headlong into work vans or the backs of station wagons, without dedicated seats and seat belts. DUTCH SCHOOL OF MAGIC FULLWe had the Intrepid, which held five, including the driver, but it was time to be able to carry seven, if one wanted to be fully involved in carpooling and carrying one’s full weight in the task. “Prime time” for carpooling, for our young ones, was about 1998 through about 2010. So the parents took it upon themselves to arrange a highly organized and structured carpool network, that got passed down from each set of parents, to the ones who followed a few years later, as their kids came of age (elementary or middle school age, that is). Our neighborhood was spread out and hilly, and for some reason, the school district was unwilling to provide bus service, and somehow got away with it. As it was, a variety of grey and tan and silver Honda Odysseys would converge at the school grounds, at the beginning and end of each school day, depositing and later collecting flocks of five year olds and eight year olds. They could have been painted yellow and labeled as school buses, and then they would have lined up like Blue Birds or Crown Coaches at the elementary school, indistinguishable from the rest of the Odysseys, but for details. I am getting slightly off-track here, as the story for today is about carpooling those five-year-olds to school, and to the museum programs, in the vehicle of the day most widely and universally used for the task, at least in our neighborhood and environs. DUTCH SCHOOL OF MAGIC SERIESAn animated series popular with kids and also with their parents, back in the day.
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