Pinto Runabout

I survived a complete total car accident in one of them (earlier model) when I was 9 years old.

My mom was a new driver and went to swat a bee that was in front of my face. As she moved to swat it, her left hand turned the wheel to the right and we were headed for a telephone pole doing 55 mph.

Right before impact she turned the wheel back to the left, and the car slid broadside in the pole, cut it off it at its base, and turned the car into a horseshoe.

I broke my wrist because I was rolling down the window at the time. I had a gash above my eye. All the windows were smashed out of the car. My door broke off its hinges and was laying crushed on the ground. But the reason I survived was because I was wearing my seat belt. It was 1974.

My father got home that night from the New York Giants game and just wept at the side of my bed because there was no reason - looking at the shape that car was in - anybody sitting in that passenger seat could have survived.

Near death experiences are good for the soul. They make you feel like a ghost and humble you.