Oh no, my candle melted when it was HOT!

[Merriweather]

I don't have to imagine, I actually did that as a child I thought it was the most beautiful technicolor puddle of goo ever! Crayola, 16 count box. Bonus: the car interior was black! That really made the colors pop

Some things really, truly don't belong in hot cars

And back in the days when most cars weren't air conditioned, almost ALL cars were hot cars in summer.

On summers, my dad always wanted to go back to his home town in North Carolina. In the car. In the hottest part of summer. When he only had two weeks or less vacation. Even when we lived in California.

I could write a book on our travels and how I somehow survived. But the relevant story here is the year my grandmother had just canned a new batch of saurkraut. Evidently, hers was the best in the world or something (I don't like any saurkraut, so couldn't say). My Dad (and sister) just HAD to bring some home. In the car with, like most then, no a/c. In the summer. Across the country, which, if you look on a map, has a nice bunch of deserts between NC & southern CA. So a couple of jars were put in the storage area under the back seat (seat lifted up & was hollow). Somewhere around the deserts of AZ or southern CA, they literally exploded.

At least the seat kept all the debris contained. We had that car for at least a year longer, and never did get the saurkraut smell out of it. Even if I'd liked saurkraut to begin with, that alone would have altered my feelings from that point on, I'm sure. It's sad to reference your childhood by "the year of the exploding saurkraut"....

[dalesys]

...It's sad to reference your childhood by "the year of the exploding saurkraut"....

Air trabbel ain't necessarily better.

My mother's brother, a "Don't Ask" chemist at Dugway Proving Grounds, went to a conference in Maryland. His little sister insisted that he bring home some bottles of sorghum syrup...

Which exploded in the luggage compartment.