With the demise of many small-town amusement parks, the chance to steer a bumper car has become a joy of the past. It is hard to express how exciting it was to watch adults and kids driving around an enclosed space (2500 square feet, give or take), powered by electricity that sparked at the top of metal poles, and driving purposefully into anyone in sight.
It was a jarring and exciting experience, particularly for children who got to run into a teacher or some other authority figure and get away with it. Here are some images from the earliest years of bumper car mayhem.
