When I was about 8 years old, my Father bought a new (to us) station wagon. A Buick I think. This was the early sixties, and he never bought a new car so I bet it was a late 50ish car.
We had owned another station wagon before, a Ford, but this was the first time we had a luggage rack on top! “Wow, what goes up there Dad?” He explained that when we went on a trip the suitcases could go up there so my brother and I would have the run of the whole back of the car and not be cramped into the backseat the whole trip. "SWEET!!"
Later that year, we planned to take a trip to visit our Grandmother in Rochester, we lived in Hickory , NC.
The morning of the trip we all brought our suitcases out of the house for the ceremonial packing of the car. We lined the cases up and my Dad grabbed them and pitched them up on the roof of the car inside the luggage rack which was nothing more than four rails in a rectangle about four inches high. My brother and I exchanged querulous glances and then jumped into the empty back of the wagon to stretch out and enjoy the ride.
We took off with my Mom and Dad in the front seat. All the windows were down as it was hot and there wasn’t any AC then. We were flying along on a four lane road with a large grassy median. My Dad was in the left lane passing everyone and I was sitting in the back looking at the long line of cars falling behind us. Just then, something rattled on the roof of the car and then a suitcase went flying toward the car behind us. It disappeared under the drivers side of the car and EXPLODED out the back side.
My brother and I hollered for our Dad to stop and he jammed on the brakes and pulled to the side of the road.
We all got out and ran back to where the car that was riding behind us had stopped. They got out and were obviously shaken by what had happened. When we began talking about a suitcase that had flown off the top of our car they breathed a huge sigh of relief because they thought a kid had fallen out of our car and they had run it over. WHEW!
Then we started looking around at the mess all over the side of the road and my Mother nearly cried. “Oh no!! That was my suitcase”, she said when she saw her bras and panties spread all over heck and half of NC.
The folks who hit the suitcase helped us gather everything up that looked like it came out of it, and we threw it all in the back of the car, along with the rest of the suitcases from the luggage rack and we were off down the road. My brother and I had to spend the rest of the trip in the back seat.