When you were growing up, how many people actually parked their car in the garage?

[underpants]

I say “growing up” because a lot of people, like my Mom, starting parking their car in there later in life for ease when it snows or rains.

A conversation with coworkers surprised me. Many of them, their parents, and neighbors actually parked at least one car in their garage. I was thinking back and I don’t remember anyone who actually used the garage for their car. Ours was taken up by my stepfather’s tools and woodworking stuff as well as bikes and yard tools and storage shelves. I knew a lot of people with pool or ping pong tables and a few that had turned into another room “Man cave” we call it now.

[Wicked Blue]

1. Nobody in my neighborhood had a garage

1960s

[Ocelot II]

2. In this climate you're insane if you have a garage and don't keep your car in it.

If your car is in kept in the garage you don't have to freeze your butt while scraping the ice and snow off the windows before you go anywhere. I know only one person who has a garage that he doesn't use for his car, but he's slightly mad in a number of respects. It might be because his garage is kind of ramshackle and he's afraid it might collapse on his car, but I think the real reason is that his gardening equipment is more important to him than his car.

[underpants]

9. We have a spot for my wife's car

We placed our shelves (we have about 5 years of food on my wife’s side of the garage) so her car could fit but we keep putting stuff in that area.

I had to come in today at 10 so digging out was my morning.

[Historic NY]

3. Some of them big old cars wouldn't fit.

I'm still perplexed how my uncle got a 50s & 70s Buicks in the garage. I stuffed a 75 Road Runner in it barely. Mostly houses a 47 Chevy coupe and space for the garbage and recycling stuff.

[greatauntoftriplets]

4. You should have seen our garage.

It was old and had the San Andreas fault of floor cracks, so my father always parked on the street.

[Marthe48]

5. Growing up, we had a 3 bay detached garage

No vehicle was ever parked in it, at least as I was growing up. Also, we never had more than one or 2 vehicles, so I have no idea why my grandparents thought they'd need a 3 car garage. Although there was an apartment over the top that they rented out.

[surrealAmerican]

6. The vast majority in my neighborhood .

I lived in the New York City suburbs in the 1970s.

Most houses had two-car attached garages, some had one-car garages. There were still cars parked on the street even so.

[cloudbase]

7. I grew up in an inner city row house.

There weren't many garages around the neighborhood.

On street parking only.

[underpants]

10. Yeah I kinda supposed a more suburban setting

My mistake. We lived in apartments and townhouses over the years so obviously no garage. I think people expand out into them when they have one.

[cloudbase]

14. Absolutely.

I've got a garage now, and keep a car and two motorcycles in it.

[quaint]

8. From '65 until her '91 passing, Mom parked her Impala (four over time) in our SoCal garage.

Last edited Wed Feb 12, 2025, 04:21 PM - Edit history (1)

Dad parked his truck on the street.

[Emile]

11. My dad always parked his Henry J in the garage.

[catbyte]

12. I grew up in the middle of nowhere and nobody had a garage.

The only people I knew who had a garage were my aunt, uncle, and cousins about 15 miles away who lived "In town," lol. They parked their car in it, especially in the winter, because they lived in a big lake-effect snow area. So did we, but we handled it with a push broom. Nobody had a skateboard either because there were no sidewalks.

[justaprogressive]

13. 3 cars all garaged every night

w/out fail.

[JoseBalow]

15. Everyone in my area. Garages were for cars.

Nobody parked in the driveway, and certainly not on the street.

[Dorothy V]

16. Dad.

What with Dad being career USAF, we often didn't live in houses with garages, but when we did Dad ALWAYS parked in it. Maybe nobody else in the area did, but the way Dad took care of his cars, it would be unimaginable that he'd park elsewhere.
Among other things, the garage protected the car from kids. One did not lean on Dad's cars, much less sit on one, or Heaven forbid make dirt in the cars. And Heaven help the kid who threw a ball and it hit Dad's car! Dad would immediately morph from Dad into Sarge, and all of a sudden no kid was anywhere in sight.
I now live in a house with a carport and I can barely squeeze my car into it - Hubby put a big air tank for his air compressor in it.

[Onthefly]

19. I grew up with a career USAF dad.

He parked the car in the garage. Usually a Ford. We didn’t live on base, even in Germany. When he retired, our house had no garage.

My house has a large garage but we use it for storage!

[Sogo]

17. (Sogo raises hand.) We did!

nt.

[MissB]

18. We never did. Two reasons:

Dad built our house. He was a developer, and the land had been in our family for a long time.

Nice big two car garage, but he never brought the level of the driveway up to the garage, so we could not make the 18” jump to the garage.

Plus, mom was/is a hoarder. So most of the garage was always full of stuff that had sat there since we moved in.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

20. Everyone in my childhood neighborhood.

And it used to be that way in my current town too, when I moved here 25 years ago, but NOW it's a hassle to drive on the streets around here because of the numerous cars parked along the curbs on each side! There's often only enough room for one car to drive through the gauntlet of parked vehicles, meaning that opposing traffic has to stop momentarily to take turns getting through! It's ridiculous!

So either those garages aren't being used for cars anymore, or those home owners have a lot of extra cars now! Maybe adult children living there too?

[beaglelover]

21. We had a 3 car garage with a storage area up top. All cars were always parked in the garage and the doors (manual)

were closed each evening. Most of the time growing up, we only had 2 cars like a normal family, but after he retired, my Dad got a kit car that he built in the garage. At that point all 3 bays were occupied.

[underpants]

22. I remember the manual doors

Heavy.

Dud you have out buildings?

[beaglelover]

25. No, no out buildings and we had inside plumbing too!

[electric_blue68]

23. Hahahaaa. I thot you meant in the city...

Fyi...
In NYC, at least, only certain bigger apartment buildings (the ones I rarely saw were maybe were 10 stories high, plain brick) built later had dedicated garages.

The rest of us had to often circle round, & round a few blocks until someone left a parking space. Of course, some spaces were too small for our car, so back we went: round, & round, and... It's been over 50 years, but I still remember.

This occasionally could go on for a 1/2 hour or more. Sometimes when it stretched out my dad would let my mom, me and my sis go home while he continued "the hunt".

[underpants]

24. That's me

When we go out as a family - front door - I’ll take care of the parking. Have a smoke on the way in.

[LizBeth]

26. Both my parents and since I am way old, .... me and husband. I do not like in driveway.

[k8conant]

27. We never had a garage, but ...

Our neighbors parked in their garages.

[applegrove]

28. My parents never parked there cars in the garage.

It could only fit a small one. We used the garage as a garbage station, bike shed and a place for a log pile. We lived in Ottawa so got lots of snow. My parents had it figured out by the time I grew up and used a big push broom to clean the snow off the car. They also had block heaters for the cars which helped.

[Meadowoak]

29. my parents garage was used strictly for storage. When I bought my house, I insisted on an attatched garage that I use

everyday. I keep my car clean and waxed and that keeps it looking nice. also, the snow and ice is an added plus that I don't have to scrape off in the freezing cold.

[Niagara]

30. Growing up, we had an attached 2 car garage on a ranch style home

There was only room for one vehicle only. That would have been my mom's yacht (197something Caprice Classic) due to the chest freezer, massive tool box, the city trash cans, the bicycles and whatever else took up room in the garage.

[Clouds Passing]

31. Parked our family car in the barn. Didn't have a garage.

[rsdsharp]

32. We always put our car in the garage. I grew up in northern Iowa.

We had a detached double garage, with a divider between the doors. The winter of 1961-62 was a bitch. Super cold, and lots and lots of snow. What was worse, my father was recovering from a broken hip.

One day, my mother was trying to put the car (a ‘57 Chevy) into the garage. The driveway was slippery, and she was having trouble. Finally, she gunned it, the rear tires slipped on the ice, and she found herself in the garage — sideways. She had managed to park the car in the garage 90° from how it should have been pointing, AND without touching the center divider.

After my father got done laughing, he called up some of his friends. After THEY got done laughing, they came over with jacks and ropes, and managed to straighten the car out. They weren’t laughing by the time they got done.

[underpants]

37. That's hilarious

[rsdsharp]

38. Everybody thought it was -- except my mother.

[underpants]

41. My brother did something like that.

He was a bad driver AND he drank. Thank god he never hurt anyone. He lost his license pretty much forever.

One night he turned into what he thought was our neighborhood. It’s was the woods a good 1/4 mile short. He got his car so far back and so stuck (between 2 trees) he just got out and walked home. In the morning he walked back to get it. Everyone was there - cops, fire, tow trucks. They couldn’t figure out how exactly he got it there. He walked by them, got in his car, and drove it out. There was nothing they could do because they didn’t catch him in the act of DUI.

[yellowdogintexas]

33. first you had to have a garage

We built one when I was about 10.

[MustLoveBeagles]

34. When we had a garage

My mom and stepdad used it for it's intended purpose. He also had a small area for hie workshop. Nowadays our garage is my husbands workshop/mancave.

[Solly Mack]

35. City raised. Street parking only.

[Hekate]

36. Lower middle to middle class neighborhoods in Hawaii and California -- nope. In Hawaii we had a carport with open sides...

In SoCal my dad kept all his tools in the garage, including a big Shop-Smith.

I never got into the habit on the Central Coast. The garage holds overflow, and the cars can fend for themselves in the mild climate.

In our current neighborhood a lot of folks use their garages — they probably think we are declasse. My husband’s job is to make sure my car is facing outward. During the Thomas Fire 7 years ago, my ability to exit our slightly curved driveway in the pitch dark was crucial — I don’t back up well on a curve. Weeks later we finally drove thru one of the neighborhoods that was burned to the ground, and there were dead cars in quite a few of the garages…

[Aristus]

39. Hell, I can't park my car in the garage now.

I have a four-car garage, and can't park even one car in there, because it's a warehouse for all of the things Mrs. Aristus can't use, but doesn't want to give away or throw away.

[underpants]

40. 😆😆😆😆

That’s a lot of stuff 😳

[LogDog75]

42. My parents always parked their cars in the garage.

I've lived a number of places and if I have a garage, I park my car in it. My condo has a car port in which a portion of the complex covers the parking area. I keep my car out of the weather there and after 18 years it still looks good. When I took it to the dealer for servicing, before and after COVID, they'd see it and ask if I wanted to sell it. It's a nice car with only 88,000 miles on it.

[Luciferous]

43. We parked in the garage but I grew

up in Wisconsin so if you didn't park in the garage you had to clean snow and ice off the car.