Bumpers

Today while I was out driving around, I saw a small Japanese sedan (maybe a Honda) with no rear bumper whatsover. It was like the car had been driven off the assembly line before the rear end was finished. It occurred to me that when I learned to drive, every single car built in America had front and rear bumpers made of chrome-plated steel. I started watching all the cars that passed me, coming or going, and of the hundreds I checked, I saw one bumper on a monster pickup that looked like it might have been chrome-plated steel. All the rest had the usual body-colored plastic bumpers. Call it my delayed recognition of the end of an era, I guess.