To add, riding in the back of pickup trucks (back in the day) wasn't even an option, it was the standard! As kids we wouldn't even ask if we could ride in the back, we just filled in and took up residence.

I was in high school at the time, earlier grades, but I remember a bunch of kids leaving for lunch in a pickup truck, the back box full of teens, and by the end of lunch hour, one of the teens in the back was dead. The driver rolled the truck.