I *think* I rode in a car seat until about 2 or so and I have some memories of riding in a sheild booster when I was about 3 or so. I remember one time I was about 4 and we had to go somewhere and my mom put me in my little sister's car seat (she wasn't with us) and I hated it because I was so uncomfortable, probably because I wasn't used to it.

Overall, for the times, I think my mom was pretty good about car seats. We didn't do a lot of riding around in cars, but my mom always tried to have car seats for the babies and she took them to fire stations to get them installed.