Major Milestone...

...remembering my first days behind the wheel.

On the message boards at Scrap That Moment Jozzie has a blog challenge each day and todays is to reminisce about when we learned to drive. I remember my first time behind the wheel. I was 15 and it was early in the summertime, dad had bought a 70's era split pea colored Pinto station wagon for me to learn to drive. I almost DIED when I saw that car! It wasn't the cool sporty amazing automobile that I had envisioned myself behind the wheel of that's for sure!


But since I was in no position to go out and make money to buy something more to my liking, if I wanted to drive that was going to be the car I was driving so I swallowed my pride and took the wheel. I grew up in the middle of Nebraska where it is VERY flat and the countryside is divided up into a checkerboard of 1 mile square gravel roads with a stop sign at each corner. That is where we went for my first driving lesson. I hadn't so much as drove a riding lawn mower before then so it was a huge deal for me. I remember not knowing where to focus my eyes, I knew I had to keep them on the road...and on the road I put them, I watching pretty much right where the road disappeared under the hood of the car, and even moving as slow as I am sure I was going it seemed to be disappearing in quite a blur! After a bit I learned to look farther ahead of the car and things felt a lot more comfortable, then dad gave me my first defensive driving lesson. "Always be ready to stop the car if you need to" he said. "OK" I replied, then he said abruptly "STOP!" He startled me so bad! He said he wanted to be sure I really was ready to stop. Then we started up again..and when it was time to stop at the corner he told me to step on the brake carefully like there was an egg between my foot and the pedal. I guess I did OK, because he let me drive again after that and even let me drive with our family in the car to church sometimes! I took driver's education that summer and having had the experience with my dad I felt like an old pro when it was time to do our driving practice and when I turned 16 in August I got my licence the first try. I drove that Pinto all year and it never grew on me!



I really really wanted a little pickup truck. I guess I bugged dad so much that he gave in, or maybe he wanted a little truck too, I'm not sure, but he did eventually trade in that station wagon for a little blue Datsun pickup. I was SO happy. One problem though...the Pinto had an automatic transmission and the truck had a stick shift. So back to the country roads we went one evening. I was feeling confident for about ten seconds...then I popped the clutch and stalled the engine and cried and thought I would never figure this out. Dad told me what to do, and in my head I knew and understood but it wasn't easy and I was ashamed of myself and nervous with him watching me. After awhile we went on home and dad said we would try again the next night. It was summer so the next day while he was at work I took the truck out to the country by myself. I practiced and practiced and kept at it and I got it! I was so excited for him to come home and for us to go out again to drive. He was so surprised and proud of me! Then we drove into town....and came to a light. I felt us roll back a bit when I went to go and it startled me and I hit the brake and stalled it out. I was so embarrassed!! I guess because we were on concrete the truck rolled easier because that didn't happen on the gravel. But I overcame that obstacle too...and me and my friends drove around in that little truck until I went away to college! I love to drive now...in fact it is one of my favorite things to do. Thanks Dad!! :)