Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Driving with a license.















Sometimes when you see people driving you wonder how in the world they ever managed to get their driving license. I remember when I got old enough to get my license. My brother had a 1956 Plymouth Savoy and he really taught me how to drive in it first. It had push button gears on the dashboard and it didn't have a park. You just put the emergency brake on and that was it! I have no clue as to what color it was now, but the car pictured above is a 1956 Plymouth Savoy. He used to let me drive down the lane and he had the door open on the driver's side and he stood up on the side and gave me instructions.










I used to drive a truck (similar to the one above) out to the road to catch the bus and leave it parked in the pasture and then drive it home at night. (This was when I was a little older and we had moved from that other place where we had to walk so far!) My Dad had that truck for a little while and it came in real handy for that. Lots of times in the morning during the winter it was dark when you went out to catch the bus. So I got in practice with it and did lots of sliding in the snow with no worries of hitting anything, plus it taught me how to use the standard shift. I already knew how to drive the tractor but I didn't get to do much of that.

My Dad and my brother set me up some barrels so I could practice my parallel parking in between them. Then I did some driving on the road too when a licensed driver was with me.

When the time came to get my test I was so nervous. The written test was a breeze and no worries there. But having someone ride along with me gave me the jitters. I started off doing all the things I knew were right. I turned on my signal to get out of the spot I was parked in. He told me to turn right at the next light and so I put on my signal and turned. I could see him out of the corner of my eye writing things in the notebook he had with him. That got me worried. I thought he was marking things against me so I figured I had already failed the test, so I relaxed and didn’t worry about it anymore. He had me to parallel park in a spot that gave me lots of space between cars and I did pretty well at it. When we got back to where we had started he said, “Well, you passed.” I was shocked to hear I had passed but happy too! I told him why I thought I had failed. He said that he had to mark down things whether I did them right or wrong.


My best friend, who is 3 months older than me, had gone to get hers and she failed. I asked her what happened. She said that when he asked her to parallel park that she hit a street light pole and knocked him down into the floorboard of the car! (Back then seatbelts were not an item like they are today). I always laugh when I think about her doing that.

13 Comments:

Blogger OldLady Of The Hills said...

Great story Rachel...That driving test was a very nerve wracking thing!! And the writen still is...I dread when I have to renew..It's not for another year and a half..but...that can go by Very Very quickly these days, can't it?

2:07 AM  
Blogger David said...

Good memories..... My first car - a 1956 Buick much as you described that car. That thing was a TANK by today's standards.

Oh yes - that driving test was nerve wrecking.

5:03 AM  
Blogger Viamarie said...

What you went through is the reason why I stopped learning how to drive.

Btw, thanks for dropping by my blog.

5:10 AM  
Blogger Marie said...

My first car had push button gears as well and suffered from an unidentified oil burning problem. My friends lovingly referred to it as "The Blue Bomb"

6:29 AM  
Blogger Jim said...

I got to drive my dad's 49 Ford pickup to hight school the last two years. It was ride the horse for the first too.
One day while picking up my cousin I got stuck in my Uncle Howard's field, the frost had gone out and I didn't realize that until too late.
..

7:47 AM  
Blogger Kyahgirl said...

Hi Rachel! thanks for visiting my blog :-)

My Dad used to have a an old Mercury truck that looked like that one you showed.
When I learned to drive he made me do donuts in the snow so I;d be comfy with 'spinning' and not lose my heads in a crisis!!!

9:38 AM  
Blogger Cliff said...

Great memories Rachel. Could we have been more excited than when we first got our license? Thanks

6:32 PM  
Blogger Miki said...

great story Rachel, thanks for dropping by my blog!

2:07 AM  
Blogger Cliff said...

Oh, btw, I forgot to mention, that is one ugly car.

5:27 AM  
Blogger EV said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

12:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah, knocking the driving instructor unconscious would pretty much guarantee a 'fail'. Snort. Makes for a funny story for her though.

12:29 PM  
Blogger EV said...

What a great story - I enjoyed it. When I took my test, they flunked me the first time. I made a left hand turn and didn't turn into the inside lane; he failed me on the spot.

PS/ I deleted the first post - a little "spelling error" with flunked. My hair stood on end when I read it.

12:31 PM  
Blogger Jamie Dawn said...

My daughter got her license this past summer. My son is next, and he is itching to drive. Lord, help us!
Your poor friend. I bet she nearly died over that! Can you imagine how funny that would have been to see that actually happen?

2:16 PM  

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