Driving A Car, Drivers Education, Etc.

Writing Down the Bones Deck, prompts by Natalie Goldberg — Tell me how you learned to drive.

My mother taught me to drive at the age of eleven or twelve. I always say I was mature for my age. Then I think of my grandchildren, and it is tough to imagine teaching my eleven-year-olds to drive.

Yes, at about twelve or thirteen they can learn to ride the 4-wheelers by Grandpa. And a couple have learned earlier. He said that they were ready. I let him know that the legal limit is 16 for them to ride a 4-wheeler.

It is hard for me to realize they are old enough when I remember them as babies and little ones falling asleep while riding on those same 4-wheelers.

Alrighty then, once my mother was secure with my driving, I always drove. Today, I think it was because of the medication she was taking since my dad's death. When in high school, I took driver's education and took my permit test, and driver's test as soon as the law allowed.

I knew I would pass as I had been driving for several years by then. My mother used to teach others to drive also. She didn’t learn to drive until she had to, but she remembered driving a tractor and she learned to drive with a stick shift, and so did I.

Writing Down the Bones Deck, prompts by Natalie Goldberg — “I took driver’s ed in high school,” Not good enough. Tell me about the instructor, the car, your excitement.

And I know many people don’t drive — live in cities, can’t afford a car, or are denied a license. Tell me about that.

Driver's education was easy for me, both in the classroom and then behind the wheel. I had no trouble other than a few things, like keeping both hands in the right-hand positions on the wheel. The car I drove was not new but it was close. It was in better shape than what I learned to drive on.

The other thing I did not remember was to put my seat belt on. I don’t remember having seat belts in our car. I know once my little brother fell out of the back passenger door when turning a corner and he started crawling to the highway and I jumped out and grabbed him before he could get hit by a car.

He was not walking yet and I am almost ten years older, so I was probably ten or eleven.

My mother went to high school in a big city and her family had come from a farm, where they had horses, a buggy, and a tractor. They raised dairy cattle and sold milk. Then in the city, she got used to public transportation and didn’t get a driver's license until she had to.

When my dad died she got a license. She probably taught 50 people to drive in her lifetime. Many women never needed to drive. She said only one failure and that was her daughter-in-law. She still doesn’t drive or have a driver's license.

As kids, we would ride along on her driver's training. I had one cousin who would close her eyes when going over a bridge and she would pull over and stop when an 18-wheeler was driving by her from the opposite direction.

Then I had a cousin that my mother flicked a bee at her, and just that quick her arms went up in the air and she screamed and the car headed toward the ditch. Fun times. She has cerebral palsy and is still driving today.

So many stories I could tell about my mother and her teaching. My driving was pretty good most of my life. I am a multitasker from way back as I could drive, put makeup on, listen to music, and read a book, all at the same time. Not anymore. I try to stick to just driving and talking on the phone or listening to books or stories now.

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First published by Mercury Press on medium.com