Driving My Parents (Crazy)

(Me driving our pickup out on a "rural chores" day, a year or two ago.)


The guys had an old rerun of "The Jetsons" on tv a bit ago, and daughter Judy was taking driving lessons.


Ha! I remember learning to drive a car.


Mom always talked about being able to drive their car (a Model T, I assume) when she was just 5 years old. (That would've been the late '20's.) She was also thrilled whenever she'd see a flat tire, because she loved to change them! She'd take the tire off, take the tube out, plunge it in the water tank to see where the leak was, run (putting spit on the hole with her finger to keep track of it) to go fix it with a patch, then put it back on the car.


Can you see a little kid changing a tire on today's behemoth vehicles?


Where I grew up, you could get a learner's permit at 14 - you could drive with a licensed adult, to and from school or work or church, etc.


Well, I turned 14, and I got a learner's permit. The abundance of country roads around our little town was great for going out to practice. Sometimes Mom and I would be out, and she'd let me take the wheel. Sometimes we would deliberately go out to practice, Dad in the front seat with me and Mom in the back seat.


We'd be out driving along the country roads, and my glitchy, do-things-right brain had me always wanting to stay on the RIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD, like the law says. Well, out on those dirt roads, I got a little extreme with it. Pretty soon, I'd be literally scraping the sunflowers that were by the roadside with the side of the car.


*WHAP! WHAP-WHAP! SCRAPE! WHAPPITY-WHAP!*


Dad would holler, "Get out of 'Sunflower Lane!!!' "




So I would edge a little back into the road, but I still had to keep right quite a bit. Of course I realize a lot of country driving is in the middle of the road, unless you approach a hill or something, then you go right in case someone pops over the hill. But at that point, I just had to stay as far right as I could get! I improved through the years, and there aren't any sunflower stems hanging off our vehicles. :)


I've even had the privilege of driving THIS THING (minus the trailer) a few times. Once was in the nearby bigger town with Older Son. It's a stickshift, and needless to say, it was a blast! I DID FINE. *ahem*





I've also had the privilege of driving THIS THING (also a stickshift, and which has had the honor of winning a local "ugly pickup" contest) DOWN THE HIGHWAY with a load of bagged feed and a big ol' round haybale, with a semi on my tail! I found the first dirt road and turned off ... ahh, much better. And I didn't scrape any sunflowers, either. But there might've been a lot of red dirt caked on it when I got done.