Only 5 Months and 3 Weeks To Go

It's been more years than I care to specify since I first learned how to drive. However, despite the fact that I am apparently older than dirt, I do remember the actual learning-to-drive experience. I remember just about everything about it, actually. (And if you're my mom, and you're reading this, and my memories differ somewhat from what Daddy remembers? Well, it's MY blog, and so any shared memories are subject to my unique interpretation, mm'kay?)

I learned how to drive in what felt like a ginormous, hard to control beast. What it really was was a 1975 black Ford F250. It had a gear shift coming up from the floorboard that seemed longer than my leg, and was SO! HARD! to shift. It didn't have air conditioning (although, as I learned to drive in the winter, that wasn't as much of a consideration as it otherwise might have been, I suppose.); it didn't have power windows. And I don't seem to recall power steering, either. Every stinkin' thing about this truck was manual, from the windows to the transmission. I think my way-more-patient-than-previously-given-credit-for dad finally agreed with me on my level of hopelessness, as I finally ended up with the car I took my road test on. My first car. A 1974 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. Yes, that's right. My first car was a barge. (Which was a good thing, as one day it ended up in a ditch and didn't have any damage whatsoever when it was pulled out. I'll have to share that story with you one day. Maybe. If I can find a way that it doesn't paint me in a very unfavorable, scatterbrain image.)

I will admit to you here, and only here (and only because my readership has dropped so far that I'm not even sure my bestest friend from my glory days still reads me), that I barely passed the written exam to get my learner's permit all those many years ago. Had I missed even one more question, I would not have walked out of that beautiful Motor Vehicle office and into the driver's seat of that Beast. I will also admit to barely passing the actual road test. Apparently, they mark you down for running through a stop sign and missing the turn the instructor would have liked you to take. And no, there are no extra credit points for successfully finding your way back to the Motor Vehicle office after missing said turn. Which, if you ask my opinion, is a total rip off.

And this stellar driving resume, my friends? This has qualified me to teach my son how to drive. I would caution you to possibly stay off the roads at certain times, but I am required by Arizona law to teach him to drive at all possible times of the day and night. Plus, as I'm not certain if I would be cautioning you just because he's a new driver or because of his beyond amazing instructor, I'm just going to ... well, NOT caution you at all. What I WILL tell you is that Jock scored a higher percentage on his written exam than I did, and is learning to drive in a vehicle with an automatic transmission and automatic windows.

We have survived the first seven days of driving lessons. And I have a new appreciation for my dad.