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Here is what Madi's Mom wrote: "We thought it would be fun to have all my friends tell about learning to drive: if your parents taught you, if you went to driver's ed and the fun or not so fun things that might have happened"
Ok, you asked for it!!
I didn't learn to drive until I was 27 years old. Yes, you read that correctly, I was 27! Why? there were a host of reasons:
1) Had I learned to drive at age 16 I would have had nothing to drive, my reasoning at that age was "what's the point?" My parents wouldn't let me use the family car so forget it.
2) When I went to college everything was within walking distance or I rode with friends who had cars
3) When I had my first "real" job I took 3 buses and a rapid transit (a sort of a train type of a thing) to get to work EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR FIVE YEARS........(I had to leave the house by 6:30 am in order to be at work by 8:15am and most evenings I didn't get home til 7pm).
That all ended in 1983 after a horrible experience on the rapid where a guy virtually went NUTS and was in everyone's face on the rapid. It was quite scary. I decided I would finally get a car. I don't have a photo that I can share, but it was a 1983 bright red Honda Civic SI Hatchback (manual transmission...THAT IS KEY HERE)
My Dad was friends with a sales person at the Honda dealership and since I didn't know how to drive I ORDERED MY CAR FROM A CATALOG.........(bet you have NEVER heard of that before! And..."OH YES I DID!")..........the salesperson drove it to my apartment where it sat outside for about a week or so.
A neighbor that lived next door to me in my apartment building offered to teach me how to drive (I bought a manual transmission because my Dad had said if I learned to drive in a manual transmission car I could drive anything!). The first couple days were horrendous. I was in tears after every session (I could not get the hang of the clutch at first). I named my car "Diablo" because in my opinion it was "the devil car", partly because it was red, and partly because it was, to me, THE DEVIL. I thought I would NEVER learn to drive it.
After a few grueling sessions for me, (and some terrifying moments for the poor neighbor who was teaching me), I LEARNED TO DRIVE DIABLO!! I will never forget the first day I drove my new car to work. We had to park in a parking garage with a GIANT INCLINE leading into the garage (those of you who know how to drive a stick know where I am going with this). It was a HILL....A SHORT, STEEP HILL! In order to get the gate open to enter the garage you had to put your card into this slot (part way up the hill)...well, when I did that I was not adept at maneuvering the clutch pedal at all and........YES YOU GUESSED IT.......I STARTED TO ROLL BACKWARDS DOWN THE HILL........there WAS only one car behind me and thankfully they were observant and saw me beginning to roll and hauled ass to back up and get away from me before I backed into them.
I was horrified and in tears. I was shaking and swore I would never drive that car again. A friend of mine drove me home from work in their car, I chose to leave my car in the garage at work.
Thankfully, the next day YES I did drive my car, and that little Honda Civic was one of the most reliable and BEST cars I have ever owned....... I have had FIVE Honda's since then......and...guess what? They are ALL MANUAL TRANSMISSION!! Why??? Because I CANNOT FOR THE LIFE OF ME DRIVE AN AUTOMATIC!!! Yep, you read that correctly, I CANNOT DRIVE AN AUTOMATIC! I "GALLOP" all over the road! (The story behind that, is a story for an entirely different day!!! Talk amongst yourselves!)
So Madi, Mom and everyone else............I hope you enjoyed a blast from my past! And Madi? HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Much love from Cody and I!
