Sunday, September 16, 2007

Journal Jar #19: Learning to Drive

Describe Your First Driving Experience

When I was 15, my cousin Robin lived about a half a mile from my house. We enjoyed each other's company, but didn't have vehicular privileges to get to one another's houses. This often led to us "meeting half way", meaning we would each walk toward the other person until we met, then we would walk together back to one house.

One sunny afternoon, after conversing with said Robin on the phone, and agreeing to one of the aforementioned "meet half way" rendezvouses, I convinced my dad to let me drive his suburban for my half of the commute.

This did not pose a problem to my father, seeing as my half involved tiny residential streets with little or no traffic at all times. I got in the drivers seat, and while my dad was buckling up on the passenger's side, I followed all of the safety precautions learned in my Drivers Ed course. I adjusted my seat and mirrors, fastened my seatbelt, and checked my blind spots.

Then we were off. I pulled out of the driveway with ease. My dad must have been beaming inside, since his daughter - at the fragile age of 15 - was a driving pro. I headed down my street to the end, where I was forced to take a right. I used my blinker. We hit the end of the next street. Blinker again, and looking both ways, I headed left. As we proceeded down this street, we could see Robin fulfilling her part of the agreement, but on foot. Oh, I could see the envy in her eyes from 300 feet away.

"Is that Abbie in that hot '84 burb?" she was thinking, "She looks SOOOO mature. And popular."

We drove up to Robin, and she got into the back seat. Well, actually the middle seat, since it was a suburban. I'm sure she started gushing about how cool I looked and whatnot, but I don't remember the details.

I pulled a swift 3-point-turn and headed back home. Again, my dad was overwhelmed with pride. As we neared my house, as luck would have it, my mom and all of my siblings were in the driveway. They ALL got to see me driving WITH PASSENGERS. I approached the driveway, turned the wheel, and prepared to glide effortlessly into my parking spot. Everything looked good.

Everything except for the look of horror on my little brother's face.

I glided the suburban effortlessly into our other car. The wheel wells of each car skidded into each other, causing the worst car-crash noise I'd ever heard in real life. My dad may or may not have sworn at that point.

I froze. He told me to put the car in park. I did. I got out, and without even surveying the damage or looking back at Robin, ran into the house crying.


It turns out that the damage wasn't that bad - hardly noticeable. The cars just exchanged some paint. Needless to say, it took some time before I headed to the drivers seat again. And who knows when my dad will ever trust my driving.



What about you? Any awesome driving experiences?

3 comments:

stephanie said...

hee hee.

Emily said...

Thank you for a good laugh!

Robin said...

I have absolutely no recollection of that entire experience. You must have brainwashed me to forget it.