Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Time Travel Tuesday ~ First Car Experience


This week Annie is asking about first cars and early driving experiences. She asks, What was your first car? Do you have an interesting experience to share about learning to drive or about your first driving experiences?

Hmmm. My first car car was a Cutlass Ciera. I don't know what year, but I remember it was silver and had maroon interior. To be honest, I didn't care much. It was a car and it got me around. That's all I really needed.
What I do remember is my first experience driving in a car full of adults. It was also one of the few times I ever yelled at my dad...
I took driver's training during the summer and had just gotten my learner's permit. My family and I were up north in Gaylord, MI for the weekend at my parents' cottage, along with one of my high school principals and his wife. Saturday was grey and yucky so we decided to go into town to find something to do. Everyone thought it would be great practice for me to do the driving, and I agreed. Only, when we got into town I discovered the problem with this great idea. Being that it was a grey and yucky day, no one wanted to go to the lake so everyone decided to drive into town. Wow, the streets were very crowded.
I did alright with the four adults telling me when to stop and when to go, when to turn and when to straighten out. However, by the end of the afternoon I'd had just about all the "coaching" I could handle.
We stopped at a gas station to fill up and as I was getting ready to pull out of the parking lot I was a bit overwhelmed by all the traffic. I'll admit there were several times I could have made the right turn into an open lane, but I wasn't confident enough to make the turn without both lanes being clear. My dad kept saying, "You can turn now," or, "You could have gone there." Finally I looked at him and yelled, "I'll go when I am good and ready to go!"

He didn't say anything else for the rest of the drive.

It's hard to believe that all took place 20 years ago. I'm glad I got better at making tight turns. Saves me a lot of time now!
Visit Annie for more Time Travel Tuesday driving tales.

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6 comments:

Annie said...

Your story cracked me up! Especially with my 'new' experiences of Amanda driving!

KarenW said...

Learning to drive! I don't remember much about my own experiences. My ds is learning. Thankfully his dad and grandfather have done most of the instructing. I've been in the car with him driving over the last few months. When he's approaching a red light, I frequently tell him, "Slow down. Slow down faster!" I am sure I have earned some gray hairs from this.

Jenny said...

Your dad was wise to be quiet! :) At least you weren't a lead foot like I was!! I think my dad had to tell me to slow down alot--but I learned it from him!! :)

Shawna said...

I remember my first days of driving as being very stressful! To this day, I don't want to drive with my dad in the car:)

Anonymous said...

How funny. I remember that coaching getting old too!

Tishia said...

I remember my learning to drive experiences with my dad and my mom, I actually think my mom was way worse than my dad! And to this day I can't stand having my mom in the car when I'm driving! She makes me nervous!

Oh and I live in Gaylord and to this day the town is always super busy on a grey cloudy day! Then again I'm finding that anyday here in Alpenfest land can be busy on the streets!