{"id":677,"date":"2009-11-02T18:25:06","date_gmt":"2009-11-02T22:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/?p=677"},"modified":"2009-11-02T18:37:15","modified_gmt":"2009-11-02T22:37:15","slug":"how-did-you-learn-to-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/?p=677","title":{"rendered":"How Did You Learn to Drive?"},"content":{"rendered":"

All of us have a story about learning to drive as teenagers or adults.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Many of us grew up in a era when a learners permit was not necessary.\u00c2\u00a0 Others were able to get right under the wire before the laws changed – the one requiring a trainee to be a year older before he or she could get a license beyond a permit.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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My father had several cars back then.\u00c2\u00a0 One carried the ever growing family around and one he took to work.\u00c2\u00a0 Since he was the manager of several ice and fuel companies in our town, his work car smelled like a cross between coal and oil.\u00c2\u00a0 If you weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t prepared to ride in that car, the smell made you nauseous…particularly early in the morning. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Since one car was always at home most of the time, by 12 years old I was driving it with my father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s permission…and with my mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reservation.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0 I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t drive on the road, mind you, but around our very lengthy u-shaped driveway.\u00c2\u00a0 I learned how to move forward and also how to back up.\u00c2\u00a0 I knew if I drove even once out on the road I would not have to backup. \u00c2\u00a0I would lose the privilege of driving at all. \u00c2\u00a0I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell you how tempting that was as I got old and more confident.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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My father once took my Welsh born mother out to teach her to drive. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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She drove one time. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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He raised his voice at her to avoid running into the ditch and she said that was the last time she was about to get behind the wheel of the car.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Anyway, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m used to walking so it will be easy to walk two miles to the bus down our country roads for me and the children.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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When I was older – still without a driver\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s license – I would walk that long stretch to catch the bus to my part-time job. It was in town some ten miles away.\u00c2\u00a0 I occasionally would walk from downtown to where my father worked…even further from home.\u00c2\u00a0 Eventually I began running the cash register for him and staying until he was done for the day.\u00c2\u00a0 When I got tired I went around to the car for a nap. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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I finally got that sacred license and used one of his old cars.\u00c2\u00a0 Those were good ole cars and I managed to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153blow the carbon out of the motor\u00e2\u20ac\u009d often as I drove into town to work.\u00c2\u00a0 One day, however, I did it once too often and found myself stranded along the road with soot from the dead motor all over me. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dad was not amused. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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My wish for you today<\/em><\/strong> is that – if you are a parent getting ready to teach your child how to drive – you are patient and understanding.\u00c2\u00a0 If you are a student getting ready to learn to drive, listen to your parents and find out what their driving experiences were.\u00c2\u00a0 You just might enjoy it.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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~ Joellen<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All of us have a story about learning to drive as teenagers or adults.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-events","category-living-life-to-the-fullest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}