What Was Your First...? Driving Experience
I have had some very nice response to this. I was really pleased to see you come forward with your tales. It was neat to see how our stories were similar, eventhough we are across the globe or country from each other. I guess human nature and experience is alike in many ways, no matter where you are from. :-)
So as promised, although a day late, my first driving experience was in a 1979 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. It was the first car I remember my parents buying new, right off the lot. I loved that car. It was a two door sport coupe with brick red metallic paint and an opera leather top(only the back part). It had a dark red interior and carpet with crushed velvet seats throughout. I remember two times my mom took me out driving. I was 14 at the time in 1983, two years before you are legal to drive in Texas, but mom figured it was no big deal. Besides my older sister was "joy riding" by the time she was eleven, so let's teach the "responsible one" how to drive before her friends do.
Contrary to her usual self, she was relaxed. She took me to the park that was on the property at the chemical plant where my father worked. They had a nice golf, pool and picnic facility as well as a shooting range. There were winding trails for the golf carts and towards the back of the property there was a drop off where the Colorado river passed. She took me driving through that area because hardly any people were back there. That is where I learned how to do a Three Point U-Turn. I was pretty good at driving, kept the car going in a straight line and didn't drive too fast (while mom was in the car...), didn't SLAM on the breaks, etc... The next time she took me driving was in a nice upper middle class neighborhood. That was a good day too.
My sisters boyfriend taught me how to make left hand turns and how to back up a hill. He took me to a public park in Karen's old late 60's Chevy Nova. I liked that car too, because it had a big engine in it. I scraped the door on one of the posts during my first turn, but by turn #3, I pretty much had it down.
When I was 18, Karen took me in her old Datsun and taught me how to drive a standard floor shift car. It wasn't pretty, but I got the job done without too many stalls. Seeing as I had to steer with my right hand and shift with my left hand; (which in England would have been no biggie) I chose to stick with automatic transmissions. I can, however, drive a "4 on the floor" if I have to for an emergency.
Thanks for sharing your stories with me. Let me know if you like this feature and I'll see what I can do about putting it in the rotation. :-) Love ya! m.
So as promised, although a day late, my first driving experience was in a 1979 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. It was the first car I remember my parents buying new, right off the lot. I loved that car. It was a two door sport coupe with brick red metallic paint and an opera leather top(only the back part). It had a dark red interior and carpet with crushed velvet seats throughout. I remember two times my mom took me out driving. I was 14 at the time in 1983, two years before you are legal to drive in Texas, but mom figured it was no big deal. Besides my older sister was "joy riding" by the time she was eleven, so let's teach the "responsible one" how to drive before her friends do.
Contrary to her usual self, she was relaxed. She took me to the park that was on the property at the chemical plant where my father worked. They had a nice golf, pool and picnic facility as well as a shooting range. There were winding trails for the golf carts and towards the back of the property there was a drop off where the Colorado river passed. She took me driving through that area because hardly any people were back there. That is where I learned how to do a Three Point U-Turn. I was pretty good at driving, kept the car going in a straight line and didn't drive too fast (while mom was in the car...), didn't SLAM on the breaks, etc... The next time she took me driving was in a nice upper middle class neighborhood. That was a good day too.
My sisters boyfriend taught me how to make left hand turns and how to back up a hill. He took me to a public park in Karen's old late 60's Chevy Nova. I liked that car too, because it had a big engine in it. I scraped the door on one of the posts during my first turn, but by turn #3, I pretty much had it down.
When I was 18, Karen took me in her old Datsun and taught me how to drive a standard floor shift car. It wasn't pretty, but I got the job done without too many stalls. Seeing as I had to steer with my right hand and shift with my left hand; (which in England would have been no biggie) I chose to stick with automatic transmissions. I can, however, drive a "4 on the floor" if I have to for an emergency.
Thanks for sharing your stories with me. Let me know if you like this feature and I'll see what I can do about putting it in the rotation. :-) Love ya! m.
posted by M at 9:12 AM
4 Comments:
I spent a summer in the US when I was 19. I got a driveaway Camaro and drove it from Chicago to Fort Lauderdale. Fuck knows why they let me loose in it. I suppose the internatinal driving licence must have looked impressive or something.
It was a pretty cool car with a thumping big V8. 8 mpg as I recall.
Crap at corners as well, but who cares.
Gotta love the big thumping V8's baby! The legal age to drive here is 18, so they probably figured you were ok. So, was it a good trip? How is your current excursion going?
18!!???!!!
Here in ONtario it's 16, but I still haven't bothered to get a license....next month for my birthday my husband says he'll let me get my beginners permit....only 10 years later than the rest of the world.
That's right Ivy.
Ro~
You can drive at 16, but you have to taker driver's ed either from a school or have your parents teach you from a certain course and take a test; or you can wait until you are 18 and take the state exam and driver's test with out having to take a course from a driving school. They used to offer drivers ed in school.
Did you get to take that in H.S. Ivy? That was tons of fun for me. :-)
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