Monday, 29 July 2013

Memories from Drivers Ed.

This weekend my family had their monthly get together. We met at my sister's new house by Park City. It's a nice area with great views and they found a very nice house. My wife and I were a little envious, but then we also have more than one grocery store within five minutes. I guess it depends on your needs and where you find work. We're very happy for them and enjoyed seeing everyone.

One thing that has become common at gatherings of people is to share the latest things they've found on line. Most often this is videos from YouTube, or some other site. As we all have our potable media devises this was easily done. In continuation of this social custom, I thought I would pass this one along.


I feel the need to explain my reasoning here. The biggest reason I share this is because this is what my experiences in Drivers Ed was like. I can't remember my teachers name at this point, but that may be a very good thing. Just like the teacher in the video it seemed like the purpose of the classw as to provide a way for teenagers to come to grips with their mortality and the "unnatural" ways of traffic and cars. It seemed that every week we went into class he would have a new story about how a girl killed a young child because she didn't walk around her car before pulling out. Or a group of teenagers who tried to beat a train and how only the driver survived and was haunted by the fact that he killed his three friends. Such stories were common place and it seemed like the teacher went out of his way to find them.

I also remember that all the drivers ed instructors were coaches. My was the tennis coach, but I had friends who had the football coach and he was known for his language. While it was nothing that wouldn't be found in a PG-13 movie now-a-days, it was always seen as somewhat humorous. I don't think I had any friends who would try to make him swear, but I did hear of students that did.

I thought I did pretty well in my drivers ed class. That was up until the test. I had done all of the "hard stuff" on the freeway and was actually just working my way through the blocks on my way back. I had just done the last item on the test and the teacher signed the paper when I noticed that I hadn't stopped for a stop sign. I screeched to a halt in the middle of the intersection and sat there cursing to myself and then pulled through. The teacher looked up, said, "If I hadn't just signed this, that would have failed you" and handed me the paper. My parents required me to drive an extra 500 miles with them before I could ask for the car. I like to think that I'm a fair driver, more defensive than offensive. And I am proud to say that I have never received a ticket and only been pulled over one for speeding.

Granted, that just means I've only been caught for speeding once.

Drive safe!

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