Learning to drive and wanting a car

Friends, don’t be children in understanding be adults! When it comes to planned evil be as weak as a young child!

1Corinthians 14:20 (Sandy’s wording.)

Usually at the weekends I try to write a little from what I remember of my life… with travelling now in Greece I am a little late this week.

The first time I sat behind a steering wheel was when I was 18. It was a large one and belonged to my Dad’s 1960’s Volvo. A cherished car. Dad hand washed it every Friday. I remember sitting as white as a sheet as I stalled on a railway line. Not that trains ran that often but I don’t remember sitting in that seat again.

It was then three years later, Roy had graduated , had a car and persuaded me that with his help I could really learn. Two things I found difficult ; hill starts and parallel parking. It was the clutch and accelerator control which seemed to baffle me. Then with practice I thought I had it sorted. One day while out practising, just before my test, Roy asked me to do a parallel park. I got the car almost in but as it was on an incline I over accelerated putting a large dent into the bumper. I was mortified. We had words but Roy’s message was something like this :

“Finish this parking! Don’t be defeated!”

I went for the test and got through first time.

Then we moved to England where I took the test three times. The first time I clearly wasn’t prepared for small roads, more traffic and people. The second time I had conflicting rules in my head. Make way for fire engines, ambulances and stop for police if asked and don’t stop on zig-zag lines. Well, I made way for a fire engine on zig-zag lines and then went on to make a further mistake! Fail!

The third time I was well prepared. A colleague of mine was married to a professional driving instructor and I had proper paid for lessons until I was confident and knew exactly what was wanted of me.

During the test the examiner was silent except for short instructions so that even when he got out the car I didn’t know the outcome. My own driving instructor came back asked me to get into the passenger seat and then I was certain of the worst.

Only when sitting with my seat belt on I heard the words:

“Congratulations! You have passed! I don’t let any of my pupils drive back home! “

I was pleased but my body especially my legs were numb.

I now wanted my own car! Roy was not pleased. We did argue but upon reflection it was the right decision not to have one. We took holidays with our boys instead. Two cars would have taken a lot of care. Every year there is an MOT test on cars older than three years, the driver is insured not the car so there is insurance too. It would be a financial drain and the cottage had a sizeable mortgage after all the work we had done.

The solution was the boys and I walked a lot.

You know , somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen, it said ‘ Parking Fine’-

Tommy Cooper (1921-1984 Welsh comedian and magician)

It’s strange thinking about that time when now Roy helps me drive a rather different vehicle. I would never have dreamt of this then. I hope you are well.

Sandy 🙂