Before we left the testing station I signed up for the first available date I was eligible to take my road test. At the time the state of Wisconsin required individuals who had passed the written test to wait at least 30 days to take the road test. Since February only has 28 days the 30 days would be up on March 18th, which happened to fall on a Saturday. Naturally, the Monday like all Mondays was completely booked, so I settled for Tuesday, March 21st.
By the time we dropped off Jeff and went home it was dark. Dad said he would not take me for my first lesson in the dark and since he wasn’t going to be home the next day I’d have to wait until Saturday. Here I rush to get my learner’s permit and I have to wait two days to start learning just because of a little darkness and Mom wanting Dad to have the first crack at teaching me.
Neither had any success teaching Peggy who at 18 still did not have her license. As far as I could tell it didn’t bother her. She always seemed to get around just fine.
One of the benefits of learning to drive on a Saturday is not having to wait until school lets out for the day. Shortly after breakfast Dad and I drove over to Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church on 92nd Street. Yes, the same Frank Lloyd Wright designed structure that resembles a blue domed spaceship under whose shadows only a few months earlier I had a glorious moment when I pounced upon a fumble in our scrimmage with Milwaukee Lutheran High School. And here I was again in the church parking lot about to begin an equally monumental adventure.
It hadn’t snowed in awhile and the drifts at the far ends of the lot had shrunk to a couple feet and the asphalt surface was dry. Dad shut off the engine of the black 1964 Dodge 330. It was the newest car we had ever owned. Usually, Dad would find ten year old cars for about a hundred dollars. For the Dodge that was only two years old when we bought it two years earlier he might even have taken out a loan.
A unique feature of the Dodge 330 besides its bright red vinyl interior was the push button transmission. Unlike most automatic transmissions with the lever sticking out to the right of the steering wheel that when pulled down went through the PRNDL in front of the driver, this car had a small silver lever located to the far left of the steering wheel on the dashboard. When the driver lifted the lever up the car was in neutral waiting for either the first, second, drive or reverse buttons to the right of the lever to be pushed.
After making sure my father had put on his seatbelt and being sure to have my right foot covering the brake, just like in the simulator, I turned the ignition key and held it long enough to hear it grind and make Dad grimace. He looked over at me and told me to just take it slow and easy. I took a breath, let it out slowly, reached over and pulled the lever up, pushed in the D, released the emergency brake, eased my foot off the brake pedal and tapped the accelerator.
At least that’s what I thought I did until I realized even with only six cylinders the car was quickly running out of pavement. So before Dad said anything I moved my foot off the accelerator and eased on the brake. We came to a stop before running up on any snow bank, and then I made my first turn. It was pretty good considering how difficult it is to turn a car that is sitting still and doesn’t have power steering.
For the next thirty minutes I drove around the parking lot slowing to make turns and gently applying the accelerator in the straightaway. Then, Dad drove to a quiet neighborhood where I had my first driving experience on a real live street.
Remember your first driving experience? Tell us in the comment section.
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