Aaron: “Dad, did you pass your driver’s license exam on your first try?”
Bo: “Yes, I did pass the first time I took it.”
Aaron: “Did you keep up with your examiner? Like, are you friends today?”
Bo: “Ummm…no.”
Aaron: “OK. It was just a thought I had.”
Isn’t it great what kids think sometimes?
I don’t remember my examiner’s sex, race, age, or anything else. I do remember that s/he didn’t ask me to parallel park, which kind of irritated me because I’d spent significant time and effort making sure I could do so on demand.
I took my exam in a silver 1984 Oldsmobile Delta 88. It was part of the small corporate fleet my dad was managing for his sales force at the time. It was mostly Oldsmobile 88s and 98s, with an occasional outlier like Gary’s Buick Electra coupe. (I got to drive that one to Panama City once to see my mom and sister when they lived down there. Moonroof. Killer stereo. Good times.)
My first daily driver was my dad’s 1979 Ford E-150 van. I kept gas in it and paid him a flat rate per mile to do everything else (maintenance, insurance, and so forth). Most of the time I’d fill it up with gas and buy a carton of cigarettes, and that’d be pretty much it until I got paid again. I had noticeably more discretionary income once I got my ’77 Celica, which got exactly twice the fuel mileage. That’s what I count as my real first car.
I guess Nathan’s first car might be the Technical Writing Express, which is my current daily driver. There’s never been a thing wrong with it apart from a flaky CD player, and it’s only got 85,000 miles on it right now. If I continue to accumulate mileage at the same rate and nothing bad happens to it, then Nate will turn 16 and slide into a nine-year-old Nissan compact with 125,000 miles on it. That sounds about right, doesn’t it?
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I can’t remember even taking the driving test. I know that I did. I would guess it was in my mom’s caprice classic.
You know I consider a Nissan with 100,000+ miles as the perfect starter car for any teen driver. Inexpensive to fix, runs for a good long while, fuel efficient, not too powerful for 16 yr old knuckleheads.
Re: “knucklehead”: I’m horribly conflicted as to whether I’m going to spy on my sons technologically when they drive. It’s trivially easy to do so now. But I don’t like the whole “I don’t trust you” angle right up front. Yeah, yeah, teenagers, but they’ve really been pretty good so far, you know?
Heh, I took my driving test in my mom’s Caprice Classic. I was thankful I didn’t have to parallel park in the Ford LTD II. That thing had a football field of a front end.
Someone at work has a ’78ish Mercury Cougar XR7, which was that same platform (along with the Thunderbird). Huge hoods. 🙂
I remember my driving test. Went great till I almost hit a pedestrian while I was in the process of doing a 3-point turn. Still passed, though.
My first car was a 1974 Opal station wagon. Auburn orange, 4-speed, AM radio, no A/C. I win the horrible-first-car comparison contest.
Jenny, I have the white 626 imprinted on you much more strongly than the Opel wagon. So be heartened. 🙂
My first car was a ’94 Geo Metro. I loved that car til I glipped it end over end into an arroyo. Then I drove a ’05 F-150 til my parents swapped me for my mom’s ’02 Sable, which just died this September with 280,000 miles. I took my driving test in my mom’s ’00 Malibu before it got stolen at gun-point. But my first time driving on the road was on my way home from a graduation in my mom’s ’97 Cadillac Seville before it was rolled on the freeway. (We’ve had some exciting times with our cars.) First time reversing out of a drive was with my mom’s best friend in her minivan in Iowa the summer before high school. But I learned how to drive in our Caprice Classic on the church’s two acres (also before it was rolled on the freeway).
Wow, Penny. I was only ever in one car that rolled, and I’d be just fine with that being it forever. 🙂
I remember your van had a neat cooler built-in place and all worked together nicely for swimming at a local hotel one year on my birthday. I remember Chris’s white Celica too. Good times.
Good times indeed, Kara! You know what I remember prominently about that van though is that it had exactly two seat belts–in the front seats. A high-speed wreck in that thing with a full crew would have been serious carnage.
I should also add that we retreated to swimming at the Holiday Inn in front of the mall because yours truly was too obtuse to realize there would be a non-trivial admission fee to Point Mallard. 🙂
It was a great time, though.