When I was twelve, one of my buddies in Scouts 'borrowed' his mother's car keys and made some copies. On several occasions, three or four of us would melt out of the back of the Scout meeting and go drive their family's Simca 1000 around the church parking lot, figuring out the clutch and how to keep from crashing into other stuff.
There were other 'informal' opportunities along the way to figure out the mysteries of driving, and when I got my learner's permit and went out with my dad, he commented on how quickly I seemed to pick it up. "Yeah, I guess I'm just a natural," I said, without bringing up The Simca School of Driving, etc.
Not many years later, I got to teach several of my siblings how to drive. In particular, one older sister got home from a session with our mother in which Mom screamed and fainted every time they came within a yard of the ditch or another vehicle and my sister pronounced, "THAT'S IT! I AM NEVER DRIVING WITH HER AGAIN!!"
Now that I think of it, my younger brother didn't seem to have a problem picking up the skill; I probably just assumed his gang had also gotten hold of some poorly-guarded car keys.
Fast forward to my kids. We made sure that the 'kid car' was always a manual so that they could drive anything in the future. Paula and I split duties, but she did the majority of instruction due to my work schedule. Whichever kid was learning to drive dreaded getting home from school and hearing their mom announce, "Clutch clinic!" That meant looking for stops signs on hills so that they could learn to start uphill. Ever smell a burning clutch?
Half a dozen totaled vehicles later, they all survived and headed out to life, and I thought that was it for teaching people to drive.
HAH! One of our daughters lives in Dushanbe, Tajikistan because of the State Department, and her kids are getting to that age. Soooo, two of them are here for the summer to work, as well as (you guessed it) learn to drive! Oh, BOY!
Sophia, their #2 daughter and a great kid is now eighteen, and so in North Carolina she just needed a learner's permit and enough driving to pass the test. She and I spent a bunch of hours over the last three weeks practicing in the parking lots, streets and highways around Raleigh, and I finally thought she was ready for The Driving Test!
I was so nervous going to the DMV office with her that I forgot to bring shoes. It's summer, OK? I snuck in the waiting room barefoot while she was presenting the reams of required documents and I snagged a back row seat. Thirty minutes later she came out from the back with thumbs up; she passed!! I asked about any problems, any gaps in my instruction and she said, "Nope. The examiner was an old, short, really grumpy lady. I tried to be friendly and asked her how long she'd been doing this, and she said, "Too long. Turn right.""
When we got home, Sophia asked if she could take the car and go out for her first "solo" drive.
There are five more kids in my daughter's family, and they still have a number of years overseas. And I thought I was done with that.
Dave
