Driving was never anything that I gave much thought to until I did the behind the wheel drivers ed course in the summer of my 15th year. Fifteen and a half to be precise. There were two other students and the instructor was Mr. Gastello, who also taught Spanish at the high school.
Mr. Gastello piled us all into a 1970's sedan and hauled us to the fair grounds where there were plenty of big, empty parking lots to give us our first crack at being behind the wheel. I can't speak for the other two kids, but this was MY first time driving. I don't think I was behind the wheel more than ten minutes when I decided, driving was for me!
We did all the usual things, parallel parking, (boy was that hard!), making turns, braking at stop signs and lights and then the dreaded 'merge onto the freeway'. With that one we got off easy. Our freeway of choice was the then not completed, Interstate 5. If we didn't take the exit he suggested we take, the freeway would end in probably a mile or two and that would have not been a good learning experience at all!
After the two week class was completed, I spent as much time as I could driving with one of my parents. I remember my mom was pretty nervous about me being behind the wheel and would 'lunge' at the steering wheel. I didn't particularly care for that. My dad however, was a bit more relaxed. Once I got the hang of driving the family car (automatic transmission) I begged him to let me take a stab at driving the Holt Bros. company truck which was a stick. More like a broomstick! That truck was difficult for me to drive in more ways than one. It took both my hand to shift it into gear. Not a good thing!
I didn't get my first car until I was 18 but I did 'borrow' the family car as much as I could. Ah, those were the days!
