“I don’t aspire to be like other drivers – I aspire to be unique in my own way.”
The Road Test
The day I took my driver’s test was a cold, snowy day in December. I was nervous about taking the test, driving in the snow and having my father come with me.
My diver’s permit was about to run out so my parents decided to let me take the road test, thinking it would be good experience and never expecting me to pass it. None of my friends got their driver’s license on their first try. Also, when they had the teen-age driver’s competition at Troy High School, I was about the worst driver there. While going forward, I knocked over several traffic cones and even destroyed a couple while driving the course. I also had trouble staying in the lines. When I was asked to drive in reverse, they took the cones away. I still have trouble driving in reverse almost sixty years later. And please don’t expect me to parallel park.
Dad took the day of my driver’s test off work. This was a big deal since Dad did not have sick leave where he worked and could only take vacation in the summer. I drove to the test area in Lansingburgh. The starting point was next to a cemetery. I often wondered if the city of Troy chose that starting point for a reason. During the test, I managed to hit every pot hole on the street. Troy has many potholes because it has a huge hill and many natural springs. Dad always said “The city should hire you to be a pot hole finder.” I had to get a new muffler every year after I got a full-time job and my own car. When I started up after stopping on one of Troy’s hills, the car rolled backwards. I was instructed to parallel park behind a car that had no cars behind it. I hit the curb with a jolt. Since I left the window down during the entire test so I could do hand signals, I caught a cold which turned into pneumonia at Christmas.
I was informed by mail a couple of weeks later that I passed. I marveled at this to my mother. Her response was “The examiner met your father, didn’t he? He knows your father will never let you have the car!”
She was right.