Following Ancient Tradition

Hi All!

When I was about 12, my dad let me practice driving on the back roads of NW Wisconsin on our trips to the lake.

By the time I took the driver test, in a not-so-easy-to-drive VW Beetle, the evaluator thanked me for making his job easy!

The Beetle has long since been restored and spends most of its time in storage at the lake, coming out for show and parades and joy rides through the woods.

I trained the first born son starting at 15. Started with an easy automatic Merkur Scorpio and he graduated to a 5 speed Audi Turbo Quattro (gosh I miss that car). He passed his test in a 5 speed Trooper.

The second son received similar instruction and never cottoned to a manual shift, but he came to the test similarly prepared.

It's a shame, now that they have been driving awhile, that so many of my admonitions go ignored, like having the seat back up enough to see over the dash, hands at 10 and 2, no smoking in my cars, putting on the seatbelt before starting the car, driving safe-aggressive not just aggressive aggressive, ad nauseum.

Today it is time for my little girl to get behind the wheel. A perfect day to head north to the old practice courses.

Call me sexist, but I am pretty sure this will be a far greater challenge than teaching the boys. She will probably end up following the rules that my sons have ignored or forgotten, but she couldn't even figure out how to ride a bike until she was 10.

I've stocked up on plenty of anti-anxiety medication.

For any of you who want to engage in this illegal bonding experience and are city-bound, take your urchin to a big cemetery -- great practice grounds and a lesson to not drive in such a way that you will be under a gravestone.

Cheers!

PS. The training went well -- she is a right natural but is a bit shy of oncoming traffic, but took to driving easier than the boys! I guess that makes me sexist. But she still can't do sports without looking like a girrrlll.