Our Time Travel Tuesday topic this week, hosted as always by My Life as Annie, is our first car or first driving experiences.
The first time I ever drove anything at all, my dad had been washing the car — perhaps I had been helping him, I don’t remember — but it was getting close to time for me to take Driver’s Ed., so he told me to pull the car from where he had parked it to wash it back up to its usual parking space beside the fence. He got in the passenger seat, but he didn’t tell me anything about what all the different pedals and dials were. I guess he figured I had been in a car enough to know the basics. I started the car and he showed me how to put it in reverse so we could back it from where it was, then pull forward. I stepped on the gas pedal for the first time — way too hard — and we went zooming back. He said, “Step on the brake! Step on the brake!”
I said, “Where’s the brake?!!”
And I backed over the mailbox. I didn’t just run into it. I knocked it over.
I’ve written before about my dad’s temper, and I was waiting for the fireworks to start — but he burst out laughing. Thankfully!
I’ve never had my very own car. I always drove the family car. I don’t even know what most cars are unless I see it on the outside somewhere. One time the family car, the second one I drove, was some kind of big long thing. A guy at church asked me once what color it was supposed to be. I said I thought it was black, but it was a little faded. Then I remembered my mom always called it Ol’ Purple. That just hadn’t registered with me before, and I was horrified that I had been driving around a purple car!
I still drive the family car, but as all four drivers in the house have their own vehicles, for all practical purposes our champagne-colored (though we call it tan) mini-van, which I unashamedly love, is “my” car.
Feel free to join in on the car and driving edition of Time Travel Tuesday here.
Stray Thoughts 
Love that story, that is hilarious and so sweet that your dad laughed instead of exploding! Funny how emotions come out sometimes.
Thanks for sharing! It made me smile.
Great story! My dad was a hot head too. If I had done that he would have probably screamed his head off and told me how stupid I was! Thank goodness your dad laughed it off!
Oh lovely! And you narrate things with such subtle humor!
The mailbox and the purple. car…I have tagged you for a meme I think yu will enjoy doing.
Thank you for stopping by and for kindly taking the time to comment. I appreciate it.
My dad had a temper too, my older brother actually had to take over teaching me how to drive because our dad was yelling too much!
LOL I once backed into a telephone pole.
I was dropping off one of my friends after we got out of volleyball(this was in highschool) and we were both talking and next thing you know I’m hitting the pole. Thankfully I was in our big boat(ford stationwagon with the wood side sort of things) and there was no damage at all done to the car so me and my friend never did tell my mom and dad(well not until years and years after the fact)
Oh boy…my dad had some temper too…and he definitely wouldn’t have laughed if I’d run over the mailbox!
That had to be such a relief to look over and see him laugh!
great story
pleased he saw the funny side of it
Oh that is a story!!!
I never had my own car until I was living on my own out of town. For the first few months I was still borrowing the family “boat.”
Great post!