Learning to Drive

Learning to drive is a must at a very young age when living on a ranch. My grandmother had a red and white Ford Bronco. The gears were what we called "shift on the column". Standard transmissions required learning to operate a clutch without giving your passengers whip lash. I don't recall the backseat having seatbelts. If you weren't the driver or in the front seat, you had to learn to hold on to the side of the bench seat in the back which you had to share with a brother and/or sister AND a very smelly dog named Sadie. There wasn't a road or trail Grandmom wouldn't take in the Bronco.

Grandmom would begin your driving lesson when you were tall enough to reach the pedals. What a glorious moment when Grandmom said, "I think we'll have a driving lesson today." YAHOO! With an eager mind and restless hands and feet, I climbed into the driver's seat. Hhmm, I had no idea how to even start the damn Bronco. There is a lot to remember when learning to drive a standard transmission vehicle. Left foot on the clutch, right foot on the brake. Turn the key on (which was on the dashboard) and release the parking brake. Shift the gear into reverse and very S.L.O.W.L.Y. let out the clutch and gently give the Bronco a little gas. And I do mean S.L.O.W.L.Y. or everybody was going to end up in neck braces including Sadie. It took about 10 minutes to get from starting the vehicle to actually going foward during the first lesson.

What a grown up feeling to be able to drive even though we were still in the driveway. I didn't get out of first gear until Lesson Number Three or Four. Going in reverse was always a challenge until Grandmom let me adjust the mirrors. The real treat was being able to drive from Grandmom's house to the post office which meant you crossed the river. Aligning the Bronco to go across the cattle guard that spanned the river was down right scarey for me.

My dad always had standard transmission pickups; some with column shifts and some with a floor shift (stick shift as we called them). UNTIL he bought a Chevrolet that not only had an automatic transmission but it also had power steering! And that's when I had my first vehicle accident at the age of 12. My brother and I had to help our dad move some cattle from a pasture to the pens. As my dad was walking along and pushing the cattle to the pens, he told my brother and me to bring the Chevrolet pickup down the hill to the pens. Wow -- how much easier it was to drive that pickup! Until I forgot that I had power steering and turned too sharp as I was going through the gate. CRUNCH! I managed to center the headlight and right front fender on a cedar post. I said, "Oh, shit!" Marshall said, "You're in trouble now!" and he bailed out of the pickup. Let's just say that I forfeited my right to drive anything but the riding lawn mower for the rest of the summer.