My First .....Driving Lesson

Many , many years ago , I had always looked with envy at friends who had their driver’s license . I think it was every teenagers dream to get one and be able to drive their father’s car legally .

My father was a stickler for law and order ….after all once upon a time he was a policeman . We never sneaked out to try use the car as the car keys were constantly with him . To drive meant one must get a valid driver’s license ……..after all the law is the law .

My father ......

When I finished high school , my father decided it was time his daughter be introduced to ………..“ How to drive a car ” . But first ……. it was necessary for him to introduce the basic rules of driving and parts of a car to me first . So began my first driving lesson with my father .

I remembered sitting next to him in the car . The first lesson being :

1 ) This is the signal light . If you want to turn left ….use this to turn left .

2) To turn right , use this signal light to turn right .

3 ) If you are not turning anywhere , don’t use the signals .

Remember ….left signals for left turns only and right signals for right turns only . No signals means you are not turning . Okay ......okay ....

Next he introduced the clutch and the brakes ; and how the clutch coordinates with the changing of the gear . Note that the car was not automatic so it took me a while for my left limbs and my mind to work together should I go into gear one , two , three or four . Of course , on that day it was only gear one and two only .

I finally made the car moved forward …….. jerkily though . There was a car in front of me and father said ‘ Do not drive too close to the car that is in front of you . Keep a safe distance .’ Okay ………I took that as yes ……my front bumper and that car’s back bumper were not friends .

Then father said ‘ Now ….see if there is another car behind you ’…….to that instruction , I automatically turned my head to look and father cried out loud……..’ Use the mirror …, use the mirror ’ …….Luckily we were on a straight road and I was going rather slow …so that split second of me turning my head to take a look at what was behind did not end as a disaster . See…….my father gave me all the tips but he forgot to introduce the rear and side mirrors to me .

Of course , I know the orders of the traffic lights . Green means go . Red means stop . Yellow means get ready to stop as the next light is red . Now the yellow light is interpreted as …..hurry up ….hurry up………its going to be a red light soon . So you drove like crazy thru the lights and risked killing someone ….perhaps yourself . So don’t be angry if someone stick up his finger at you as you deserved it .

It was another few days of driving sessions with my father before he finally was satisfied that his daughter was ready to go to driving school .