Driving

Now that Maddy has turned sixteen we are doing things like getting a passport, getting an ID card for her and other coming of age type things. Even though she will never drive, never live on her own, she still needs official identification to ensure that she too can enjoy standing in a long line and dealing with cranky employees. Actually getting the paperwork in for her passport was very easy. We went to the nice post office about 30 minutes from the house, walked in, and had no waiting. The lady was very nice and efficient. Once the passport comes in we will go and get her a Texas ID card.

Maddy and I were talking about getting the ID card and I was explaining to her that it will look like my drivers license but for her it would just be a form of identification. She wanted to know what all you had to do to get a drivers license and as I was going through all the things that had to be done it reminded me of getting my license.

We had a company (I guess?) that came to the school every year and we took drivers education with them during the school day. They had a portable building that housed the driving simulators. It was always fun to see who would get the simulator that was broken for the day. Mostly what I remember about the simulator was it was a fun silly time of the day when you did not have class.

Once you could prove that you could fake drive via the simulator you had to clock in your actual driving hours. My drivers ed teacher was one of the coaches at the school and he he took full advantage of having 3 kids drive him around to get his errands run. We always drove out to check on his cows and many other various errands that needed to be done. Maybe this is why I am so efficient in running errands?

For the written exam that had us all sit in the cafeteria and take the test. If I remember right they even had us exchange papers and grade them for the instructors. Yeah that was a good idea.

When it came time to take my driving exam the parallel parking poles had been stolen a couple of days before. So the person giving me the driving portion of the exam asked me if I knew how to parallel park and when I said yes, they just shrugged and made me drive around the block, back up a few feet and honk the horn. After passing that grueling driving test I had my bright new shiny drivers license.