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My First DriveMy birthday is December 20, so shortly after my 16th birthday, I got my learner's permit. It was a snowy day and night. I helped my dad shovel show out from in front of the garage where it would drift. Then we put chains on the car so that he could drive to work in the morning. I don't know why I was doing all this with my dad. I didn't really work with him that often. Once in a while I would go with him on electrical jobs, but I mostly watched, not helped.
When we had the chains on the car, it was pretty late in the evening, maybe 10PM. He said, "Are you ready to go for a drive?" I was stunned. I said, "You mean now?" He said, "Sure, why not?"
Having no good reason not to, we got in the car and headed out. We started down Dunbar Road which went by our house. I drove about a mile south and just before we got to the railroad tracks we came into a huge drift. We weren't going fast.. it was my first drive on the road, and it was snowing and there was plenty of snow on the road. So as we started plowing into this drift I slowed down and eventually the snow was even with the hood of the car. It was a 1968 Plymouth Fury. The hood was squared off in front so the snow must have been about two feet of more deep.
Anyway, when the snow was even with the top of the hood, I stopped (the car stopped) and my dad said, ?I don't think we're going to be able to go any further.? So we backed up about a quarter mile back the road before we found a driveway to back into so that we could turn around and go back home. It was a short drive but memorable. I mentioned it to dad a month or so ago, and he didn't remember it.
This story is probably more about my dad than about me. But what he was/is, certaily has much to do with who I am. I took my kids out to drive in the snow when they were learning to drive, because its part of driving here in Ohio. |
