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Driving

Katie3

By Katie3,
in Tongue-Tied Lightning

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JUDE

JUDE

Posted
Posted

It's too dark

to put the keys

in my ignition,

And the mornin' sun is yet

to climb my hood ornament.

But before too long I might

see those flashing red lights

Look out, mama,

'cause I'm comin' home tonight.

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GtrPlyr

GtrPlyr

Posted
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MILLER: "I do my best thinking on the bus. That's how come I don't drive, see?"

 

OTTO: "You don't even know how to drive."

 

MILLER: "I don't wanna know how. I don't wanna learn. See? The more you drive, the less intelligent you are.

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viatroy

viatroy

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Now that I think about it, my driving mishaps have all involved backing into things. Hindsight is 20/20? That might explain it.

 

That time I flipped my van in a snow whiteout just doesn't count ... acts of God.

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mountain bed

mountain bed

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My parents had an old beat-up '71 Pinto Runabout (lovingly referred to as "The Thrasher") that my friends & I would steal when it was possible to do so. The gearshift had broken at some point & there was a vise grip attached so you could shift. Plus, every time you would let go of the steering wheel it would veer HARD left. That thing was a true party wagon!

 

I occasionally get uptight in heavy traffic anymore (like when going to the big cities). There are just SO many more cars on the road now than there were 30 years ago when I started driving. I'm so glad I live in the middle of nowhere...unless there's a concert or something I rarely have to drive on the superhighways.

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OOO

OOO

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I was once on the way to a homecoming dance when I was 16. I had gotten my license and so I decided I'd drive. It was raining pretty bad. On the way to the dance, some street was flooded, and I decided it looked like it would be fun to go through it. The water was too deep and the engine stopped (I think water filled the exhaust pipe? no idea). Anyhow, I had to roll my pants all the way up to my thighs, get out, and pushed the car out of the water while my buddy steered. Somehow it worked.

 

I also backed up into a car once and sped away right after I got my license. I didn't get out, but the parked car didn't look like it had too much damage.

 

I, too, deeply regret it.

 

P.S. I got free Drivers Ed in school and this was only 6 years ago.

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mountain bed

mountain bed

Posted
Posted
P.S. I got free Drivers Ed in school and this was only 6 years ago.

Driver's Ed here now costs in the neighborhood of $300-400. :pirate

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Oil Can Boyd

Oil Can Boyd

Posted
Posted
MILLER: "I do my best thinking on the bus. That's how come I don't drive, see?"

OTTO: "You don't even know how to drive."

MILLER: "I don't wanna know how. I don't wanna learn. See? The more you drive, the less intelligent you are.

Nice! I watched that movie not too long ago for the first time in years.

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jimmyjimmy

jimmyjimmy

Posted
Posted
Oh, do tell!

Ok.

 

 

Monty M.

 

Monty was a stocky rambunctious kid I'd know since kindergarten. His pop was a mechanic by trade. A big burly man with a barrel chest, wild beard and a vocabulary comprised of a series of monosyllabic grunts: A nice man, if a little intimidating.

 

Monts and I weren't best friends but we hung around a lot. I'm pretty certain he hadn't told a soul the old man had bought him a 72 Impala and that they'd been working on getting it road ready. So when he showed up at school one morning driving a rumbling freshly painted black behemoth it was a surprise to us all.

 

It sounded nasty! And I mean that in the best possible way. How on Gods Earth Mr. M. ever logically justified giving a car like that to a kid like Monts was then and still is beyond me. Anyway...he pulls up in this beast and we are all in awe. We all swarm around it inspecting all the shiny bits and take turns stabbing at the accelerator just to hear the engine roar.

 

It's just 10 minutes before class starts but Monty is desperate to take us out for a spin. Everyone turns him down flat as most of us are already on the Veep's shit list. Except me. I love cars and at this point I'm a bored senior who only needs two credits to graduate but is still relegated/subjected to High School for six-eight hours a day. "Hell yeah, I'll ride" and we're off.

 

It took about five minutes after we pulled out for Monty to wreck that car. Mind you, this was his first day driving it and the day after he'd gotten his license. He ran it into a four or five foot tall embankment in front of some nice old lady's house clipping at least two or three of her pretty Dogwoods off at their base. It looked as if a bulldozer had plowed into that spot moving the Earth a few feet forward. In the residential neighborhood, we'd sped down a steep hill taking the turn at the bottom way too fast, careening through at least two front lawns and snapping off a mail box that I still distinctly remember spidering the windshield right in front of my face.

 

When he managed to get the car back on the asphalt;( His foot still hard on the gas...Monty was freaking out and I'm pretty sure we were both screaming at this point ) he was headed straight for a garbage man loading a can into the back of the truck. Thus the need to swerve hard left careening into the bank.

 

And, all of that is interesting in a rubbernecking train wreck sort of way. But the things I remember most besides that goddamn mailbox, is the old lady taking us into her basement to call the police and Monty's dad respectively. Monty, in a full blown panic attack/breakdown at this point, sobbing uncontrollably and the lady offering us tea while we wait: I decline and bail. Having missed T.A. I reason I can still make it to Psych. class on time and Monts is ok with me leaving as I already am dealing with another "issue" that this little event will only make worse.

 

On the walk back, Mr. M. passes me driving his own tow truck. He knows me. Even in the utter blackness of the cab of that truck I can see his narrowed eyes from underneath the bill of his cap turning on me as he glides slowly by. His huge left arm filling up the door frame.

 

Monts never did get that car back. I forget what he eventually ended up driving, some piece of sh*t like the rest of us, certainly. His dad fixed it back good as new and sold it. I never made it back to class that day either. By the time I got back to grounds I was feeling a bit shocky and freaky. I hung around for awhile tho, trying to calm down, chain smoking in my car. They drove by me sitting there, Montie and his dad with the broken Chevy in tow. To this day I don't believe I've ever seen anyone look more pitiful and dejected as Monty did sitting there that morning.

 

Hadn't thought of this in years. I need to give that boy a call...

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j4lackey

j4lackey

Posted
Posted

Jimmy, you do tell a good story (you should do that more often around here), but it breaks my heart for your poor friend.

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