What was it like learning to Drive?

 WHAT WAS IT LIKE LEARNING TO DRIVE IN 1953?

Well first of all, the only person who owned a car with an automatic shift was my high school library teacher (who became my sister-in-law later). Ruth had polio when she was 15 and her left side as left weak so it was imperative that she have an automatic transmission in her car and with turn signal lights. SO... I learned to drive a stick shift. I still can if necessary.

Secondly, I had no one to ‘teach’ me during the daytime. I would drive Daddy’s 1949 Chevrolet from the front of our house to the back and back around to the front, over and over until I got really good at backing. Eventually, Daddy would let me drive on back roads until I was comfortable (and he was comfortable) with letting me drive. Patsy Johnson, my next door neighbor and a good friend would ride with me up the Fayette highway to Ruth Junkin’s drive where I would pull in and back out into the highway and go back home. I never dreamed at that time that I would someday live in that beautiful white farmhouse. I knew Ruth, Ralph and Clatus lived there but it was a year before I met Thomas.

On my 16th birthday, Patsy rode with me to take the test for my license. I passed the written exam and when I went out to take my driving exam, I had a flat tire. Well, I CERTAINLY did not know how to change at tire at that time (learned many years later) so I don’t remember but I probably got my Aunt Julia who worked in the court house to call someone for me to change the tire. The instructor may have called. Uncle Robert was County Agent in Pickens County and they lived in Carrollton (the county seat) so he may have helped.

A side note: By the way, I later worked in the court house and it’s the one with the man’s face in the window. After graduation, I took a cut in my $5.00 a day pay for the four prior years plus paying Mr. Floyd to ride with him from Gordo to Carrollton.

After I learned to drive, Daddy bought a NEW car. A brown Pontiac and the first time we went to Pa & Ma Davis’ house to ‘show it off’, Daddy let me drive Dorothy, Betty Lou and Irene to the movies. Yes, it was Sunday and yes, we had attended church that morning. Most roads were dirt back in those ancient days and on the way home, someone had driven small stakes up on the right side of the road. And, YES, I ruined a tire (a brand new tire-on Daddy’s first ever brand new car) by running over a spike and breaking it off into the tire. I know he must have been infuriated at it happening but he was not angry with me. He was a good Daddy in that way. He knew I could not help it.

On one of my first long trips, Mother and I went to see her sister in Birmingham. I was driving and a friend was with us. We sang as we drove (no radio) and Mother said, “Quit singing, the faster you sing, the faster you drive”.

One dark, rainy night we headed from Gordo to Winfield to see Ma & Pa. A truck had jack knifed across the road. We were singing, “When We All Get To Heaven” when Daddy hit a farmer’s cornfield which was actually below the road to miss the truck. We had been harmonizing quite well until we realized what we were singing when the accident happened. Fortunately, I don’t remember there being any damage to the car. I think we were able to drive out of the field and continue on our journey.

Other than having a ‘heavy foot’ before cruise control, I don’t think I have had any bad driving habits. I have had one speeding ticket after Thomas died. Mother was in the hospital about a year after he died and I was driving home from the hospital where I had spent the night. I was pulled over in Good Hope, Cullman, Alabama, by a State Trooper for going about 60 in a 45 MPH zone. I hardly ever drive without cruise now. One ticket in my lifetime is sufficient for anyone.

So, for you descendants who don’t know what a ‘car’ is, it was usually an automobile with four wheels that is run on gasoline (more recently also on electricity) and is our private mode of transportation. As you zip or fly around the sky, just think, we could only do that in an airplane, helicopter, or maybe a hot air balloon.