Adventures in Teenaged Driving

Reaching the required age to obtain a drivers’ license is a huge goal for most teens and pre-teens. However, as it is obviously known, there are a few stops before arriving at that desired destination. Such as studying the DDS Handbook, passing the test and surviving the first time on the main road.

First-time experiences can sometimes be quite humorous, while some are memorable. From stopping at a green light—like myself—or not stopping on red. Thus, I have asked a few individuals, who have now driven for a number of years, to shed light on one of their first-hand-experiences with being in the driver’s seat. 

“My earliest memories of driving are with my dad,” shared Rev. Boyd Miller, “on the country gravel road that led to our remote lake house. I was underage and really wasn’t supposed to be driving, but the road where I first practiced may as well have been a private road. Whenever we would get to our own street, my dad would swap places with me and let me drive to the house.”

Renee Ravenhorst also revealed, “After school, everybody would go get something to eat. [One day] a friend and I took separate cars. We were driving down a road side by side, laughing and having a good old time. I swerved over and threw a cup of ice in my friend’s window, being silly. I looked up and saw a green truck with blue lights, a man driving and pointing to me to pull over. I pulled over and it was a Park Ranger. He said, ‘I may only be a Park Ranger, but I have every right in this world to arrest you.’ He scared me and to this day Park Rangers gives me anxiety.”

Other laughable moments are the parent instructors. I’ve come to the conclusion that there are two types of parents; the ones who are generally calmer—perhaps even checks Facebook while you’re in front of the wheel—and the ones whose knuckles turn white from gripping tightly to the door handle, constantly bracing for impact. However, it’s not always the parent who teaches, such as Susan Baskin’s story:

“When I first got my first car, a hand-me-down Ford Pinto, it was stick shift and I didn’t know how to drive a stick shift. I was determined to drive it, nonetheless. I took off down the street and it quit three or four times on me. At the end of the street one of our neighbors, an elderly man saw I was having trouble, got in the car with me and taught me how to drive a stick shift!”

After each teenager has successfully completed each of these steps and more, including at least one memorable moment, they now qualify to hop in a car with a total stranger and act as their chauffeur for an hour or two to finally obtain the long-awaited and sometimes coveted drivers’ license.