On the way to renew my DRIVERS LICENSE yesterday, i passed some ORANGE CONES by some street work being done. That combination along with my BIRTHDAY tomorrow, Sept. 25, created another FLASHBACK MOMENT for me, and especially one experience leading up to my 16th birthday and getting my FIRST DRIVERS LICENSE, an adventure for my driving instructor, Mr. Knott, one he probably would have loved to forget. -------------- Poor Mr. Knott, and poor Dave Behrens, my driving partner for behind-the-wheel, on this particular morning. The day I refer to here, was the culmination of all instruction to get my 1st Drivers License. Clearly, I saved the best til last! It was a mid morning class on a beautiful sunny day. Where Daves County Market is, was the Merrill Woolen Mills, and south and east of it, was a huge rock and dirt parking lot. Its proximity to the high school gave Mr. Knott, the Drivers Ed. Instructor, plenty of room to teach, or to challenge his patience, in my case, in the art and skill of testing our depth perception, by seeing how close we could drive up to and back up to, the strategically placed orange cones without hitting them. And, as you will shortly see, I gave poor Mr.Knott a session to rememberon this particular exercise. Dave began driving that day, and he did an expert job, driving up close to the cones, and back, with me watching (actually thinking who I was going to meet by my locker after this class was over), and hearing Mr. Knott complementing Dave on a job well done. OK, Linda, lets see how well you can do this exercise, Mr. Knott said, in his nice, well-kept brown suit with shirt, tie and his wire rims, flipping the page on his brown clipboard. I got out, walked to drivers side, eyeing up those cones as I passed by, feeling confident that this exercise would be a piece of cake! Go ahead, Linda. Starting the car with great confidence and an air of nonchalance, I put it in Drive, and slowly inched forward, braking, advancing... braking, advancing...peripherally watching Mr.Knott as he was thrust forward, then backwards, forward, then backwards in his seat, as I inched my way to those cones. I stopped. Mr. Knott exhaled and got out to check. Well done, Linda! You are close, but you did not knock them over. Now, lets see if you can do that as well, backing up. (Im thinking how close it was to when I could meet my friends by my locker. One Reverse, and I am on my way!!) Ok, Mr.Knott, here we go, i said (but actually that should have been more of a warning!) Foot on brake, clutch in Reverse, arm on back of seat, mirrors checked, foot moved to the accelerator, looking over my shoulder, the car began to move, slowly, creeping back, creeping back, and then......... CLUNK. Mr. Knott said, STOP!!! as he quickly hit the brake on his side of the car. What was that noise?, sounding like the bottom fell out of the Drivers Ed. car. He got out, looked in back. Came back to the car. Linda, you ran over the cones!! Pull ahead. Embarrassed, and a bit flustered, aiming to correct my mistake, i grabbed the wheel, looked back, and ....CLUNK, CLUNK, CLUNK, even worse than before! STOP, LINDA!!!! Put the car in Park! Mr. Knott got out. I saw him shaking his head. Couldnt be a good sign, I thought. What happened, I asked when he came back to the car. I could not imagine! You ran them completely over, and now they are under the car! And, Linda, always remember that when you want to go ahead, you must put the car in Drive !!! he said. Now do that, and drive forward. (So THATs what happened...oops! Still in Reverse! Ill have to pay better attention to that detail, I thought! Make note for my Road Test: PUT CAR IN DRIVE TO GO AHEAD! ) Moving the dial to D, I pressed the accelerator, i guess a bit too hard, and lunged forward abruptly. STOP!!!, that familiar voice again. He hit his brake again. Mr. Knott once again dragged himself out of the car. I did not fix the problem. That plan did not work! Those big orange cones were now locked firmly in place, lodged underneath the car, and there were now two deep gouge strips in the parking lot where I had just been. Oh, boy!!! I put it in Park, got out, and watched poor Mr Knott, on his knees in his brown, dress suit, head under the car, slapping at those cones with his clipboard, hoping to dislodge them, so he would not end up under the car, so he could get this hour over with, and probably asking himself why he chose this field for his lifes career in the first place. He finally pulled them out and threw them in the trunk. After apologizing for falling short on my back-up skills, we got back in the car, Mr. Knot brushing, wiping and shaking dust off his brown suit. Just as i was about to take my place in the Drivers seat, I heard Mr. Knotts voice say, Well, I think that Is enough for you today, Linda. Lets let Dave drive back. So, I jumped in the back seat thinking I had a good story to tell when I got to my locker at the end of the hour. But, I did feel bad about Mr. Knott and his nice brown suit, and I marveled at his patience with me through all of that. And, I did actually learn something that day: When trying to dislodge cones from under your car, accelerate only AFTER taking the car out of Reverse!!! --------------- And, thus my thoughts, my FLASHBACK MOMENT, as I stood in line waiting to get my DRIVERS LICENSE renewed, before my BIRTHDAY tomorrow, thinking how lucky I was way back then, to have gotten my license at all, my license ..... to cruise the streets ... in Our Hometown, Merrill. (Linda English Kautza)
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 20:39:00 +0000
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