Sunday, January 3, 2010

Driving without a license...

I just knew when I turned 16 that I would wake up and see a new red convertible mustang sitting in the driveway with a big bow on top. Dad handed me keys all right-to the old Ford tractor sitting by the barn. That was how I was to learn to drive. I was mortified. The fact that the entire country was in a deep recession and my father was a farmer with 7 children had not entered at all into my thinking. Eventually I decided that driving in circles around our tiny white house beat sitting in my parent's living room, watching Loveboat with them. Round and round I went on my big white, rusty ride. My dad decided I was road ready and then gave me my big surprise. It was a pick up that he had welded together from two unfortunate trucks-the front end was green and the back was red. The front cab had a hole rusted through the floorboards the size of a basketball. You just planted your feet on either side while riding shotgun. I glanced longingly at my old tractor, sitting there. I knew it well. I knew how it could take a curve. I had a cushion on the metal seat. Then I realized my ticket out of there would have to go faster than 5 miles an hour. I grabbed the keys to the truck and ran.

3 comments:

Rick Nilson said...

you had it good, why when I was a boy, the only thing we had to drive was a dead dairy cow. and we took turns chewing on a piece of bacon fat on a string, and we made shoes out of pieces of corn husks, and we were the richest farmers in the region and we liked it.

Eben said...

I love it.

whimsygal said...

that is hilarious!!