CONFESS!!!! Your horror stories from when you first learn to drive

[LynneSin]

Come on, we all probably did something bizarre at least once when we first learn to drive

Me? I managed to drive the truck I was driving (Yes, I learn to drive on a Ford F150) into our front yard mere inches from the tree in the middle of the yard. Sure, this may seem like nothing to many of you folks, but my house was built on the side of a small mountain in Perry County (Felonious Thunk can vouch for that one) and our front yard was somewhat steep.

But in general, I did really well in driver ed's class and they sent me to take my drivers license test as soon as my hours were complete. But unfortunately I woke up that morning with my period and the absol-fucking-lutely worst cramps of all time. I ended up parking 2 feet away from the curb in my parellel parking and I failed to stop at a stop sign for the full 3 seconds. I swore the guy was going to fail me but somehow he saw through the tears in my eyes and passed me (The 2 other girls with me both failed - but they got female testers who were notoriously harsh on them)


So tell us your stories of how you learned how to drive - come on, fess up, what was the worse thing you did!!

[GOPisEvil]

1. Keeping a LONG line of traffic waiting behind me because I stalled out.

I started freaking out and couldn't get the car re-started, and my dad was yelling at me, which wasn't helping. I finally got the thing moved, but it wasn't pretty...

[smada]

2. I had a couple

I kept killing the engine when I was learning to drive a stick shift. I got stuck at a red light going up hill and just could not keep from killing it. I had a line of cars behind me honking. Another time, I went to move a friend's car and instead of pressing the brake I kept pressing the clutch, as the car continued rolling backwards downhill, picking up momentum, until I finally ran it into a ditch and crumpled the trunk.

But probably my worst "OMG" moment when learning to drive wasn't something I did, but something someone else did. It was when I was in driver's ed in high school, and went out for my first road test. There were three of us students and the instructor. I took my turn first and did well. Then the instructor asked one of the other students to take the driver's seat. When she sat down, she looked down at the pedals and asked (in all seriousness), "Which one makes it go?" At that point I asked if I could be let out of the car.

[trof]

3. Hit a pedestrian

on the way home from getting my license at age 16.
My mom was with me. Had to show up for driver's test accompanied by a licensed driver.
We were in rush hour traffic, and barely creeping along.
All of a sudden, in the middle of the block, NOT at a crossing, a man and woman were in front of me and then she was flopping around on the hood. We could see no injuries to either of them.
Scared the bejesus out of me.
They filed a claim against my insurance company.
Although the company suspected they were professional "victims" (cons) they paid them a couple of hundred bucks to get rid of them.
This was in 1957.
Welcome to the world, baby boy.
:grr:

[fudge stripe cookays]

4. First, I scared the living crap out of my driver's ed teacher.

This guy was unflappable. Had a perma-smile pasted to his face, and looked like Benny Hill. Very nice guy. And you never saw him freak out about anything!

But I managed to change all that. I was making a right turn out onto North Lamar (VERY BUSY STREET) in the far north area of town. Then, for you Austinites, I was going to make an almost immediate left turn onto Fairfield, near the Dairy Queen.

Mr. P calmly said "Okay, now we're going to make a right, and then we're going to get into the left TURN lane." (The TURN was the part I missed.)

I turned out onto Lamar into the left LANE and stopped. "The TURN LANE!" "The TURN LANE!" he kept crying. I was flustered, and as traffic began braking suddenly behind me, he suddenly had to take control of the steering wheel, had me hit the gas slightly, and moved us over before a major accident occurred. (Oops! Sorry Mr. P!)

My first time taking the test, I ran over the flag parallel parking. I failed. The second time, I passed with an 84. I did pretty okay after that. 1 accident in 83 not too soon after getting my license, 1 in 86, and only 2 tickets between 87 and 89.

[Lars39]

5. Met a huge gravel truck on the old and very narrow TN river bridge

the first time I was behind the wheel in Driver's Ed. Scared the crap out of Everybody. :o

[Unperson 309]

6. WIERDEST moment of my whole life!

About six to eight months after I got my license. Passing on a two-lane road. As I swung out, I suddenly saw another vehicle headed straight AT us! My Mom (riding shotgun) screamed which further unnerved me.

The next few moments are an utter blank! I absolutely do NOT remember so much as a glimmer! Nothing! I don't know if I blacked out, went into a fugue state, aliens abducted me or what... next thing I remember is driving along *safely* in our own lane with my Mom saying "Honey, that was the BEST piece of driving I've EVER seen! Now, I don't want to talk about it EVER again, and don't you DARE tell your father! And if you ever pull that stunt again, I SWEAR we'll disown you!"

Huh?!

What'd I DO?!! Teleport? Levitate the car? Timeshift? Fly?!!

Maybe I'm better off not knowing.

309

[geniph]

7. I backed into a parked car in driver's ed

and the instructor - I KID YOU NOT - heard the tinkle of breaking headlight glass and told me to leave the scene. Now, this is horrifying, I grant you, but over the years, I've realized what was up. See, our high school wasn't that far from the University of Washington, and the instructor usually had us drive up to frathouse row to practice parallel parking. The car I hit was clearly a fratboy's. That doesn't make it right, but the instructor obviously was working out some kind of personal issues there. He used to make us practice parallel parking in these TINY spaces between expensive cars. Hmmm...

I was just so freaked by my first accident that I did as I was told and drove back to the school. It was later, in retrospect, that the whole thing struck me as irretrievably weird.