Fall of 1978 – I Learned to Drive
One of my fondest memories of my grandfather is when he taught me to drive. It’s still 1978, and it’s fall. The oaks are turning colors in the woods, there is the smell of wood smoke in the air because Memaw has fired up her wood cook stove to make breakfast.
Now, you must understand, my grandfather, or Papaw as we called him, was a man of few words at times. He had two Honda N600’s, (see picture) and one that had been turned into a sort of pickup. It was a farm vehicle, he had twenty-eight acres and needed something he could take out and get around in.
(This isn’t the car but you get the idea. Our was gray and more crudely done. Sadly I don’t have any pictures of it, though my cousins or aunts and uncles might.)
The man was six feet four and around two hundred and forty pounds. But he’d cram his big frame into that little bitty car. The one that was not a farm vehicle was his fishing vehicle. They got roughly fifty-three miles per gallon and would go forever on a tank of gas. One morning, I hear the “little car” as we called it, roll up at my house. I go outside, and Papaw is waiting.
He says, “Come on, boy.” So, I hop in and ask where we are going.
He says, “Gonna teach you to drive.” I was ten. I was a bit scared and excited at the same time. I loved that little car and it looked like so much fun to drive. It was also a stick shift. He takes me out to his open field, stops and kills the motor. He then proceeds to show me the gear shift pattern, how to work the clutch, gas, etc. I am hyped up at this point, I’m gonna learn to drive!
Papaw says, “You understand what I told you?”
I nod. “Yes sir.”
“Come on,” he says as he gets out of the driver’s side.
I hop out and head to the drivers side fully expecting him to get in the passenger’s side in case I have any questions.
He doesn’t. He starts walking back towards the house.
I hop out and holler, “Papaw? Where you going?”
He turns back, his brow wrinkled, as if confused by my question. “Back to house, I ain’t riding with you. Bring the car back to the house when you learn how to drive.”
And that’s how I learned how to drive.
I must have killed that car ten times just trying to get it going. Then once I was able to drive a few circles in first gear, I switched to second. Woohoo! Faster! Then third! I was cutting doughnuts and having a good ol time. After about forty-five minutes, I felt like I had a decent control of the car and so I drove it back up to house, feeling very proud of myself.
But with knowledge comes power and with power you get…responsibility! Now that I could drive, certain chores that involved the car were mine. Little did I know! But just the fact that he trusted me with his car, gave me a sense of pride in doing those chores. And I did them without question and without any argument. Later on, my cousin James and I would hop in that little car and hit the oil-top roads in search of tin can treasures that we could gather up and take to Safeway to sell.
Later in life, I would teach my own son how to drive and before him, two sisters in law, and in doing that it always brings back those memories of him “teaching” me to drive.
“I ain’t riding with you.” I think back to that now and laugh, I wouldn’t ride with a ten-year-old either!
(This is what the other car looked like, the one we took fishing. Same model same year, we must have driven that thing a million miles before it finally gave out.)
The “little car”
It served many purposes on that small farm. At times, he’d lay a piece of counter top down in the back of it, pull up a chair and clean the fish he’d caught that day. Other times, it would be used to haul feed to the barn, or wood, or just to take a gaggle of grandkids down the oil-top road and let them laugh with the wind in their hair and a smile on their faces.
Once he took the grandkids out and we gathered muscadine grapes. He made some wine with them but that’s another story.
(That’s my grandfather in the ball cap with his brother, cleaning fish. My cousins, James and Joe crowded around watching. You can see part of the side of the little car and the old piece of counter top he used.)
It’s amazing how an inanimate object can hold so many memories. That is one thing we share as humans, we all have these cherished moments with someone that touched us. I was blessed to have my grandparents so close by.
What are you cherished moments? What memories do you hold dear?
I have so many memories of that little car but the ones that stand out the most are your brother, Phil that was like my brother daring me to stick my finger in the cigarette lighter because it couldn’t possibly work anymore in a car that old. Well it did! I think he felt bad after laughing a minute! Then there was the story of Jason and Sand I think fighting in the back of it and one throwing another out the back. That would sound horrible to the generation today but back then it was horse play. Besides that I remember many trips to the “dump” in the little car. Around 6th to 7th grade I got into athletics and track so I started running laps around that pasture. Papaw warned me that if I heard a scream like the worst scream you could ever imagine to just stay still. I think it was a panther he said was on the property? I didn’t stay still. I ran!!! For some reason now I’m thinking of our dogs, Trouble, our German Shepherd, Spunker…I can’t remember all of them but I remember them all being attacked by a possible rabid animal?
All of those memories, just takes you back doesn’t it? To a time when life was simpler. I feel like as a kid I took so much of it for granted. Like it would always be there, just waiting for my return should I ever leave. But alas, it’s not that way.
Yeah there was mountain lion roaming in those woods. Paw and I tracked it once, in the snow. It had slept in the barn! I remember Trouble and Spunker, Jake. If I remember correctly your German Shepherd was named Big Un, and her pup was called Little Un, even though he was bigger than her?
There was a skunk once that came into ya’lls yard, your dad killed it and sent the head to TPW. It was rabid. Sad day that.
So many memories. I love reliving them. 🙂
Omg what a stroll down memory lane! I think that’s how we all learned drive 😉 wonderful
It is! LOL He didn’t treat anyone of us any differently from the rest, did he? 🙂
I hold memories of YOU dear, big brother. There was less than two years age difference between us. I could go all sentimental and talk about how you were so sweet to come home from school toss your books down and run to the kindergarten school I was at to walk me home to make sure no one was mean to me. I always thought mom made you until I found out this was something you took upon yourself. You were my best buddy and worst enemy all in one!!! We laugh at our antics from childhood even now. We went through a difficult childhood together, hurt for each other in silence, played hard, fought hard, and hated each other with all the love in our hearts. We played Slap Jack with Maw-Maw’s deck of cards on the front porch paw-paw built. Also played gin rummy. We hunted lizards and grasshoppers in the summer heat with Maw-maw always fussing at us to watch for snakes. You were an avid reader even then and let me borrow your Encyclopedia Brown Mysteries to read. At 8 I started writing my own silly mystery stories because of those books. You are my big brother. I’m proud of that fact and always have been. You even inspired me to try to pee standing up when I was about four years old because I figured if you could do it I should try it too. (It didn’t go to well.) I finally quit trying to learn that trick a couple of years ago. You have great strength in your tenacity and sheer determination. I have seen the best and worst of you just as you have me. The thing that makes me proudest of you is that I still see you growing and developing as a person and a writer. You’re still a mean terd but you’re a loveable one!!! Just wanted to let you know some of my best childhood memories are from chasing your heels trying to keep up and living our own childhood adventures despite everything life threw at us. I love you brother. Always and forever.
Wow, you are way better with words than I am! I love you too, little sister! I am so glad that we as a family are still so close and that nothing comes between us. It means so much to me! I have tons of memories of us as kids. The antics we pulled in Garland. How we met Thad and Jody. The good and the bad. I remember dad getting stung a zillion times by bumble bees and being afraid he was going to die. Do you remember hiding from that mouse we had in the house in Garland? We climbed up on the washer so he couldn’t get us! 😀
To tell our whole story will take many years, but we’ll get it done. It’s worth telling, it’s ours, and needs to be told.
So many memories, and we all have to tell the story.