Time Travel Tuesday

September 22nd 1999

10 years ago, to the day... I was going to take my driver's license test for the first time. My aunt Tammy let me use her car and she waited with me while I took both the writing and the driving portions of the test. I had not taken any driver's education classes and my mom didn't let me practice that much. I felt ready... a little nervous, but ready.

I flew through the written test and passed with flying colors. Ok, I may have gotten a couple wrong but some of those questions are worded weird. I know you know what I am talking about. None-the-less, I passed that portion.

Next was the driving portion. The part where I had to drive the car with a rent-a-cop passenger grading my driving. I was only slightly nervous. I had several people telling me not to wait too long to pull out onto Heatherdowns and definitely not to pull out too quickly. This was the only part of the driving test that had me nervous.

It was the middle of the afternoon and traffic on Heatherdowns was crazy. I sat there in the driver's seat waiting and waiting and waiting some more for a clearing where I could pull out. Turning left there at anytime was a challenge. I saw a clearing and I went for it. Apparently the rent-a-cop did NOT. She grabbed a hold of the steering wheel and made me stop in the turn lane in the middle of the 4 lane road. I wanted to smack her. What the hell?! She was thinking the same about me and she actually said, "What the hell?!" I guess I scared the crap out of her but in my defense... there was plenty of room to pull out. I couldn't wait forever for NO cars AT ALL.

I finished the test, more nervous than I had started and I wasn't sure what would happen. She didn't say more than necessary to me the entire time I was driving and even as we got back to the station she still looked as white as a ghost.

Needless to say, I failed. Apparently "pulling out into traffic" is an automatic failure. Wish she would have just let me stop there and not waste everyone's time while I finished the remainder of the driving test. I could come back in a week to retake the driving portion.

So there I was, 18 going on 19 and still did not have my driver's license. I mean, up until then I didn't need it. I had a boyfriend to drive me around and friends close by if need be. Now I didn't have that... I needed to find a new job, my mom was moving and I had graduated high school. I was in a bind.

Stay tuned for next week's addition to see how my retest goes.