Tag Archives: drivers license

DRIVING LESSONS

It’s a rite of passage in our country– learning how to drive.  From the time I first became a teenager, I lived for getting my permit at age 15 and my license at 16.  It was the longest wait of my life. 

All my childhood I loved playing with little toy cars– the cheap ones made out of five inches of molded plastic.  My neighbor Cathy and I would play for hours with them, making roads in the dirt with our hands until our hands were raw and caked with red dirt.  It only took one summer rain shower to  obliterate our little homemade town of highways, streets, and driveways, but we were always eager to get back out there the next day and make new ones. When I was playing cars, I was driving those cars in my mind.

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“LOVE” RULES

peace-and-loveThe year was 1972.  Nixon was president, the Vietnam war was raging, and the evening television news was all about student unrest.  It seemed like rebelling against all manner of authority was in the air.  Some did it through music and strange wardrobe choices.  Others rebelled through drug use and the rejection of moral norms.  My parents were quite strict, so I had lots of limits on expressing personal rebellion.  Dad was a World War 2 vet.  Rebellion against authority wasn’t something that went down smoothly in the Sims home.  But, alas,  I found a way to do it.   I did it, primarily, by running my mouth.

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