A Driving Test Flashback
I am sitting here watching “Alexander And The Horrible, Terrible, Very Bad Day” (not really the inspirational movie I should be watching, but since it is a comedy, and I really needed the laugh and actually see someone having it worse than me to appreciate what I am dealing with and nothing more).
Anyway, there is a part of the movie, where the teenage boy is going for his driving license test. And of course, adjusted for 21st century issues, such as having a cell phone in the car, it was the very beginning of the actual driving test for the teen that caused me to remember an incident that I witnessed decades ago while going for my driver’s license.
I believe it is a law everywhere, that a driver in training must always be accompanied by a licensed driver. And evidently it depended on the instructor supervising the exam how literal this requirement would be. But in front of me, was a fellow teenager, whose mother had gotten out of the vehicle to allow the instructor to get into the car at the entrance to the driving test course. Seemed like the polite thing to do.
Up ahead from the vehicle, approximately 50 feet, was the instructor, seemingly pleasant, who with a simple gesture, a wave of her hand for the inexperienced driver (inexperienced in the art of being literal as well), motioned for the teenager to pull the car forward for the instructor to get into the vehicle.
Yep. The instructor failed the teenager for driving without a licensed driver. Perhaps the instructor was having a really horrible, terrible, very bad day herself, or maybe just was a really mean person. But as my mother had already gotten out of my vehicle, just as the mother in front of us, I could not motion quickly enough for my mother to get back into my car.
Spoiler alert, of course, just as the movie portrayed, the teen driver suffered all kinds of issues during his exam. But for those have seen the movie, here are some important tips if you will be having a teenage driver soon.
1. NO DRIVING THE CAR WITHOUT A LICENSED DRIVER – even as a courtesy to the instructor
2. Do not use the cell phone during the exam, actually ever should be the rule
3. Of course, hands at 10 and 2 o’clock
I am sure there are more, but with my daughters four years or more away from driving, I will worry about that later.
Paul's Heart 