Jimmie
ENG-101
September 11, 2002
Remembered Event

The main theme I am researching is driving so dealing with my essay, I would like to talk about two of the most memorable events from driving: learning to drive and other people’s stupidity. My very first experience driving was when my Aunt Linda took me out to show my where there was an airport going to be built. Little old me, a sixteen year old, having just gotten my license, wanted to drive so bad. So I asked her if I could drive us out and back. Before you get too worried I guess I should tell you that my aunt lives in Milton, a very small town and she lives about ten miles out a country road. So with the thought of little traffic on the road and my pleading to drive, there came the response, “OK.” The road was a tiny gravel road and when I got in her full-size van (I don’t know if you’ve ever driven a full-size van with driving experience, needless to say it’s a little different than driving a normal automobile) she started to direct me on what to do and how to put it in gear among numerous other things. So there I am finally driving, not too bad for my first time if I do say so myself. Then, came the first curve, don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate curves, I just think they should be a great deal more strait and if you have ever driven on a country road you know even more about what I’m saying. To my surprise she let me feel the curve out and go through it myself, the whole time never acting nervous. The only things she told me was something that I still think of today sometimes when I go around a curve, it’s nothing groundbreaking or amazingly profound, but only something that was humorous and easy to remember, “Slowly Do I Turn.” To me it sounded like one of the “Ten Commandments” and that was what made it humorous and even though she was giving directions, she was doing it in a way that a young man‘s ego wouldn’t be bruised.
My second memorable, but not so happy experience driving was in June of last year (I also think that this is where my hate and lack of trust in other drivers comes from). I was driving Sarah home from my house that night about 9:00 pm and after dropping her off was on my way back to my house with my ex-girlfriend (big mistake, you don’t even want me to go there) in the car with me. As I went around a very sharp curve, going a very reasonable speed, I saw headlights as I came around the curve. I mean seeing headlights are a normal occurrence for most people, BUT NOT WHEN THEY ARE IN YOUR LANE!!!! Sorry, got a little excited there, anyway my first reaction (as so not to get hit) was to try to get out of his way by drifting to the right to make more room. That was a big mistake, you see, what I didn’t know was that there was gravel there and this formula: gravel + automobile traveling at a reasonable speed of 30 mph = BAD. So luckily I get out of the way of the truck but the gravel had caused a problem, it caused me to lose control of my car and it did a 180 and ended up in a ditch. I was fine (so was my ex, ugh!) and the car wasn’t torn up that bad. The thing that started all my road rage was that the other driver (who I thought to be drunk) saw what happened and didn’t even stop to help me. So a few minutes later my parents and the police show up. Here’s the thing that really made me mad, the police put down on the report that I was speeding around the curve, lost control, and there was never even a truck there. I for one can honestly tell you that is not the way it happened. So at that point I lost all respect for the police and other drivers. Even though my experience was not that bad, it really taught me what my parents had said all along, “It’s not you that we worry about, it’s the other idiots on the road.”