Kellie: Licensed to Drive...Part Deux

So its time for Kellie's first driving lesson, and, in keeping with proud Bowdren family tradition....I take her to the parking lot near our house.  Hey, its the way I started with Dad all the way back around 1976 (AAAAAHHHH!!).   So I stop the car, get out and Kellie RUNS over to the driver's seat.  She's nothing if not enthused, I'll give her that.
And again, in keeping with family tradition, I have her fix the rear view mirrors, adjust the seat and steering wheel, put her foot on the brake pedal to get an idea of how much pressure it would take, tell her to.....HEY!  What are those two Coral Springs police officers doing on bicycles circling the lot for?  And hey!  Why are they coming over here?  Ya know.....by where we are??!!!???

Maybe they thought we were a couple of teenagers in the car....ya know.  (That should be enough to get an OH GROSS from my daughter)  So they pull up next to us and I roll down the window.

"First driving lesson?"  one of them asks me with a smile on his face.
"Yep," I reply, "and don't worry...its not like you two being here is putting any PRESSURE on her or anything!"

They both laughed and drove off.  Now where were we?  Oh yeah.  I had Kellie put her foot on the gas pedal SLOWLY to get an idea of how fast the car would accelerate.

And then....slowly.....very very slowly....with her foot not on the gas or the brake....
we began to move forward.  And we circled the parking lot a couple of times....just to get an idea of what being behind the wheel was like.  And then I had her practice her first turn into a parking spot (the lot was empty by the way).  She hung the slow right into the parking spot, as I told her to imagine that every spot in the lot was taken....except the one she was pulling into.

"How'd I do?" she asked.
"Not bad," I said...."you only hit the imaginary car on the left.  But its a start."

We kept it up for about a half an hour.  We drove up and down an alley way behind some closed businesses, and Kellie very proudly managed to drive past 3 parked cars.

I told her a story of my first driving lesson.  My father and I were in the empty parking lot behind the Landmark Bank (remember Dad?).  The time came when Dad let me drive out of the parking lot onto the road (for about 75 yards) and then pull back into the parking lot formore parking attempts.  While I was on the road, there were three cars that were on the other side of the road, going in the opposite direction.  When I got home, my Mom asked how I did.

"I passed three cars Mom!"
"Larry!  Where did you take him to drive??"

So in Kellie's mind, she had now "passed" three cars.  Parked ones, but she did it without managing to hit even one of them--and that counts as a success.  We finished up our lesson (no more sign of the cops, thank God) and I let Kellie pull the car onto the road by our house and drive the car to where our driveway was located.  I told her that I would pull the car into the driveway, since one mistake and the car she would be hitting would BE MINE.  So she stops the car in the road, with a car directly behind us, gets out...and ya know....leaves the door open as the other car is passing.

Like I said, she's enthusiastic.

I told her another story from my early driving days.  My Dad had let me start driving in the neighborhood, just testing me to see how I handle the new task.  So we're driving down the road and I think I'm doing a pretty good job.  My Dad taps me on the shoulder.

"Uh, son......you in a hurry?"

I then reminded Kellie that the most important pedal on the car......was the brake--not the accelerator.


Later,
Jeff