Drivers!

Who taught you how to drive? Did you take Driver’s Education in high school, did your parents or a friend teach you, or did you practice driving on a farm road by yourself? Did you learn to drive your father’s tractor or the old farm truck while picking up hay bales in a field?

My dad actually taught this reporter “behind the wheel” and I had a physical education class on driving. We had to take a written test after finishing a book on driving rules.

I know it’s strange but I never have quite learned the art of changing gears in a straight-shift vehicle. I don’t know how the motor is supposed to sound before getting into another gear!

Thank goodness my mother’s car was an automatic when I was learning to drive. My dad’s pickup, however, was a straight-shift. I would drive him on errands and he would sit close enough to help me change gears. He couldn’t drive because of failing eyesight but I had a brand new license and could drive but couldn’t change gears. We were quite a pair!

For the past six weeks, Hubby and I have been traveling to Lynchburg every morning for doctor appointments and I can’t believe the drivers we encounter along the way. Apparently, the art of driving has disappeared.

Actually, one doesn’t have to leave the village of Charlotte C.H. to see a bad driver. It seems that 90% of folks turning left from the post office parking lot take up the entire driveway by turning their vehicle across the entrance. I wonder why they can’t stay to the right so other people can enter.

Drivers don’t give signals. They just turn right or left or change lanes any old time and I’m supposed to know what they are doing.

Between Charlotte C.H. and Pamplin is a small country store where people gather for breakfast. You’d better slow down because 9 out of 10 times someone is turning in with no signal. By the way, they’ve already slowed down to a “crawl” but still, no signal.

We actually saw a man on a tractor give a signal the other day with his right hand. Can you believe that? He was pointing the way he was going to turn with his right arm.

As we get to Pamplin at the underpass, folks approach with a blinker actually working. Are they going to turn? Yes, but not on Route 47. They have their blinker on to turn at the convenience store just yards past the intersection. Another mind-reading event and we’ve only traveled 17 miles.

Now, what happens often on a four-lane highway? Yep, folks pulling out of side roads right in front of you!

I’ve set my car on cruise, I have a car passing me in the left lane and there he/she is; pulling out directly in my lane and going zero mph. Why do people do that? Can’t they wait for thirty more seconds to get on the road?

An uncle who drove a bus in the city of Richmond for many years with no accidents gave Hubby this bit of advice and he passed it on to me: “Drive like everyone else is crazy and you’re the only one with any sense.” Good advice, I think, so I’m passing it on to you!