Driving

I don’t know a kid out there who doesn’t like to drive. With all the video games out now, I suspect most youngsters first taste of driving is in the form of Mario Kart or maybe in a simulator at a Chuck E Cheese equivalent. Every few minutes at Kings Island this summer I bet there'll be some hopeful 6 year old standing with his back to Yogi Bear's raised arm to see if this year he can have his own bumper car instead of sitting alongside Mom or Dad.

When I was tall enough to drive the bumper cars I had absolutely no intention of bumping. My turn at driving wasn’t going to be spent jarring but getting the most time driving as possible. That involved avoiding all collisions and mostly sticking to the outer edge which was fine by me.

My favorite memories of driving are from grade school mostly when my dad would take me and my brothers up to Colerain High School on a Saturday afternoon so we could cruise around the parking lot. When we were little he’d let us sit on his lap and he’d control the pedals but even lack of full control didn’t matter – I was steering and to me that was the most important thing. Up past the baseball fields, across the front courtyard, swinging around the back entrance- we went everywhere about 8 times each.

Weight and height probably played a role in graduating us to drive the car ourselves versus sitting on Dad’s lap. Regardless, it was always a thing to do with Dad. Oh we’d gush to Mom about how well we did behind the wheel but the fact that he let us drive the real car before we were really allowed always made Dad cool

It was that same parking lot years later that Mark tried to teach me to drive a manual. After taking those same routes all over the school he suggested we head out on the real road, something Dad obviously never had the opportunity to do in our practice sessions. My heart raced and I prayed for continual green lights. Though I did stall his car more than once, Mark like Dad, was very patient and consistently encouraging.

I'm embarrassed to report that that was the first and last time I ever drove a stick shift. Call me blonde, call me unprepared for an emergency, but the thrill of driving is quite different in the parking lot of the high school compared to the real world. I like those memories better.

Though I’ll miss seeing it with my kids, I feel tradition must continue and Jim get some glory (whether he wants to or not!) for taking Nic and Chris up to that same lot. Though Nicole is so much fun at this age, this is one of those things I look forward to hearing about when she’s old enough to drive herself.