First of all let me clarify. I didn\u2019t really learn to drive on Guam. I saved that to my junior year in high school. Still, I did make the attempt.<\/p>\n
When I was a kid on Guam, you could get your learners permit at fourteen, so when I turned thirteen Dad started trying to teach me how to drive.<\/p>\n
The first time out was on an unused navy runway which was then Orote Naval Air Station. Dad drove me, my brother Richard, and my sister Susan over there one evening and sat me down behind the steering wheel. He walked me through the process of starting the car, using the clutch, shifting the gears, steering, and so forth.<\/p>\n
For those of you who don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about when I say using the clutch, in those days automatic transmissions were hardly more than a gleam in some engineer\u2019s eye. We had 1938 Plymouth sedan. It looked somewhat like a Volkswagen Bug only larger \u2013 much larger. It had a manual transmission (maybe you\u2019ve heard the term \u201cstick shift\u201d) with three gears. The gear shift lever was on the steering column. Oh, and it had bench seats front and back. That meant Dad could sit next to me.<\/p>\n
With several false starts \u2013 killing the engine, grinding gears, etc. \u2013 I started driving up and down the runway. I was beginning to get the hang of it when flashing red light showed up behind us (This was long before light bars with blue flashing lights and stroboscopic headlights). \u201cThat\u2019s the shore patrol,\u201d Dad told me. \u201cThe red lights mean you need to stop.\u201d Actually, I don\u2019t remember his words, but I suspect I cleaned them up a bit.<\/p>\n
Apparently some navy brass had seen our lights running up and down the runway and decided we didn\u2019t belong there. Fortunately Dad was able to be civil, but we were told politely to leave and not show up there again. I didn\u2019t get to drive us home.<\/p>\n
My next time out was in the housing area. I\u2019m pretty sure it was a Saturday morning. Dad drove Richard, Susan, and me over to the perimeter road and put me behind the wheel again. I should mention that the old Plymouth was like driving a tank using a steering wheel.<\/p>\n
After a quick hands-on briefing Dad sat down beside me and gave me the go-ahead.\u00a0 I pushed in the clutch, pulled the shift lever down and toward me into first gear. I eased out the clutch, and we were off. I got into second without killing the engine or doing much damage to the gears. Then I shifted into third and reached the speed limit, 25 miles per hour. I made the turn at the bottom of the hill without any major problems, drove across the south end of the camp, and successfully turned up west side road.<\/p>\n
I was starting to feel pretty good about myself. I hadn\u2019t made any big mistakes and I was headed for home. About half way up the west road it happened. Over the hill coming the opposite direction was the first car I had seen all day. Back in those days I was as straight arrow as they came. I knew I wasn\u2019t old enough to be driving on a public street. I panicked. I threw up both hands and yelled, \u201cAaah!\u201d The car drifted across the road onto the left shoulder. At which point Dad grabbed the steering wheel, and I put on the brakes. Fortunately, Dad kept us from going over the embankment which dropped about ten feet into the boondocks. Unfortunately, when I put on the brakes, I neglected to push in the clutch and killed the engine.<\/p>\n
We were stopped dead on the wrong side of the road. All I could do as the other car drove around us was … smile and wave. Boy, was that embarrassing. And Richard and Susan got to witness the whole thing.<\/p>\n
Funniest thing, Dad never did try to teach me how to drive again \u2013 ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
First of all let me clarify. I didn\u2019t really learn to drive on Guam. I saved that to my junior year in high school. Still, I did make the attempt. When I was a kid on Guam, you could get your learners permit at fourteen, so when I turned thirteen Dad started trying to teach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n