Driving The Old Chevy

The road to Baileyville is long and straight until you get to the edge of town.

When I was fifteen I got the surprise of my life. I was going to ride with dad to Baileyville , a small town seven miles west of Seneca. Dad was going to talk to Uncle Ben about some hybrid com seed.

I started to get into the passenger side of the car when dad said "I think it's time you learned to drive, so get in on this side."
I was taken by surprise and got all giggly as I slipped under the wheel on the drivers side. I had watched dad drive many times and I thought there won't be much to learn about this, just keep the car in the road. I put the car in gear and slowly began to take my foot off the clutch as I pushed on the gas pedal. The car lurched forward, I quickly stepped on the brake and the car died. Dad said "try her again."

I began to realize this clutch was going to be harder to master than I thought. I started again, this time without such a heavy foot on the gas. The car still jerked forward but finally leveled off so away we went. I was driving about 25 or 30 miles an hour. The road was hilly but straight until we came to the city limits of Baileyville where the road made a sharp right turn. I was going to fast so as I turned the corner the tires were screeching. I didn't know enough to use the brakes before we got to the comer. I was really scared, I thought we were going to turn over but dad said "Don't try to show me any new tricks with this car" then he laughed. Sure taught me a lot about driving on my first trip.