MORE DRIVING ADVENTURES

Yesterday I promised to reveal my accident record. In traffic I have had two wrecks --- the first was when I was nineteen and had kept the family car in order to go to the doctor. It turned out that I had a temperature of about 102 degrees, and I seemed to move in slow motion. I was in the left lane, stopped, and wanted to pull into the right. When I looked, nothing was coming, but by the time I pulled into the lane, a car was there and I hit it. I don’t remember anything else except that my parents were very supportive.

The second one occurred about twenty years ago. I was in the right lane crossing a bridge downtown when an old man (uninsured, of course) suddenly cut over to see a pedestrian he knew on the sidewalk. Except I was in the way. That was not my fault, of course, and he eventually paid us some money to repair the car.

And that, my friends, is the extent of my “real” accidents.

I have received three citations in my life. The first was when I was in my early twenties and I didn’t come to a full stop at a stop sign. (That was in Belle Meade where they are famous for giving tickets to people who don’t live there.) The others were for driving cars (one was my mother’s) with expired Metro stickers on them. They didn’t go on my record at all because I quickly renewed them and paid a small fine.

However, lest you think I am a superb driver, let me quickly set the record straight. My biggest problem has been fender benders, usually in our own driveway! I remember the time when the back door of the car was open and I backed out bending it backwards around a pole. Then I later hit the same car that was parked behind the garage out of which I was backing. In fact, I have done that at least four times. Since that involves two cars in the same family, that is NOT good. Once I hit my son-in-law’s Mercedes and that was really not good. Those babies cost a lot to fix.

Oh well! I guess I will continue to drive until I can’t see, or my reactions slow down so much that I will be a menace on the road. Then I will get my oldest grandson, who has no respect for his elderly (I hate that word!) grandmother, to drive me wherever I want to go (see yesterday's comments). That will teach him to be more polite to me.