On the Road to Freedom: I got Something Shiny, and Reminiscing About the Good Old Days

Back in January this arrived in the mail.

Ok, bad mug shot aside, isn’t that just the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen? Just for ID purposes alone, it was an exciting day. Do you have any idea what a pain it’s been for the past twenty some years not having the one piece of ID that everyone wants? It’s been an issue with everything from getting into bars, to opening a bank account, to applying for our mortgage.

After waiting so
long to get my Drivers License, finally having it in my hand was a
really exciting moment for me. I have to say, despite any worries I had,
getting my Beginner’s Permit was dead simple. The free online Learner’s Permit Prep Test that Young Drivers offers had me totally prepared.

The
worst of it was waiting for my turn on a busy day at the Motor Vehicle
License Office. While I was sitting in the waiting area I was privy to a
conversion which really got me thinking. These two older ladies were
passing the time swapping stories of when they went for their driver’s test. Talking about all the things they did wrong, and how the examiner reacted. I
was sitting there rereading my driver’s handbook, and dwelling on the
up coming written test. So I wasn’t listening avidly to everything they
said, but a few things caught my attention. The gist of it was something along these lines:

Lady #1:
I
got my driver’s license right on my 16th birthday. I did awful on my
driving test. The guy passed me but told me I had better keep practising
and asked me to keep off the highway

Lady #2:
Oh, with mine the guy laughed at how bad a driver I
was, but he said that since I was only a woman it wasn’t a big deal. He just made me
promise not to go far and that my husband would do most of the driving.

Wow. Just wow. Can you imagine that happening now a days? I told this story to my Aunt and she said her experiences with taking
her drivers examination were eerily similar. It makes me want to laugh, but then you think about unleashing people onto the road who don’t really know how to drive, and it’s a serious and scary proposition.

So on the one hand, I’m
a bit jealous that they had it so easy “back in the day”. It reminds me once again of why I wish I had taken my driver’s test twenty-some years ago, right before they introduced that darned newfangled graduated licensing. But on the other hand, this would be why I am actually sort of glad that we have graduated licensing in place. It’s a
bit of a pain, I have to admit, having to wait to apply for the various
stages of my license, but the whole thing is designed to keep the roads
as safe as possible, right? And for that I’m grateful.  I actually wish the
government required everyone to take the sort of training that I’m receiving through Young Drivers. Can you imagine the impact that would have on road safety?

What about you guys? Have any wacky stories from when you took your in-car driving test?

Disclosure: Young Drivers
is sponsoring this series of posts documenting my journey as I work
towards getting my driver’s license by providing me with free access to
the Young Driver’s Defensive Driving Program.