| Replaced_Texan |
05-18-2004 10:51 AM |
Public Service Announcement
Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
My driver's ed teacher, similar in essential respects to those described above, liked to tell us about his favorite cheap eats -- all you can eat buffets and happy hours at drinking establishments on state highways in nearby towns. Recently he was arrested for statutory rape. But I don't know whether he liked my bookshelf because I don't know what that means.
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Similar diver's ed instructor. We used to spend most of our time in the car running errands for him. I blame all of my driving faults on him. He wouldn't let the girls drive as much as he let the boys drive.
I recently celebrated my 15th year of being a licensed driver. Like every Texas (urban) kid, I raced to the DPS office the morning of my 16th birthday to take my drivers' test. It nearly killed me to slow down for the school zones. I waited in line, filled out the forms, and waited forever for the examiner to call my name and walk with me to the mini-van that I brought to take the exam in.
He directed me around back, and I did the parallel parking part of the exam beautifully. After that, he asked me to drive around a nearby neighborhood. I was really nervous, and drove a lot slower than I usually would. Finally, he asked me to turn left onto a major road that headed back to the DPS office. I pulled up to the road, saw my opening and took it. I drove back to the DPS triumphantly, confident that I was now legal to drive without my parents in the car. We pulled into a parking space, and he handed me my results.
I failed. Apparently, my stop at the left turn wasn't a complete one in the eyes of the DPS examiner. I know and everyone else who has ever been in that situation knows that when you have an opportunity to turn left onto a major street, you take it. Otherwise you could be sitting there for days waiting for traffic to clear. There is an exception to this general rule though: Do not take the left if a DPS examiner is in the car.
I cried for the entirety of my 16th birthday.
I went back the next morning and passed the test. The day after my 16th birthday was much better than the day of.
I hear that they’ve gotten rid of the driving test in Texas if the kid has taken and passed driver’s ed. Turns out that something like 95 percent of the kids who take and pass driver’s ed end up passing on the first two tries, so it was just a waste of money to have assholes like the guy who failed me validating the tests of assholes like the guy who made us run his errands. I guess that it’s a good thing, because it means that in general, Texas kids don’t have to worry about having a sucky 16th birthday. |
