Another driver on the road

I meant to write about this last week. On Thursday last week, March 26, my son went for his driving test. He hadn't rushed out to get his learner's permit as soon as he was 16 years old as he could have. He decided to wait until he was 18 years old. I think that was very responsible and I also think it was smart. He didn't feel pressure to get the license. He also didn't want to have to go to extra classes that are mandated just for younger drivers. Also, once you get a license but are still under 18, there are restrictions on the license. Even though he would have been responsible and followed the rules, it seems silly to have to worry that you might be driving during the restricted time (12:30 am to 5:00 am) if if you find it necessary to use a cell phone or to be driving a person younger than 18 years old without also having a person over 21 in the car. None of these would have ever happened - under normal circumstances. But why add one more worry to life?

Because scheduling the test was difficult (given the scarcity of testing times and the number of people wanting to take the test), he had to travel about an hour away to the city of New Bedford for the test. There was a forecast of rain for that day (heavy at times) and there are sections of New Bedford that are very old with narrow streets.It didn't seem like it was going to be easy but that was the path he chose and we were going to back him up. My wife was too nervous to accompany him so I took time from work to go along as his sponsor. That just meant that I needed to accompany him on the drive to the Registry (because the learner's permit requires that) and to sit in the back seat (silently) during the test. We got there an hour early and, surprisingly, they took us in early. The tester was very nice. He was calm, he explained everything carefully and he seemed really interested in seeing if my son was a good driver or not. I've heard of many testers challenging the new driver and making them very nervous. Our tester seemed more interested in seeing how my son really drove.

We started out by turning onto one of the busier streets in town. My son waited patiently and was pulling out when one more car came a little too fast down the street and we had to stop. He made a slight mistake by attempting to back up without first checking behind him but it turned out OK and the car that had forced us to stop moved on. But in the back of my mind, I counted, "One."

The tester instructed my son toward a back street where most of the test would be given. We had to deal with traffic lights, stop signs, turns against traffic and had to deal with whether we had the right-of-way or not. But after a few minutes, we got to the street the tester had wanted. First off, he had to parallel park. This was the thing I was most afraid of given that it's the thing I think is the hardest part of driving. I didn't have to parallel park in my own driving test (almost 50 years ago) and it's always held a bit of mystery to me. My son made the maneuver like he'd been born behind the wheel. I almost cheered but I was supposed to stay quiet and I did. The next thing he had to do was park on a hill by a curb. This was another of my fears. For some reason, I could never quite get the logic for the way you are supposed to turn the wheels in this situation. It always seemed to me that the drawings were wrong. But my son had it figured out. I knew right away which way to turn the wheels once the car was stopped. But he made another small mistake when he didn't set the parking brake right away and needed a reminder from the tester. It seemed like a small thing but in the back of my mind I said, "Two."

Next, the tester said he wanted to see a three point turn. My son checked for traffic correctly and started the turn but the tester said, "Where was the turn signal?" My son did set the signal and completed a flawless turn. As we were headed back up the street, though, I thought, "Three." The tester informed us that were were going to head back to the Registry office. That seemed awfully quick to me. It reinforced my fear that he was going to fail my son. I was thinking up all the encouraging things I could say like, "no one is perfect," and, "schedule a new test right away so it doesn't drag on" and, "get back on the horse right away," and all those other parent sayings.

The rain had held off but now it was starting to come down fast. The tester said we didn't need to park and could just drop him off near the door. I saw him filling out his form and going into his briefcase to get a stamp which I assumed said, "Fail." But instead he said, "Congratulations. You passed." The stamp he had was to stamp the learner's permit so it could be used temporarily as a full driver's license until the permanent one arrived. I was so proud of my son. He knew he had made small mistakes and it would have been very easy for him to just give up and make even bigger mistakes. But he kept his cool and stayed in control. The tester certainly noticed that and also how 99% of the time everything was going so well. My son drove with confidence and patience. He drove steadily and didn't make sudden moves. It will be my pleasure to let him drive whenever he wants to.