{"id":193,"date":"2022-02-22T13:23:52","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T13:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/?page_id=193"},"modified":"2022-06-29T15:30:31","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T15:30:31","slug":"the-driving-lesson","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/?page_id=193","title":{"rendered":"The Driving Lesson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere\u2019s the choke?\u201d asked my grandmother, eyes gazing at the dashboard in confusion. She leaned back and looked down at her feet. \u201cAnd your car is missing a pedal. Shouldn\u2019t there be three?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grandma sat in the driver\u2019s seat of my mother\u2019s car, adjusting the way she sat, reaching out to touch each button, peering at all the digital readouts. I had borrowed the car from my mother for the day to help Grandma run errands. My mother didn\u2019t need to know that \u201crunning errands\u201d was Grandma\u2019s code for secret driving lessons. I glanced sideways at my student driver. Seventy-five years old, one week a widow, her chin jutting out, determined to take control of her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What had I gotten myself into?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an automatic transmission. It doesn\u2019t have a clutch pedal and I\u2019m not even sure what a choke is, but I don\u2019t think this car has one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCars sure have changed since I learned to drive the first time. You\u2019ll have to start from the beginning.\u201d She sat back in the driver\u2019s seat and folded her hands in her lap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou already know how to drive? That\u2019s good. So, this is just a refresher course. When was the last time you were behind the wheel?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c1964.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOy vey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat? It can\u2019t be that different!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGrandma, the last time you drove was two years before my mother was born! That\u2019s thirty-eight years before I was born. That\u2019s fifty-seven years ago. I wouldn\u2019t even know what was different!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re quick at math, darling,\u201d Grandma said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank you. It\u2019s simple arithmetic and I\u2019m a nineteen-year-old university student. But, thanks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grandma patted my cheek as if I was 6 years old and was showing off what I learned in first grade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was going to be a long week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spent a while talking about how cars had changed. She explained how she learned to drive in an AMC Rambler with standard transmission and a manual choke, which was a thing that changed the fuel\/air mixture. This was important if you were trying to start the car in the cold. Then, when the car warmed up, you\u2019d adjust it again. For a person who hadn\u2019t driven in over fifty years, she seemed to know a lot about the theory of internal combustion engines. I told her I assumed cars had computer-controlled choke functions now. I didn\u2019t actually know if what I was saying was true, but didn\u2019t want to admit how little I knew about cars. To make up for my basic ignorance, I told her that this model had cruise control and explained what that meant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey may as well drive themselves!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re working on that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCrazy!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre you even sure the state will give you a driver\u2019s license at your age?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have a license. Every four years since 1964, I have renewed it. I just haven\u2019t driven since then. It was practical to keep the license current to use as ID.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I nodded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut wouldn\u2019t it also have been practical to keep your driving skills current?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour grandfather preferred to drive and we only ever owned one car.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI suppose that makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, it doesn\u2019t,\u201d Grandma said, banging her palm on the steering wheel and accidentally turning on the windshield wipers. \u201cIt makes no sense at all. Your grandfather had a lot of dumb ideas that I went along with. And now, he\u2019s gone and I have a car I can\u2019t drive, a checkbook I can\u2019t balance, and a garage full of power tools I don\u2019t know how to use, even if I wanted to, which I don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I covered her hand with mine. She sighed, then turned to smile at me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be fine,\u201d she assured me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, you will. Let\u2019s do the driving lessons first and then I\u2019ll show you how to balance a checkbook. Dad taught me last year. After that, I\u2019ll show you how to sell the power tools online.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bark of laughter escaped from her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just got a vision of what your grandfather would go through had I died first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd it was funny?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHysterical. He\u2019d be sitting in the dining room, eating raw food, and the sink would be full of dishes because he never learned to use the stove or the dishwasher. He\u2019d be wearing dirty clothes because the washer and dryer would be a mystery to him. Or worse, he\u2019d be wandering around naked, wondering where I kept his clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTMI,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToo much information,\u201d I elaborated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSorry.\u201d Grandma smiled. \u201cI think I\u2019m ready to learn to drive now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five months later, I rang the doorbell at Grandma\u2019s house. She grinned when she saw me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCome on out back. I\u2019m mowing the lawn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou are? Did you figure out how to use the mower?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo. I sold it on eBay and bought a robotic mower. I\u2019m drinking iced tea, reading a book, and watching it roam around the yard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 2021 Liza Cameron Wasser<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhere\u2019s the choke?\u201d asked my grandmother, eyes gazing at the dashboard in confusion. She leaned back and looked down at her feet. \u201cAnd your car is missing a pedal. Shouldn\u2019t there be three?\u201d Grandma sat in the driver\u2019s seat of my mother\u2019s car, adjusting the … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-193","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":346,"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/193\/revisions\/346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lizacameronwasser.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}