DRIVING RULES

Each spring, the local paper has an extra called STUDENT ORIGINALS. It is stories and drawings submitted from around the Fargo-Moorhead area and beyond. These essays and pictures are judged against all other entries in each age group. The winners in the K-2 group wrote about spending time with family, changing the number of breaks from school throughout the year, and people bullying others. All, of course, are age old problems, still unsolved.


As I read, I thought about an article I had read in a old newspaper from early 1940's regarding driver's licenses forfeited in the month of February. One of the second graders wrote about how bad speeding was; a first grader submitted an essay regarding safe rides.


Yet, in 1940, we would not have seen an article entitled, Don't talk on your cell phone while driving OR don't text message when driving. A sixth grader asks for lower speed limits; during the war years, it was half of what it is now on the Interstates in North Dakota.


Let's look at the break down of the Driver's License Law

127 intoxicated
19 driving under suspension
125 speeders lost their license for 30 days or greater
27 Reckless drivers
18 violations of signs and signals
2 illegal passing


Think about your own drinking habits. Are you one of those people who have never been cited? Is it because you totally obey OR you have never been caught?


Old Trunks is remembering a situation with my grandparents. There was a stop sign on east First Street in Thief River Falls. Benhard and Julia were going home from town in their little gray Plymouth and ran the stop sign. They were stopped by the city police. They were so certain they did not run the sign and argued to the point they were not ticketed.


I have been stopped. Once somewhere in South Dakota driving a little red Corvair. Did not see the stop sign, didn't get cited. Once in a chocolate brown Lincoln coming back to Lawrence. I was speeding. was not cited. Lastly, after visiting with old classmates in Thief River Falls, I took MN highway one west to meet Interstate 29. I pulled out of Warren and kicked it up. I was running 75+ when I saw the bubble. It was a 55mph zone. No ticket. PURE LUCK


But I did have a wreck. And I did loose my license. And I want to talk about that. Because I got what I deserved. And there were circumstances. And of course, since it was 50 years ago, I may remember it in my favor!


Jeannie and I were hanging out with friends. We partied some. They brought us back to my Chevy. This is the Chevy that someone was supposed to fix the brakes on, despite my yammering about it, they were considered fixed. SOOOOOOOOOO, even though I may have been following too closely and the 49 Ford in front of me, which just happened to be driven by the boyfriend, didn't have tail or brake lights and it was raining, I rear ended him. Crawled right up on to his trunk, I did. Hit him hard enough to bend his steering wheel and hard enough for Jeannie to hit the windshield. He got out of his car and hide the booze behind the fence at the junk yard. Someone called the police. Ragdoll was towed to the the construction warehouse. The police brought me home.


I had been told in the beginning of my own car driving career that there would be only one car, if I ruined it, I would be without a car. If you had a car when you were a teen, you know it as a person and a symbol. It is not fun to be on foot, yet, I had been warned and my driving days and my own car were over.


I would 'visit' the car at the warehouse. One day, it was gone. It was horrid and there were tears. It was understandable, why would anyone keep a wrecked car? Why not sell it for scrap? Well, I put on the best of funks and went home with an attitude. Daddy asked me what was wrong. I told him I knew why he got rid of the Chevy, after all, I had been warned.


And he said, "You never complained and the brakes were bad, I had it towed in and it is being fixed". I WAS GETTING RAGDOLL BACK!!! I got it back around the first of August and ripped up the streets and avenues of Thief River Falls just driving around. School started and I had my little blue bomb.


The notice came in the mail that I would appear in court. In those days, if you were a teenager, and you had a violation, you lost your license. Daddy took me to court and the judge ruled I would loose my license for 90 days. That meant I would get it back in mid December. It was going to be a long fall.


I had a speech class with a teacher named Mr. Johnson. He was the advisor for the senior class play; he suggested I try out for the part of Rosalie. She was a cut up type personality who liked to talk a lot and drink gallons of Coke. I got the part, although I think I was Rosalie, anyway. This posed a problem. Play practice was after school, or after supper, or on Saturdays.


I asked Daddy if he would go with me to see the judge. I wanted to talk to him , plead my case if you will, about getting a restricted license. To and from school and play practice. He agreed to it and I had limited privileges. I wouldn't be rippin up the roads but I wasn't walking either. WHEW.


The play was a fun time for me. Mr. Johnson had selected a truly mixed group of personalities to be the cast of "A Midsummer Night's Scream". It was a perfect opportunity to meet and admire classmates I may never have known, Mike Norman became a great friend. He said he was going to become a priest and he would pray for me every day.


The play was over, December came and full driving privileges were returned. The weather turned brutal, Rag Doll wouldn't start, she would sit in the snowbank in front of the house until the February thaw. I would drive daddy's rig when he wasn't using ti, although it wasn't much fun trying to spin out on the river with four studded tires.


Is there a life long lesson in this? Yes. I do not follow closely. Although the wreck is not as vivid as it was decades ago, I can still hear the crunch of metal and I can still see the expression on Jeannie's face as she held her head after hitting the windshield. Do I wear a seat belt? Yes. And I hope Jeannie does too, after all she married a highway patrolman!

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