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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, I took my drivers test in a late 80’s Dodge Dynasty, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a story about parallel parking.
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What I Learned Yesterday:
I loved driver’s ed. What’s not to love, right? Every kid dreams of one day getting behind the wheel and experiencing 4 wheels of freedom. I took drivers ed my sophomore year of high school and I was paired with a guy named Wayne. Wayne was a senior.
While I was taking the class so that I could learn how to drive, Wayne was taking the class so that he could get a reduced rate on his insurance. He’d already been driving for a couple of years and didn’t need near the instruction of myself, or anyone else in the class really. This worked out in my favor.
On some days in drivers ed we studied state laws, sat through lectures, watched odd and slightly gruesome safety videos, or took tests. On other days we got behind the wheel and drove around town.
Of course, my favorite days were the ones when I got to drive, but I really liked the entire class. I did really well on the tests. As far as I can recall, I only ever missed one test question the entire duration of the class. I still remember the question because I felt silly for missing it.
The question was, what do you do when you come to a blinking red light. It was a multiple choice question and I circled the answer that said that you should wait for the light to turn green, and then proceed. Of course, the light will never turn green in that situation and the correct answer is to treat it like a stop sign. It was a simple case of me overlooking the word “blinking.”
When I was 15 ½ I took the written test to get my permit. I did great, although I did miss a question. This time the question had to do with bicyclists. I didn’t know that they were supposed to ride in the same direction of traffic.
Over the next few months I would sometimes drive with my dad, and, of course I drove during driver’s ed. Since Wayne only needed the class credit, most of the time he slept in the back seat for the whole period and I got to drive the whole time. The rest of the suckers taking the class had to split time with their driving partners.
Finally the day arrived for me to take my drivers test. My family has only ever owned vehicles with a manual transmission and I was scared that I’d pop the clutch and kill the vehicle at a red light or get stuck trying to start on a hill. So my grandparents allowed me to take the test in their car which had an automatic transmission.
My grandma took me up to the testing center and I was really nervous. I had heard horror stories about one of the testers. All I knew was that it was a red haired lady and that if you got the red haired lady then you were certain to fail. You guessed it, I got the red haired lady.
I put on my seatbelt, started up the car, and checked my mirrors. I put the car in gear and we were off. She guided me down various streets and I felt like I was doing pretty well. I used my blinkers, kept both hands on the wheel, braked smoothly, and told her how much I liked Lucky Charms. Okay, maybe not that last part.
Eventually we made our way through a neighborhood and she instructed me to parallel park behind a van. It wasn’t a true parallel parking situation since there was only one car, but I was supposed to simulate the procedure as if there was another car there. “No problem,” I thought. I knew parallel parking had been the nemesis of drivers testers for years and I was ready. I was confident.
I pulled up next to the van and stopped. I put the car in reverse, cut my wheels, and aimed the rear of the car toward the curb. At the right time I cut the wheels again and pulled the front of the car behind the van and parallel to the curb. Bam! It was a parallel parking job that even the red haired lady’s mom would be proud of. She made some notes and asked me to pull out into the street.
I put the car in drive, cut the wheels, and eased off the break. There wasn’t much room between my car and the van but I knew that if I took it slow, I could squeeze out without having to back up. The red haired lady didn’t think I could make it. She said that she thought I should back up. Psssh! What does she know? I continued to ease the car up, but she was right. The front bumper of the Dynasty tapped the van and I put the car in reverse. I got a bit more room and easily got the car back out on to the road.
She had me drive the car around a few more streets and then we headed back to the testing center. I pulled into a parking spot, put the car in park, and turned the engine off. I then looked over at her and said, “well, how did I do?” She told me that she would talk to my grandma about that.
She then went inside and told me to stay in the car. A few minutes later my grandma returned with the news that I had failed the test. Everything was good except for the parallel parking maneuver. The moment I touched the van, even though it was just a slight touch, I failed the test. Making contact with another vehicle was an instant fail.
Here’s what I learned.
Even though I studied hard, knew all the rules, and used that info as I took the test, I still failed. Why did I fail? Because I was unfortunate enough to get the red haired lady as my tester.
No?
Okay, how about this. The red haired lady might have had a bad reputation, but she actually tried to HELP me. She could have sat there quietly and watched me fail but she didn’t do that. She saw me heading for failure, spoke up, and tried to help me come out victorious.
Why did I fail? Not because I hit the van. Well, technically yes, that’s the reason she listed. However, the real reason I failed was because of my pride. I refused to listen to the advice of someone who had been there before, knew the consequences of making contact with the van, saw that I was on a collision course, and tried to stop me. I ignored her and got what I deserved.
Folks, there is a valuable lesson there. Let’s not be so stubborn, so filled with pride that we refuse to heed the advice of those around us giving us a warning that the actions we are taking are going to result in failure.
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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