If I had my way
John E., Peterson
Originally published 02:04 p.m., April 3, 2008
Updated 02:04 p.m., April 3, 2008
I have written a couple of columns which I called driving adventures. They were about the poor driving I have observed here in Emporia by present-day drivers. Today I want to tell you about some of my own driving adventures of the past. I would do that, if I had my way.
My first driving adventures go back to when I was 14 years old. That was in DeKalb, Ill. I was a fairly regular chauffeur for an elderly neighbor lady. She had a lovely, big Buick, as I remember it. This was back in 1935 and there were no driving licenses then. She used to give me a half dollar for taking her shopping around town, usually on a weekend.
One chauffeuring for her, however, really sticks in my memory. She wanted to go to St. Charles, a town about 30 miles east toward Chicago, for lunch and take two lady friends along. Off we went. All went very well. She gave me $2 for the driving and another $2 for me to buy my own lunch. Lunch only cost me about a dollar, so I made lots of money on that driving adventure.
When I was 16 and a senior in high school, I was president of the HY. That was a a high school YMCA group of boys. There was a state meeting about 70 miles south of DeKalb and I wanted to go and take along four of our members. My dad said I could use the family Essex for the trip.
We drove down, had the meeting and started home. After about 20 miles, something happened to the engine and the car would not go. Fortunately, there was a small town with a garage nearby. The garage man knew what the trouble was, but he could not get it fixed before the next day, since it was very late in the afternoon.
So, the five of us hitch-hiked to DeKalb. The next day, I hitch-hiked back and got the car. That was my first adventure with an auto breakdown. I had never thought it would happen to me.
One more adventure from my youthful driving days. I do not recall why we were going into Chicago, about a 65-mile drive, but my dad let me use the family car and four friends and I drove in.
I failed to see a stop sign on big Lake Shore Drive and ambled through it. A policeman happened to see me do it. He stopped us, came over, looked over the car and saw the DeKalb sign. He said to me, “Don’t they have stop signs in DeKalb?” I told him we certainly did and that I was wrong in failing to stop. He very nicely told us to go on, but to be sure to always stop at signs. From that day, when I was about 17, I think I have always looked for stop signs. And I have stopped.
After college, three years in World War II, marriage and a teaching job, I got a car of my own. And many more in later years. Consequently, there were driving adventures in various places in my own vehicles. Or rental cars.
I have never forgotten the first roundabout I encountered in England. Just driving while sitting on the other side of the car and on the other side of the street was an adventure in itself. But getting into the roundup, with all the other cars coming and going, was a special adventure.
Later, while doing much driving while collecting soil samples in Sweden, there were more adventures driving from that other side and on the other side of the street. One, in particular, sticks in my mind.
We were going to Norway. As we came to a bridge at the Norwegian border, big signs directed us into the other lane. So there I am, driving from the opposite side of a Swedish car, but going down the right side of the roads to Oslo, just as we do in America. That was an adventure.
There were several driving adventures in Australia, also on the other side of the road, as we roved about when I gathered my soil samples. One was when we were way out in the outback. We had not seen another human for an hour. Suddenly, I had the thought of what would happen to us out here if the car broke down. Shortly after that, the question of what would happen to poor Merle if I should have a heart attack out here. Scary adventures, but now just memories.
A similar thing happened in far northern Canada. I was collecting soil samples, of course, so we stopped every few miles and that took lots of time. We had not seen another car for about an hour. For fun, Merle said that she would bet me a dime that we would not see another person for the next hour. I told her she was wrong and took the bet She won, as she often does since we did not see another car.
There have been lots of other driving adventures in a variety of different places. Some intense fog, both here in Kansas and in Sweden. Winter driving, on ice and in blizzards, where all went well for us, but we passed and counted dozens of cars and trucks off the road. And we would spend the night in unplanned places so it would not happen to us.
My driving adventures are big events in my memory bank. I hope my telling you about some of them is not boring to you. It would not be, if I had my way.