A Scary Prospect -- What to do?

("Morgans" wrote)
I never had the money for such a course, but when I was a fresh faced
driver, I took the family wagon out one night during a slippery
snowstorm and practiced skids and skid recovery.

My father did the same with me, and I did the same with my two children.
Some thing are difficult to learn, without those slippery parking lots.


And two generations of teenage learners have omitted mentioning, to the
owner of the family car, the part about sliding sideways onto "the dry
patch." BTDT...


Montblack

And two generations of teenage learners have omitted mentioning, to the
owner of the family car, the part about sliding sideways onto "the dry
patch." BTDT...

Heh. I tore BOTH rear tires off the rims of my Mom's 1968 Pontiac LeMans by
sliding sideways onto a dry patch.

I put the spare tire on one side, threw the flat tire in the trunk, and
called my Dad to explain that "I've got a flat tire, and the spare is flat!"

It worked.

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Montblack wrote:

And two generations of teenage learners have omitted mentioning, to the
owner of the family car, the part about sliding sideways onto "the dry
patch." BTDT...

I never did that, but I did slide the VW into a curb. Several months later, it
started making "a noise" and my father took it in to the dealer. They discovered
a bent front axle. An *expensive* bent axle.

"No, Papa, I have no idea how that happened."

Those cars were amazingly easy to hotwire.

George Patterson
I prefer Heaven for climate but Hell for company.

"Montblack" wrote .


And two generations of teenage learners have omitted mentioning, to the
owner of the family car, the part about sliding sideways onto "the dry
patch." BTDT...


Montblack

I started driving a Corvair a couple years after I started driving. In my
beloved Pontiac, you could charge up to a turn, wail on the binders and
about slide around the corner, wet pavement, or no.

It didn't work that way with a Corvair. I charged up to a crossover
triangle on wet pavement, slammed on the brakes, turned the wheel and kept
going straight. Oops!. Blew a tire and bent the rim on the curb.

I managed to convince my dad that the tire went flat, and that's why I hit
the curb.

Moral of the story? On the rear engine cars, the front will break loose
before the rear end. Lesson learned!
--
Jim in NC

On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 18:52:44 -0500, "Morgans"
wrote:


"Corky Scott" wrote

I never had the money for such a course, but when I was a fresh faced
driver, I took the family wagon out one night during a slippery
snowstorm and practiced skids and skid recovery.

My father did the same with me, and I did the same with my two children.
Some thing are difficult to learn, without those slippery parking lots.

Never had a learners permit, never took driver's training (wasn't
available anyway), and had a full license when I was 14. Parallel
parking was no problem after learning to back wagons into the barn.
Stick shift...No one had heard of an automatic back then.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Never had a learners permit, never took driver's training (wasn't
available anyway), and had a full license when I was 14. Parallel
parking was no problem after learning to back wagons into the barn.
Stick shift...No one had heard of an automatic back then.

Shhhh. Don't tell my son. I was appalled to learn that in Iowa you can
still get a driver's license at age 14 -- and he's 14 1/2.

Now, of course, in much of Iowa there's nothing to hit, so maybe letting
your boy bring the pickup out to the back forty doesn't harm anything. But
in the metropolitan areas, with freeways and congestion little different
from Chicago, allowing a 14 year old to drive is like giving him a stick of
real dynamite, IMHO.

And I know what *I* would have done with dynamite at 14...

So, we're sticking with what we grew up with in Wisconsin. He'll get his
permit at 15, and his license at 16.

But he'll be flying sooner.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
Never had a learners permit, never took driver's training (wasn't
available anyway), and had a full license when I was 14. Parallel
parking was no problem after learning to back wagons into the barn.
Stick shift...No one had heard of an automatic back then.


Shhhh. Don't tell my son. I was appalled to learn that in Iowa you can
still get a driver's license at age 14 -- and he's 14 1/2.

Now, of course, in much of Iowa there's nothing to hit, so maybe letting
your boy bring the pickup out to the back forty doesn't harm anything. But
in the metropolitan areas, with freeways and congestion little different
from Chicago, allowing a 14 year old to drive is like giving him a stick of
real dynamite, IMHO.

And I know what *I* would have done with dynamite at 14...

So, we're sticking with what we grew up with in Wisconsin. He'll get his
permit at 15, and his license at 16.

But he'll be flying sooner.

Same deal here. My oldest is 15. You can drive in Montana at 14 if
you're family is ranching, 15 for everybody else. He'll drive next fall
when he's 16. No way the average kid should be driving at 15.

On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 13:20:20 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

Never had a learners permit, never took driver's training (wasn't
available anyway), and had a full license when I was 14. Parallel
parking was no problem after learning to back wagons into the barn.
Stick shift...No one had heard of an automatic back then.

Shhhh. Don't tell my son. I was appalled to learn that in Iowa you can
still get a driver's license at age 14 -- and he's 14 1/2.

Now, of course, in much of Iowa there's nothing to hit, so maybe letting
your boy bring the pickup out to the back forty doesn't harm anything. But
in the metropolitan areas, with freeways and congestion little different
from Chicago, allowing a 14 year old to drive is like giving him a stick of
real dynamite, IMHO.

And I know what *I* would have done with dynamite at 14...

And now for a bit of topic drift...
It's really strange you should have mentioned that.

When I was 16 I was doing the dynamiting for a number of the local
farmers. I used to go up to the hardware store and purchase dynamyte
and caps by the case along with a big coil of fuse. Now days I doubt
I'd even qualify for a license even though I do still own the farm.

The two main targets were stumps and "erratics".

For those who aren't familiar with the term, erratics are rocks that
don't belong here. They probably came from some place up in Canada
courtesy of the Glaciers.

You'd think rocks wouldn't be a problem out here in the flat land
farming country, but every spring the tops of some big boulders will
work their way up high enough to catch a plow. Some can be dug out
and some are just way too big although we dug one out bigger than our
tractor. As I recall it took 4 tractors to skid that thing to the
stone pile. After that we just blew the tops off and covered them
back up.

A number of times I got caught short and had to ride the old Hog in
and pick up some more. Saddlebags full of dynamite and a box of caps
in my coat... and I still survived, but I sure do have some
stories:-)) Times sure have changed!

I remember cleaning up an old site one time and finding about a half
dozen sticks in the bottom of a box. I don't know how many years it
had been there, or how many times it had frozen and thawed, BUT it was
laying in a pool of oil. (anyone over 40 knows what the oil was).

Cleaning that up (they didn't want to blow the building) was one of
the most tense jobs I've done.


So, we're sticking with what we grew up with in Wisconsin. He'll get his
permit at 15, and his license at 16.

Like any other endevour, it depends on the individual. I know many a
youngster I'd trust farther than some adults.

OTOH I know some adults and kids alike that I'd not trust at all.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

But he'll be flying sooner.

When I was 16 I was doing the dynamiting for a number of the local
farmers. I used to go up to the hardware store and purchase dynamyte
and caps by the case along with a big coil of fuse.

Roger, you have certainly led one adventuresome life. Sometimes it's
almost like you're from another planet.

Imagine -- letting a 16 year old play with dynamite! It boggles the mind.

Times really *are* different.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

Imagine -- letting a 16 year old play with dynamite! It boggles the mind.

He wasn't *playing* with dynamite. He was *working* with dynamite. Big
difference.

George Patterson
I prefer Heaven for climate but Hell for company.