Driving Miss Debbie....

ALSO COULD BE KNOW AS A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE & FORTUNATE EVENTS ....
When I was very young I was in a car accident.. and it was at a time when the seatbelt law was not in effect so...needless to say I experienced going from the back seat to the front dash awfully fast...and that... from what I was told was just leaving a driveway into the street...a rear ender...
Little did I know I would hold on to that memory for 40 some odd
years and prove to be a stumbling block for me and not being able to do the fundamental task such as getting my license..
Fast forward to 16 years old... still young ..but old enough to drive.... I remember
feeling awkward about driving..that I was terrified of getting behind the wheel and
although I did get my beginners ( the written portion) I didnt follow thru with the
driving portion...my teeth clenched everytime I thought of getting behind the wheel.

Years would pass with everyone trying to teach me..first at bat...my older sister Cathy.or as I call her Kate or Cat..depending on the circumstances..
...She had a really cute little Honda Civic and had it parked in my parent's driveway
facing the street,,and when my dad asked her to move the car..
she asked if I wanted to put it on the street... simple enough right???
I got into the drivers side and because it was automatic..no shifting involved ...so she showed me where the break pedal was and the gas pedal and said.."Nothing to it Deb".. I turned the key..put the foot to the pedal and almost drove her car into the house in reverse....high pitched screams I'm sure was heard for 3 counties over Cat screaming to me to put my foot on the &%$@break! We screeched to a stop a few inches short of the livingroom windows... my sister screaming profanities in my ear and I thus began the quest of avoiding driving it altogether...its now a regular topic of conversation anytime family history gets brought up.. to the delight of all but me who hear it....
Moving on now...I did have a couple of boyfriends who attempted to teach me.. Once thru the winter uphill...and after sliding all over the freaking street .. spent that night crying and feeling I wanted to drive him instead with my fists ...not his car....and a couple years later with a great guy who had the patience of Job and when he jumped out at a light and said "Move over!"the adrenalin pulsing through me... got us thru the intersectionand almost past 3 blocks before a policemant pulled me over to tell me that either I was a "perfect" driver or I had stolen the car because of taking the turn at the light perfectly... WTF!!!...my heart was in my throat..thinkin I had done something wrong ..and after surrendering my beginners to him to check on me realized that it was expired ... he didn't give me a ticket but told me to keep up the good work... this was too much for me.. my palms were sweating and I was frantic..
I jumped out at the next set of lights and told my friend to continue driving... you would think I would have seen that as a great thing..but hell not me... it scared the crap out of me... sooooo again .. back to being driven instead of driving..
Then, fastforward again .. thru being engaged and then after getting married, when I moved to Toronto..well you dont need a license there..thank God..
you can get from one side of the city to the other in less time by streetcar or subway ...so the years just fly by..I became the foremost authority on the art of driving without driving and until I moved back to London and found myself wanting to run away again... I really had no need for a car...until now!!!!