Being rear-ended the other day snapped me out of a complacency I didn't realize I'd fallen into. Since then I notice that when a car pulls up behind me too quickly I tense up a little. I'm sure the effect will wear off before too long. As a child I don't think I was ever complacent in the family car; I doubt any of us were. At least not when mom was in the car. We knew that at any moment dad might pull over and ask mom if she wanted to drive. He had to ask, mom drove in Michigan but never got a license when they came to California. She wanted to drive. He couldn't just say "no, the children need to know we love them". We begged, we cried, we asked if we could walk home (anger, denial, bargaining... you know the drill), but dad said no. Mom drove way too fast, swerved a lot, really got the tires squealing. It should have been a lot of fun, except we all felt like mom had just as much control of the car as we did.
I think my sister Amy had the worst experience. Mom took her to the grocery store one day while the rest of us were at school. She told Amy to wait in the car till she was done shopping (yep, people could actually do that back then). Mom forgot though, to tell the car to wait till she got back. The car (a Ford station wagon) started to roll towards an embankment about ten feet high overlooking a gas station (drum roll).
In the movies the stunt double jumps from the speeding car just before it slams into the giant generic explosive thing. I say big deal, My little sister was doing that when she was five years old. One small difference; the car stuck on the curb and never reached the gas pumps. Still, my sister rocks. This girl has ice water in her veins. After that, none of us ever wanted to stay home from school.
My brother Roger and I probably had the best experience. In high school we got pulled over for running a stop sign on our ten-speeds on the way home from school. The cop gave us each a ticket which meant we had to promise to appear before the judge. I assume they wanted us to promise just so they could see if we would actually show up. Failing to appear would have told them we would be trouble later. Mom drove us. As we waited to exit the traffic court parking lot I saw that the steering wheel was cranked over all the way to the right. Mom was lecturing us about being irresponsible as I wondered if she knew she had to straighten the wheel as she pulled out. I thought about telling her, but decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. Not interrupting a lecture with driving instructions also meant not going without dinner that night. I looked to the right of the car, fire hydrant Hm.
So much for the lecture. I guess I really could have used it.
In the movies (and sometimes in real life) fire hydrants shoot geysers of water into the sky. Mom's was made of sterner stuff. Sure, it leaked a little around the edges, but the car (a different Ford station wagon) fared far worse.
Our mom did many things well, but she was not a big car person.