Ray's driving lesson

When I was in college my sister Helen would use the family car when she went places with her boyfriend. My boyfriend, Ray, always took the bus. I found out why one day. He did not know how to drive. I told him I would teach him as I had been driving since I was twelve, sometimes the family car and many times my dad's pickup. Since my father ran a car repair business driving was old hat to us.

One evening Ray and I took the family car and went back to the river road where Ernie had fallen out of the car many years before. It was the road my uncle's cabin was on. I explained to him all the things to do and he seemed to understand. The road wasn't dirt now but gravel. There was still little traffic on it. We were doing fine and then for some reason he turned the wheel and drove into the ditch. A deep ditch.

We walked up to a farm house for help. Now you would use a cell phone but not then. The farmer let us use the phone to call a towing service. I did not want to call my parents as my sister had just had a bad wreck and I wanted to be sure they saw me when I told them.

Ray learned quickly and soon was able to buy a 1928 Chevrolet, which lost its axle a lot. My father would hear Ray drive away after we had a date and say, "He is going to need another axle." My father would find one at the junk yard and put it on for him.