Slipstream - August 2018

Oversteer: Letter from the Editor
By Kurt Scaggs, Managing Editor
The names and places have been changed to protect
the innocent, and others.
I was talking to my, um, “brother” the other day
about teaching his eldest to drive. To my surprise, she
wants to learn to drive a manual. What a novelty. These
days it seems like we should be excited that kids want
to learn to drive at all. But we live in Texas and God
willing, we’ll be driving long after it’s fashionable.
Like bluebonnets and Ruby Red grapefruit. I know,
I like them too.
After we discussed the finer points of hiring
a driving school rather than keep all that joy to
ourselves, it reminded me of the first time I taught
someone to drive. This story does not end well, so if
you’re squeamish, look away now. It all started one
fateful afternoon when my wife came home and told
me one of her team members asked if I would teach
her daughter to drive. You know, because I was a
car guy. I reluctantly agreed, and the lessons began.
We started in the high school parking lot with cones
and the usual finger pointing and deep breathing. We
progressed past parking and reversing and I found
myself nowhere to go but the open road. I laugh
now when I see a young person drive through a red
light with a wide-eyed, open-mouthed parent at their
right. At the time, not so much. But we managed to
arrive home after each lesson more or less intact, and
eventually I pronounced her ready for her driving test.
And that was that. She was soon a licensed driver. But
you know that wasn’t how it ended, don’t you?
Fast forward maybe three weeks and we were
sitting in church at a wedding with her mother, when
she got a phone call, stood up and left. Huh, must’ve
been important. Understatement. Her daughter was
coming home from her first solo drive out of town,
and decided to text her mother that she was home.
While she was still driving. In her neighborhood.
What she had forgotten was that the road in front of
her house curved. She hit her neighbors mailbox and
rolled the car. Right in front of her house. I helped her
father right the mailbox. Good times. So it makes me
wonder if the kids have gottenx it right. Either that or
they could put their phones down and drive.
Good luck little brother - Enjoy the Drive!
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