Blood on the highway

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The baby birthin video

Yes, I saw that as well. Amniotic sac and all..

So I guess they showed a horrific car crash and after a pregnant woman is rescued, she gives birth. Drivers and Sex Ed all in one. We could call it Signal 69
 
My dad got all three of us kids driving his manual tranny 1969 blue Chevy pickup out on the "farm" when were youngsters. My sisters were too small to sit in the seat and reach the accelerator, so one would sit up there and steer and the other stood or crouched on the floorboard and pressed the pedal. Of course, dad was in the truck. We "graduated" to country roads and such. Still with him in the truck. I took driver's ed in school, there was one crotchety fellow name of C.D. (Charlie) Winstead who taught it for years and years. The school provided a car for road-learning, three guys (or gals) and the instructor took several planned spins through town and to the next town for learning the various skills. There was a written test in the class, and when you passed that then there was a road-test with a patrol officer. I did the road test in our 1973 Ford Country Squire. Parallel parking a station wagon, lord have mercy.
 
yuk yuk, oh Jason.

Believe it or not I took my road test in a HUGE V8(Cylinder) Chevy Impala. Boxy as can be. BUT that ridge down the center of the hood (Bonnet=> UK) and the hood ornament made it a dream to park.

My !@#$%^&* '98 Saturn SL2 is typical of today's cars-- can't see the @$$ at all in the mirror. A real B- - -H to park.

(BTW mehtinks the SL is short for slut-mobile).
 
I took my driving test a couple of days after my 16th birthday in January of 1975. I had just purchased a SWEET 1968 Olds Delta 88 4-barrel with a 455. It was a dark green 2-door with a white textured vinyl top. I was stylin', man.

ANYWAY, as luck would have it, there was a raging snowstorm happening. The guy giving the behind-the-wheel test walked up to my car and said "We'd better do this another time." After much begging and pleading on my part, he relented and jumped in. When he slammed the door, one of my fuses blew and I suddenly had no turn signals.

I gave him my most pathetic puppy look and he said "Just go! Use arm signals. We've gotta get this done."

Consequently, every time I had to use arm signals, I'd roll down the window and snow would blow into the car. I muffed parallel parking because a snow drift had obscured the curb, but he only took 2 points off my score.

And that's how I became a legal driver during a blizzard.
 
Hell's Highway

I have the DVD that I linked to. It's a documentary about the guys who would rush to the accidents, camera in hand, and compile these horrific Driver's Ed movies. It also has a disc with three "classic" driver's ed movies on it.

I can recommend this as a fascinating documentary.

I had to sit through one of these films in my high school days. There was a clip of one of the scenes from the movie I had to sit through in the documentary, but I couldn't determine which movie it came from. It wasn't one of the full-length films included in the DVD set.

Why the hell do have this in my collection? I don't know. Why do I have anything in my DVD collection? There's just no good answers for some questions.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372321/
 
not just driftng, but swept away

Toggle, the neatest thing about grain elevators is the danger of explosions with all of that grain dust in the air. It has to be kept dry to prevent fungi and molds, so as the tower is being filled, the dust and danger are very real. When I was a kid in Illinois, our small town had a grain mill and one day it blowed up! After hearing the explosion and the fire sirens, etc., I just had to see it. My parents, after much begging on my part, took me past the place that night and there was still a visible glow from what was still burning in the basement. Got home and had to fall asleep on the sofa near mom and dad because I was afraid of our house burning. Still don't like to watch things burn, but explosions, volcanic eruptions, etc. can be neat to watch.

We never got to see baby-birthing films, but I remember this drive-in theater in the Atlanta area that always showed X-rated films in the 60s. They actually advertised in the Atlanta Journal on the page that listed all of the other movies and often the second film on the double bill was Birth of Twins. That would have been wild in reverse. "Well, I don't like these two a bit and am gonna' send them back!"

Toggle, I'll bet you looked like a choir boy when you were growing up, just like in the snow blower picture, and used it to your advantage. You could raise hell and never even once be suspected of being the "instigator" as my mom would say.
 
How I learned...

Starting when I was about 11, my dad would take me to the Bellville Junior High parking lot; we would switch places and he would show me a few driving skills at a time. It started with his 1991 Ford Explorer, then our 1993 Ford Aerostar van, following with various rental cars he used for business trips (Mitsubishi Montero Sport and a 2000 "new-design" Suburban to name a couple), then finally a 1998 Chevrolet Suburban and 1999 GMC Yukon. So just in those occasional weekends I became used to driving different vehicles.

I took Driver's Ed in November 2003; the classes on Monday & Thursday nights, as well as Saturday mornings, was taught by an eccentric, in an amusing way, ex-principal of BHS from 1982-1997. You had to be present for 3 classes to obtain a learner's permit (after your 15th birthday of course), and then you would be able to do the in-car instruction. Except for video days, it was pretty amusing for the most part. Those were the worst...boring-@$$ videos on pedestrian safety while driving, 18-wheelers, etc. I think I skipped...er, missed, about 3 classes in all; had to make them up during the Spring session.

For in-car instruction, you had to have 30 hours in all, if I remember correctly. 2 students paired up and drove in a Suzuki Esteem (talk about a slow, small, uncomfortable POS) with an instructor for 2 hours (of course when an hour passed we switched off). Wayne took us through town and to Brenham and back, running errands for him most of the time (video rental to name one...LOL). One girl had to drive to Katy on her first in-car session, if you can believe that! Since I'm not the world's best driver, especially not when I was 15, I got mostly B's and C's on the in-car test...didn't really care though. Parallel parking, however, I aced...made it look like it was nothing. And while everyone else has flipped, hit fenceposts, received unimaginable tickets, etc., I haven't hit anyone or been pulled over ONCE, yet. One of the reasons why I'm not including the word "never" in that sentence...:)

My '98 Ford F-150 was fun in the fact that it was a 5-speed standard, but I had NO depth perspective with that truck since the seat was lower than normal, and that fact that I'm only 5'6 doesn't help much either! Now I have my dad's "old" truck, an '04 Dodge Ram 4-door, and while I wish it had vertically-adjustable seats (LOL), it's a BREEZE to drive, and while it's not the 5.7L Hemi, the 4.7L V8/4-speed automatic can GET. Unless it's something luxurious or vintage, and either big or sporty, you won't catch me in a car anytime soon. Yes, the rice-burners and Z06's may look cool, but as far as crash protection is concerned I will take my pickup over them ANY day!

--Austin
 
Toggle, I'll bet you looked like a choir boy.

Well ok, maybe. But compared to the neighbors (who were in private Catholic schools (in the UK that is a *public* school)
I was an angel! The group of my neighbors in such schools got together and rented a house (near aforementioned school) in which they took care of their primal and substance *needs*.

I learned how to drive in Manhattan! Talk about fear! The freikin' taxis have no idea what the white and yellow lines in the pavement mean! [Stay in your lane Abdul, Mehmet & Mohhamed!] I can now drive anywhere WITHOUT fear and LOATHE bad driving. Two-footed drives in automatics is another killer!

Of course, each of us is a *GOOD* driver; the BAD driver is always someone else!

Favorite pet peeve on the road? Slow down to being near-stopped in an intersection. uhm, NO this is where you get hit. MOVE out of there! Or stopping randomly with no regard for other drivers/traffic.

Let me zip it now before I start bitchin' in earnest. LOL
 
AXIOS, They shouted at the ceremony (he is worthy).

Toggle, I'll bet you looked like a choir boy.

We don't really have choir boys in my brand of voo-doo.
But I was an acolyte (altar-boy), a catechism teacher (Sunday school) and went through my XEIPOTONIA- and am an official church-reader...........ORDAINED. That is the word. I guess it is because I do Greek really well.
 
for me..

25 years ago I got my license. February 20, 1981. It seems like yesterday.
I took driver's ed in High school, and then had the (un)fortunate blessing of having my dad take me driving in the evenings.
My favorite quote from him teaching me how to drive: "Dammit don't take your half out of the middle"

I was a nervous wreck to say the least.
I'll never forget the cars either. back then my mom's car was a 1978 Buick Electra Limited, Dad drove a 1980 Buick Regal.
Of those two cars, I loved driving the Electra, it felt solid, heavy, and it seemed to float on the roads, and remember the purr of the 350 V8. Dad's Regal was a V6 and seemed small and cramped, and rattly. Dad drove all over for his work, and his cars always were well used. Mom's car was always the "good" car and driven very little. If I remember right it had 18,000 miles on it.
I miss those cars and those days.
Today I drive a 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis. That 1978 Buick of mom's set a standard for me I still can't break, I love big rear drive V8 cars!
 

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