I love to drive, and have since I became aware of automobiles at somewhere around the age of 5. I wanted to drive, and although physical and mental limitations kept me from it, that did not stop me from believing I could. As I aged, the desire only grew. It was a passion for me.

I practiced for years. When I couldn’t be found in the house, mom and dad knew to look first behind the wheel of the family car parked in the driveway where I was pretending to drive. I couldn’t even see over the steering wheel, but I was learning. I was practicing.  Wisely, the car keys were kept out of reach.

As I grew, so did the passion. I built many soap-boxlike cars and was forever looking for a hill to use gravity for my engine. In my early teens, still too young to drive, I discovered, along with the neighbor kid, go-karts. I never had a racing one like the one he did, but I learned how to build one — and to drive it.

The age of my driving maturity finally arrived. I was 14. In Texas, I could get my learner’s permit, and if I took driver's education, I could become a licensed driver at that ridiculously young age.

I drove everywhere my mom wanted to go. My dad could not stand to be in the car with me driving, and at 88, he still won’t let me drive. He didn’t believe it, but years of mental preparation made me a very good driver, but how good was I? 

Dad told me from day one (when he finally gave in to my incessant whining and pleading to get my license) that if I ever so much as put a dent in the car, even my own, I would never drive again. I didn’t —never — ever.   

As I have taught six teens to drive and am now instructing the seventh, I wonder at it all. This June, I will have been driving 50 years in which time I have had one accident that was my fault. Wondering why this is, and looking over my shoulder into the past, I keep coming back to Driver’s Education. Why don’t we have it in Alabama?

In Texas, it is part of the school curriculum, as is Defensive Driving, both as electives. There, you can get your license at 16 if you have taken Driver’s Ed. If you don’t, you wait until age 18, and still have to take an adult Driver’s Ed. class.     

I’m not going to quote a bunch of statistics to show Alabama teens have more per-capita accidents than Texas teens. I don’t know if there are such studies, but I bet it’s true.  Education in the classroom and hands-on training with a qualified instructor cuts cost and saves lives. 

I still remember and practice the lessons taught to me by Coach Horner as he pinched my leg hard enough to bring tears to my eyes to emphasis a mistake I made while driving. I complained in a choked voice about the abuse, but it was a different time. All I got from him and my parents was, “It’ll save lives.”  They were right.

For a wild kid like me, driving skills were a necessity, and I got a wonderful education at the pinching fingers of Coach Horner and my mother. I made plenty of mistakes, got my share of speeding and “contest for speed” tickets, but I never had a wreck, and I never hurt anyone. That statement alone should make you believe there is a God watching out for all of you and me.

I have taken on-line courses and read books on how to teach driving. Am I doing a good job? I think so, but I’m always looking to improve. I believe in it.

As I drive, I see so many people making simple mistakes that I learned near 50 years ago. Who goes first at a four-way stop? Who has the right of way at a yield sign? When to dim your lights, signaling to change lanes, and a host of other mistakes that make me wonder, “Who taught them to drive?” I’m afraid of the answer.

David Wilson Atwood is a local writer whose human-interest columns offer a unique perspective. He may be contacted, and his other works viewed at www.starchasers.us, or david@starchasers.us.