Grandma Wessman's Letter Page 7

[This is the extra page about learning to drive that Grandma mentioned in her first letter here]

—7—

The spring of the year I was graduating —Age 17— from High School I said to my Dad, “Teach me to drive will you please?” He said, “Sure, let’s go.” We lived on an alley way through the block. There were 2 garages opposite our exit to the alley from our garage. The neighbor had just finished a new double garage. So I got in behind the wheel — but I had never paid much attention to the driving of a car so I said, “What do I do?” Dad said, “Turn the key on, put your foot on the clutch, shift into first, let off the brake and slowly put your foot from brake to gas as you lift left foot off the clutch pedal.” So I did as instructed but my slowly on the gas was too fast and the car shot out of the drive right into the corner of the new garage — I was devastated and so was dad. All my courage was gone — my next try came in 1953 — 12 years and four babies and a husband later.

John taught me — a neighbor taught me. I had to parallel part on a steep hill besides all the other things — go down main street up state turn rt, turn left — I was indeed nervous and he thought I needed more practice parallel parking on a steep hill. I didn’t give up — so I tried again a month later and passed. The written was easy. I loved driving but was nervous with a police officer watching every move I made. I passed and was so happy — especially so I could take children to the Drs. Without having to bother my mother as I did not like to get John off work for such things. In fact in those days you did not call or bother your husband when he was at work except for an extreme emergency. I was thereafter helpful to encourage anyone to learn to drive—

[That's the end of Grandma's letter! Thanks for reading along. Next I'll transcribe Grandpa Wessman's letter. Then I'll scan the pages and they'll be available to anyone who requests them. Send me an email if you want copies or if you want the transscriptions.]