Some Hornets Weren't Meant to Fly

This is in response to the StoryWorth question: What was it like learning to drive?

First, I would like to remind folks that I learned to drive before video games were popular…maybe even before they existed. I didn’t have any practice driving via video games with the little steering wheel attachments or anything like that to practice on. My only experience with “driving” was riding my bike. I knew if I turned my handlebars left, the bike went left and vice versa. I reckon that the car steering wheel worked pretty much the same.

Before I even got my learner’s permit, Dad had bought me a used, little baby-blue AMC Hornet hatchback. It was a three-speed on the column and I grew to love that little car. I didn’t love it at first, because it was a 3-on-the-tree and had a clutch. It took a while for me to be able to learn to ease off of the clutch as I eased down on the gas so I didn’t let it die or worse yet, roll backward down a hill!

Dad was the one who taught me most of my driving, at least in the Hornet. Mom would help me when I drove her car but it was an automatic.

Now I learned to drive when I lived on the farm on the outskirts of Wartrace, Tennessee. Wartrace is barely a blip on the map and was surrounded by countryside. The roads were rather narrow and often curvy and hilly. Some of them were even gravel. I can remember Mom laughing at me when I was driving on a little better road and I exclaimed, “WOW, this road has lines down the middle!”

So I learned to drive my baby blue manual transmission Hornet on country, curvy, hilly roads with Dad as my main teacher.

Now Dad is an excellent driver and he was a very good teacher but I am sure that I tried his patience learning to drive that 3-on-the-tree Hornet. I discovered hills where I could have sworn it was Kansas flat! I remember stopping at the WHOA stop sign in front of the Walking Horse Hotel there in Wartrace. That was one of those Kansas flat spots that ended up being a hill! I noticed that as I would start to go, my Hornet would roll back a bit. I also noticed a car right behind me and he looked like he was RIGHT behind me! After my hesitation at going when the way was clear, Dad said, “April, why aren’t you going?” I told him that there was a car right behind me and I was afraid that if I took my foot off of the brake, I might roll back into it. Dad said “Well go on. If you roll into him, it’s his own fault. He shouldn’t have pulled so close!” Well, I am not still sitting in front of the WHOA sign in front of the Walking Horse Hotel, so I must have finally got up the nerve to go. Even today, any time I hit a pothole when I am driving, I can almost hear Dad pipe up with a “You missed a pothole back there. Do you wanna go back and hit it too?”

After that WHOA flat hill episode, I took my Hornet to a road there in Wartrace that ran between Buchanan’s little store and the old primary school. That road went up a pretty good, for certain hill. I practiced stopping and going on that hill until I could stop and go without rolling back! That was one good thing about living near a town that was barely a blip on the map, there wasn’t much traffic to worry about rolling back into.

So I got to where I was confident in stopping and going even on a hill. I could WHOA and go without a worry. I also began to embrace my inner Mario Andretti. I enjoyed going fast. Country roads or not, I had a need for speed and I often indulged that need.

That little Hornet gave me some freedom. After I got my license, I could actually drive to the lake on weekends or drive to Shelbyville to go bowling or to a movie. I drove to school every day and we didn’t have to wait in the cold or rain or heat for the school bus. Robbie, our neighbor and my brother David’s friend, would often ride to school with us.

I remember one time Robbie was hanging out with David when Mom sent me up Knob Creek to go to Long’s Market for something. David and Robbie rode with me. David was aggravating me the whole time and was getting on my last nerve. I guess that the more aggravated I got, the faster I drove. I remember Robbie who was sitting in the back seat had grabbed hold of the back of my seat and the back of David’s seat, pulled forward in his seat, punched David’s shoulder and said, “Shut up David; she’s going 90 mph!” Yep, I’m lucky those wild racing video games were not a thing yet.

I loved my little Hornet. I learned to drive with that little Hornet and continued to learn even after I got my license. Sadly, it had a rather early demise on the day of my school’s junior/senior banquet.

When I went to high school, our school did not have a prom. Instead, the juniors and seniors got all gussied up and we went to a hotel in Murfreesboro where the banquet hall had been rented and a nice dinner had been prepared. Mom had wanted me to have my hair done so it would be pretty for the banquet so I went to the hairdresser there in Wartrace and had my hair curled.

Now it hadn’t rained in quite a long while but while I was getting my hair done, it came a brief sprinkle. As I was going home, I was rounding, the curve and going down the hill. The pavement in that spot had a little ripple in it that always reminded me of that old-fashioned ribbon Christmas candy. I guess that the rain had made it a bit slick because when I hit that ripple, my little hornet slid right over onto its top in the ditch on the other side of the road. I wasn’t hurt at all and I wasn’t shaken up at all. It was just a gentle slide and flip into the ditch. I crawled out of the car and went to the house in the curve. Mom and Dad were at work so I called my Uncle Dale. I thought that he could pull my little Hornet over with his tractor and I could drive it home and get ready to drive to the banquet. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that. So when Mom got home from work, she let me drive her car to pick up my two friends and head to the banquet.

Unfortunately, my little Hornet was totaled. I didn’t have another car until after I graduated from MTSU and got my little Ford EXP. Until then, I would borrow Mom’s car when it was available.

Ironically, I was not going fast when I flipped my little car. I guess that it must have been a little fast for the road conditions but it was not Mario Andretti fast or “David, shut up fast!”

So that is my learning how to drive story. I got my driving license and I reckon I must have thought that I got my license to fly at the same time. Unfortunately, I lost my beloved Hornet. Fortunately, the demise of my car opened my eyes to the fact that if driving slowly can flip a car onto its roof, driving fast might just send a person into orbit! Also when I look at my junior/senior banquet pictures, I can't tell which year I had my hair done so I learned that curling my hair is just not worth it!