Driving Lessons

by Tom Peters

9/26/2021

My daughter Ellie is a year away from obtaining a driver’s license. I was impressed by her desire to start the pursuit of a license in crazy, vehicle drenched LA at 15 only years old. I have spoken with several parents about how old their children when they started driving and was surprised how long kids wait to jump into the experience. When asked if I would help get her used to the driving experience I enthusiastically said ‘Yes’.

Ellie’s initial adventure behind the wheel was slowly driving around our townhome complex early in the morning with no one around. The pandemic closed many businesses so her and I would use the empty parking lots to get more familiar with driving. I commented on how slow she was driving and was having problems with over steering on corners. I took the wheel and explained that when you reach a certain speed, steering around corners became much easier. “I’m afraid of the gas pedal Dad, I don’t want to wreck your car,” she said, obviously nervous. “There’s nothing around to run into sweetie?”

“I know but it still makes me nervous.”

“OK, I’ll think of some other way to practice.”

I’m a golfer so I asked her if driving the golf cart when I play might help. She smiled and I made a reservation at the nearby Westchester Golf course for 2 and a cart. We both looked forward to this new endeavor. I must admit I was anxious to show off my golfing skills to my not so little girl.

The day came and although she said she felt funny behind the wheel of the golf cart, I reassured her that it was going to be fine. One thing gave me comfort, golf carts have a governor or regulator that limits how fast you can go even with the pedal all the way down.

We were teamed up with two male golfers around my age that were very friendly and were told my daughter wasn’t playing, just learning to drive.

The first four holes went just fine, Ellie kept her distance behind our fellow golfers and seem to be enjoying herself. Then, as we finished the fourth hole and headed up the path to the fifth, she came to a hairpin curve be the tee off area. Thinking she was comfortable enough, I said, “Just whip it around this corner El.” For the first time, I think she gave if plenty of gas but the oversteering issue she had before caused her to drive right into a pole.

“It’s fine El, you alright?”

“I’m fine” she relied with a nervous smile.

We got out and saw that the front bumper was jacked out of shape, as our golf mates looked on trying not to laugh. It looked bad. We both peeked under the cart to figure out how damaged we were dealing with. The engineers that designed the carts knew golfers would run into things. The bumper was anchored in the middle, so it was able to swivel, and had two clips on either side to keep it in place. I both saw what needed to be done. We grabbed the large rubber bumper and re-positioned it to snap back into the clips.

Our golfing companions laughed, and one said, “Do you two run a collision shop?”

Both of us smiling now, I backed the cart up and pulled it up behind their cart. Ellie drove it the rest of the round and do so just fine. I apologized repeatedly about my ‘whip it around the corner’ suggestion. Smiling, we both agreed it was better to wreck a golf cart than a 3,000 lb. car.

We’ve decided to leave the instruction to professionals when the time comes for Driver’s Ed.