I Was Taught to Drive at Towne Square Mall…How About You?

I say we should have more days of the week during which we can reminisce. My friend Chaney recently posted, "Nostalgia is the best feeling," and she's right.

So, in addition to Throwback Thursday, I submit Flashback Friday, Wayback Wednesday, Time Machine Tuesday, and Monday Memories.

There. It's settled.

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Now, today is Monday Memories and I have one that was generated by a conversation I had recently about where and how I learned to drive. It stemmed from a discussion about how it didn't used to take very long at all to get your driver's license. I had mine one month after my 16th birthday.

But before that road test, my dad took me out to Towne Square Mall to get the ball rolling and I was incredibly excited to FINALLY get behind the wheel of a car.

However, I was taught while sitting behind the wheel of a TRUCK...a 1974 Datsun pickup. It was my dad's. It was a really bizarre and UGLY shade of green. And he loved that truck like it was one of his kids.

But there was a hitch...it was a straight-shift. So not only was he teaching me how to drive, he was teaching how me how to drive a STICK. And he was really selling it, too.

He kept saying, "Oh, it's the easiest thing in the world," and, "Once you learn, you'll never forget."

Fact check: sorta true and absolutely true.

Here's the deal. It ISN'T the easiest thing in the world, but it really isn't rocket science, either. Also, he's absolutely correct, in that I haven't forgotten how to drive a stick. It's just that they hardly make them anymore. (Oh, and, he really DIDN'T teach me how to drive a stick that day; that would be Tyler Brubaker, in 1994.)

Later, Dad would take me out in our big old Chevy Impala, after realizing that it was going to be necessary for me to take my road test in an automatic.

So, yeah, Towne Square Mall parking lot was where I learned to drive. I'm thinking other possibilities could've been Lincoln Mall or the Sportscenter parking lot.

How about you? Where did YOU learn how to drive?