I remember teaching my oldest son to drive, and although it went well, there were some worrisome times. We lived in rural north Idaho, had electricity, but no running water, so driving to fill up the water barrels was a common occurrance. We had a 59 Chev pickup that my BIL had wrecked, and it drove, but had no doors or windshield. That was our Waterwagon, and we only needed to go about a mile down the road to the old church, and fill up the barrels, so I started letting Tony drive out in the pasture, and when he could shift and steer pretty well, he was allowed to drive down to the church.
When we came back home, he and the younger two would take the old truck out back to fill up the clawfoot bathtub we used for a horse trough. Tony had to do quite a bit of maneuvering to get the truck lined up right to siphon out the water, so this usually kept us occupied for the better part of an hour.
Sometimes, when we drove downtown to go to church, taking the old Stagecoach Road, which was a narrow dirt trail through the woods, and winding around the edge of the Kootenai Valley canyon. I was always a bit nervous as we traversed this part, and made sure he kept near the hillside part of the road, and far away from the dropoff on my side. Not having a door on that side of the truck made it even scarier looking !
However, it was all worth it, and he grew up to be a very competant driver. (Not including the "chariot races" the kids did with the pony cart out in the neighbors pasture. Good thing I didn't find out about those until the kids were all grown up ! )
nthego:
