I learnt to drive in my parents' Volkswagen beetle. I did have a few excitements during my 'L' plate days. After several professional lessons my brave parents took me on.
One day Mutti and I were driving around the neighbourhood and I came to a stop sign that was on a slope so that I could practise my hill starts. I stuffed up a bit, rolling back before taking off again. I let out the clutch, did all the right things but the car didn't move forward, so I went through the whole procedure again. The car roared (as much as a Volkswagen can roar) but we just couldn't progress. Over the growling car we heard a weak voice calling, 'Stop! Stop!' so stopped. We got out of the car and discovered the problem. Whilst rolling back I had hooked the bumper bar on the mudguard of the car behind and to add insult to injury I had started tearing the mudguard TWICE! The driver looked at the damage, then at me, said, 'Oh never mind'. Reversed his car out of the tangle and drove off. Phew!
On another occasion my father accompanied me to Uni with me driving. I hurtled around a corner in fourth gear and when he got me to pull over he was as white as a sheet. He then proceeded to explain that it is a good idea to change down a few gears and go around corners at a more sedate speed. Volkswagens could roll over easily he said. I did heed his advice in the future.
One night I'd been out at dinner with one of my boyfriends and he was absolutely drunk. By the time we got to my place he was hardly conscious so I went inside, got the car keys and drove him home in the Volkswagen! I had had a few drinks too and it made me bold and foolish. I drove him home, helped him inside and then drove back to my place. I told my parents the next day and even though I was still on my Ls they thought it hilarious. Haven't things changed!!!
I didn't pass my driving test because I was too cheeky. I was told to do a three point turn on a really wide street but did a U turn instead. When the tester challenged me I said that you wouldn't ever do a three point turn on such a wide street unless you were in a truck with a large turning circle. Foolish retort! Fail!
Somehow I was too busy to do another driving test so waited another ten years or so until I had my first baby before I tried again. My husband was a terrific teacher and used to make me reverse around cul-de-sacs and do all sorts of tricky things. In those days Canberra had the infrastructure of suburbs, including streets built, without the houses, so there were plenty of places to practise.
My husband, T's, first car was a massive Jaguar which he bought with the money from a Commonwealth scholarship. He had a marvellous time in that car hooning about, doing the stupid things that boys do. Luckily nothing bad happened.
When we met he had an extremely conservative beige Hillman Hunter station wagon. It turned out to be a great little car and we drove all over the place including rocky terrain and riverbeds while we explored the countryside. On the morning we picked up our new car, a pale yellow Mazda 626 station wagon I happened to lean on the Hillman Hunter and there was absolutely no give. The suspension had died.
The new Mazda gave us a shock one day when we thought the duco was coming off. Luckily it turned out to be excessive pollen from the pine forests. We had never experienced this phenomenon of pollen drift before.
The most memorable event in the Mazda was when we were driving home along the Cotter Road, which wound its way through bushland, one night after a social function that had gone into the wee small hours. T was driving fairly slowly but couldn't stop in time before a huge kangaroo jumped into the side of the car. It dented every single panel on the passenger side. We pulled over expecting to see a dead kangaroo, however it picked itself up and continued to cross the road and hopped straight into the side of a police car that was going in the opposite direction. Again it picked itself up, tried to continue crossing the road and hopped straight into the side of a second police car! It then decided that crossing the road was not a good idea, turned and jumped over a fence and disappeared.
When questioned by the two policemen they surprisingly seemed thrilled that T had forgotten to carry his licence and asked him to bring it into the station the next day. They wanted a civilian witness to explain how both police cars had almost identical damage! There were many guffaws from the desk sergeant and other policemen when T presented himself at the station. Many comments were made about the bribes that their colleagues had paid to a civilian to say that one kangaroo had hit both of their cars!
When I got my licence we bought a Toyota Crown very cheaply. It did the job but when it started using more oil than petrol we decided it was ending its useful life. One day I drove up our very steep driveway. Three quarters of the way up the car began to cough and splutter and when I got to the top I didn't have to turn the ignition off. The car had died. It had dropped oil and screws and bolts all the way up the driveway. The poor thing wouldn't start again and had to be towed away.
My next car was a blue Datsun. I had been extremely lucky and had bought the winning ticket of the Ainslie Football Club silver circle lottery. The first prize was $12,000. We had moved into our new house not long before and hadn't been able to afford curtains for the living room or a car for me. The problems were solved with that money. My little blue Datsun wasn't flash but it happily drove us around for quite a few years.
We've had a series of cars since then. As our girls reached 18 they also had their own cars and revelled in the freedom of having their own transport. T taught them both to drive, I was just too nervous and definitely not a good driving instructor.
My happiest car story happened on 17th December 2003. It was a sad time for the family because my father was sick in an aged care hostel and my mother was in hospital having suffered a stroke. I was just trudging out of the hospital, exhausted after organising my parents' care, visiting them both in different institutions and trying to keep them both as happy as I could, which was an impossible task, when my phone rang and a lovely lady told me that I had won a BMW 525i in the MS lottery. I immediately rushed back and told Mutti who was very pleased. Vati was absolutely delighted to hear the news. Winning a car! And a German one at that! It was the last good news that poor Vati heard. He passed away 3 days later.
T was super pleased about the BMW because it ended up being his Christmas present that year (along with a rain gauge). The car he had at the time we gave to someone we knew who had lost her job and with it, her car.
The BMW was T's favourite car of all time. He had it for 7 years but then unfortunately drove through a deep puddle after a freak rain storm which ended his ownership. The air intake is low down in BMWs and it sucked up the water and then had to be towed away. The car people said it was a write-off and it got sold at auction as a wreck. The man who bought it rang up and said how much he loved the car. He had bought it for $5,000 and had fixed it himself for about $80! The happiest car story for us ended sadly but happily for the new owner.
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