(26th Entry) The day I went to get my driver’s license…

It was my sixteenth birthday… September 14, 1976! I was all excited… this is the day I was going to get my driver’s license… a rite of passage that every Texan expects.

I went to the Texas Department of Public Safety in Farmer’s Branch, Texas… a little suburb outside of Dallas. My dad went with me. Like so many of my stories this one’s a little hazy due to time and myth. Myths are stories that take on a life of there own.

I took the test in a 1973 manual transmission (4 on the floor) Ford Pinto Wagon. As I recall, I passed the test on the first try. I think I flunked parallel parking, but I still had passed the test over-all. After the test I remember sitting in the lobby as they called my Dad into a small office. I wondered what they were talking about. I don’t recall if I had any intuition or not that there might be some sort of problem.

I remember my Dad calling me into the office, maybe talking to me alone before entering… but I don’t think so or maybe it was just he and I in the office alone. He told me that even though I passed the test the officer didn’t want to give me my license without adding a restriction of automatic transmission. I was pissed!

I had passed the test! We only had this one car that I was going to have access too. The other car was a Lincoln Continental Town Car… No way was I going to drive that.

To make a long story somewhat not as long! My memory is that I picked up the phone in the office and was going to call a lawyer. My Dad explained to me that if I fought it that way I might not have a license for quite some time. I don’t recall my behavior although knowing me it probably was pretty provocative. I imagined that I said some things that made my Dad cringe.

I remember my Dad trying to negotiate and mediate between the officers and myself. Somewhere along the lines either the head of this particular office or someone higher up decided to give me another driving test. I remember we went out to a piece of land that was being made into a highway. It was a dirt field. I remember the officer telling me to just drive while he tried to make me lose control of the car. Needless to say he couldn’t make me lose control. We went back to the office; I received my license with one restriction… glasses.

I could go on and add to the story… I honestly don’t remember if the rest of the story is truth or myth. I’m sure over the years the story has been magnified in my mind… partly because it makes for a great story; and partly because it was one of those days that changed my life forever. For better or worse…

My Dad really stayed calm that day. I think he knew that I was so upset, so angry that any fuel to the fire would be a calamity for all. I had been warned by a friend of mine, Robert, to take the test in a standard or I would be given the automatic restriction, but I hadn’t thought about being denied a driver’s license having passed the test. (Hopefully soon a copy of the short film clip of Robert and I will be on the blog. It’s a 5 minute short documentary on our friendship done by PBS in Dallas, summer of 1970.)

Stay tuned!!!