I park the Driver Ed car behind the Community Center and go to find my student. When I enter the main room where we usually meet, he’s not there. So I go out front and wait.
Five minutes later he shows up. We chat for a moment. Then I drop into my best Boss-voice and sing “The car’s out back if you’re ready to take that loooong-ong-ong walk.”
The kid lifts his eyebrows slightly and stares at me. He has no idea why I just did that.
“You’ve never heard that song?” I ask. Everyone’s heard that song.
“Nope,” he replies, “who sings it?”
“Springsteen.”
“Who?”
“Bruce Springsteen. The Boss.”
My students chuckles and says, “He some old guy?”
That alone should be grounds to fail a student due to a lack of patriotism.
We walk through the building and get into our car. Strangely enough, the Chevrolet is pretty burned out. The ancient Malibu died again on me last week and probably doesn’t have much time in service left. My student runs through his pre-drive safety procedures. When he’s done he looks over at me, awaiting my command.
I look through the windshield and say “We’re pulling out of here to win!”
I think they need to start scheduling me for fewer lessons. Ten hours on the road each day is just too much.
My student grins and says “Same guy?”
“Yup.”
These kids are great, but I don’t have much time left in this job. I can just tell.
The car starts on the third try and we head out toward the opera on the turnpike.
I would have failed him as soon as he didn’t get the lyrics. This is probably why I don’t do this job. That and the fact that I can’t drive!
Is this a terrible time to admit that I’m not a big time Springsteen fan? Wait, scratch that. Let me just admit that I’ve never seen any of the Godfather movies. Wait.. scratch both. Let me just admit that I am an un-American idiot.
Youth of today just aren’t educated in the classics.
Kudos to you for having the encourage to help the young kids learn to drive. I have four kids and after the first one plowed the car into my bedroom wall, I handed the keys to my husband and told him it was his turn to teach the other three.
You are a brave soul. I couldn’t even get in the car with my kids when they were learning to drive.
Great. And you totally nailed the ending.
Something soo wrong about calling Springsteen some old guy! They should never be able to pass driver ed!
Cancel physical Ed and institute Icon Ed. That’s what I propose.
My old singing teacher was once giving a class, and she happened to mention Audrey Hepburn, in passing, for some reason or another.
One of the sweet young things in the class rather sheepishly piped up and asked, “Who’s Audrey Hepburn?”
My teacher was surprised and highly indignant that she didn’t recognize the name of one of the great screen actresses of all time.
How soon they forget!