Rite of Passage
Someone in this house recently started driving.
(In the interest of privacy, I will not reveal his/her name, but it rhymes with Schmatty Prose.)
He/she is actually a really good driver– careful, conscientious, responsible, and focused. Displays consistently good judgement. No texting, answering a cell phone or driving around with a carload of teenagers. We are very proud of him/her.
However.
According to every parent I talk to, apparently there is a rite of passage that is just about inevitable with a relatively new driver that is known as Their First Wreck. Thankfully, our child’s initiation into the world of fender benders did not involve another driver. Actually, it involved the side of the garage which luckily for all concerned does not happen to have legal representation or a penchant for litigation. Our poor child was just horrified, but as Russ later pointed out in a text he sent to him/her, “I forgot to warn you when you’re backing out, those sneaky garages can jump right in front of you!” Also, he/she was not remotely injured– thank you sweet Jesus. I cannot emphasize enough how grateful I am for that, I am not even kidding.
However.
It was my car. *sigh*
And in related news: anybody know a good, reasonably priced paint and body shop in the Nashville area? We’ve decided to bypass the insurance company on this one…
I would love to hear some ‘first accident’ stories from you guys– inevitability loves company, you know!
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I remember Russ mentioned this incident when he was with us a couple of weeks ago. His attitude was great about it. I remember he laugh a lot while telling me. Don’t worry (driver) it was not mentioned in his concert just to me personally.
I remember when I had mine. I had been driving probably 6 months or so. I was driving a Chrysler LeBaron and was turning left and some how missed a 78 Lincoln Town Car. How I missed Noah’s Ark barreling towards me is unknown. Anyway, the LeBaron was written off, apparently bending the frame is not good. The Town Car just hit the front bumper and shoved it over and bent the frame in the process.
That was about 16 years ago and since then I am very cautions when taking left turns. These things happen, we were very lucky as drivers we were not harmed; others haven’t been so lucky. A few weeks ago, a young girl got her license in the morning, left to drive to Ontario with some people and she was killed in her wreck along with some others with her.
Keep driving, take your time backing up and keep an eye out for garages, they do tend to just jump out, so do trees, garbage cans and mail boxes.
Don’t worry Maddie, my dad does this all the time. –Andrew S.
Oh, poor Schmatty!
Yeah, I still remember my first accident–I pulled in a tght parking place and sideswiped the door of a car, leaving a big ol’ scratch.
Megan and Meredith outdid me though.
Megan and I were driving to the Girl Scout camp in Norris. She was driving, made it all the way to the camp entrance and turned the wheel sharply to go through the gate. It had rained a lot and the road was not the greatest in the first place. Next thing I knew the SUV was on its side and I was looking straight up through the driver’s side window.The back tires slid off, the road crumbled and we were on our side in a ditch! I’ll spare you the story of me climbing out that driver’s side window.
Meredith got blown off the road by a semi and jumped a median, turning all the way around in the grass in the middle of a major thoroughfare after she got her license. She wouldn’t drive for a while after that.
I should have known our driving adventures would not be smooth sailing early on. When Meg was 2 y.o. she drove my minivan into the babysitter’s garage door.
Heads up, Madi! It could have been a lot worse! And I know how careful you are–I’ve ridden shotgun!
…and I would ride with you anytime!
Glad she was OK. I can remember when Rachel had just passed her test. We arrived home from church to find her in my car as she couldn’t get out. The wheelie-bin (garbage can) had managed to get between the drivers door and the wall of the drive. They do manage to move where you don’t want them don’t they. Fortunately a friend was able to knock out the dent. Sorry to mention you again Rachel!
Oh my gosh, which story should I tell? I remember my best friend in high school got her drivers license and went shopping with her Mom’s car that very day. She had an accident and when she got home, she called me sobbing! She was a perfectionist and was mortified that this would go on her “permanent record”! When I asked her what happened she said,”I hit one of those trucks that paint the white line down the middle of the road! You can see the very spot where I hit him on Dort Highway—-the white line zig zags for about 50 feet!” I totally cracked up!
Then, my youngest daughter had a new job at the Ford Dealership in Frankenmuth, which is the largest tourist attraction in Michigan. It is always crawling with tourists. Her first day, she had to drive to the bank and deposit money in the afternoon. She called me sobbing and could hardly tell me what happened. “Mom! (sob sob sob), I had an accident! (sob sob sob) Can you come get me? (boo hoo hoo!) I said sure, where should I go? And she said, “I’m at the collision shop off main street where they towed my car.” “Are you hurt, Honey?” “No Mom. But my brand new car’s pretty bad. And there’s some “property damage”. Me: “What kind of damage, Dear?” “Mom, ya know that wooden Indian out front of the tobacco shoppe on Main Street? Well, I hit another car and my car spun around and hit the Indian. I took out his arm! (boo hoo hoo) His hand is shading his eyes, but there’s no arm from his shoulder to his hand. (Sob sob sob sob!) I don’t know why, but I totally cracked up! Probably from relief that it wasn’t HER arm that was missing! I drove through town to pick her up and sure enough, there was the tobacco shoppe and the Indian out front with his hand shading his eyes, but his whole arm was lying on the sidewalk and a bunch of tourists were gathered round looking at this disabled wooden Indian and laughing their heads off! Right when it happened, she had to call her NEW BOSS and ask someone to pick her up, along with the deposit. And it gets worse——the next day the lady she hit was a customer of the dealership she worked for and the lady had her wrecked car towed there!!!! And it was Candy’s job to give her the repair bill and collect the money. The lady didn’t recognize her from the day before and kept talking about this crazy lunatic girl that hit her and she shouldn’t be allowed to drive ever again. (BTW, her new boss was so nice about it all! She didn’t lose her job, either.)
I have lots more stories, but those two are the ones that make me laugh to this day.
Bless her/his sweet heart….I’m thankful she/he was not hurt. You just never know when a garage is going to act up. I came home from shopping, drove into our garage and hit the front wall, knocking my husband off the sofa on the other side of the wall, which was in the family room. My husband put an empty spool of thread on the end of a long string and hung it from the ceiling of the garage where it would hit my windshield and let me know that I should not drive in any further.
Another day, in fact the day after my husband had brought ome a new car from a trip, we were living in Buffalo and it was snowing sheets of snow and ice. I turned into the driveway and kept sliding to the right until I was a fixture in the middle of our front lawn, wth the wheels of the car burried up past the axel. The car came out of it rather well but the lawn was a mess.
But my very first accident was a tree that jumped out, on purpose I maintained, into the driveway as I was backing out of the garage. My dad was sitting beside me in stunned silence. I don’t recommend planting live trees anywhere near a driveway……a dead one would be safer.
Our older son, Chris, was driving one morning from the beach to his summer job when his lunch slid off the seat. He went down to pick it up and hit a telephone pole….the pole snapped in half. Thankfully, Chris did not have a bruise but his car was totaled. When my husband went to see the car, he threw up. In the telling and re-telling of this story through the years, the point emphasized most was that part about dad. If there is a message to be learned I suppose it would be don’t eat breakfast before going to see your young-in’s wrecked car.
Madi Sweetie, I myself have run into the garage door frame a couple times. My husband came home from work one day and it had snowed, and he slid into the garage door and ruined it. My youngest daughter took the door off her Mustang that her father had dolled up with ground effects, enough chrome bling to make Lady Ga Ga blush, and a fancy metallic paint job! She was hurrying to school and didn’t close the door enough to avoid hitting the garage door frame. My oldest wrecked my car pullng out of the bank parking lot and after the police came and gave her a ticket, and the car was towed, she called home and told us she was never coming home! We chased her all over town trying to tell her it was alright…..she could come home. We weren’t going to kill her. (She’s bipolar—-very dramatic.)
So, everyone has a story, Madi, about a wreck or two! Or three. We’re thankful yours was with your garage and not a semi…..or one of those trucks that paints the white lines on the road. And that you are alright!
Barb, your stories made me almost throw up from laughing so hard! You”… drove into our garage and hit the front wall, knocking my husband off the sofa on the other side of the wall,..” BA HA HA HA HA!!!!! That’s one way to get a couch potato husband up and at ‘em!
Schmatty Prose we are so thankful the only thing hurt was your pride and mom’s car’s fender. While backing out of the narrow one-lane driveway at my grandparents’ house, the decorative fence grabbed hold of the bumper of my parents’ car and came with me. I was so embarrassed!! I was being so careful at watching where I was backing, but didn’t take into account that the front end of the car was going to swing out the opposite direction the back end was heading. So much for being conscientious. We ALL have some story of less than perfect driving history.
As for you, Tori – – when I was in high school and just learning to drive, my mom taught at a school an hour drive from our house. My brother and I transferred to that school and thus went on this hour drive with her twice each school day. The afternoon drive, Mom would get sleepy so she said all she had to do was put me behind the wheel and thus her sleepiness vanished! Can you imagine!??!
Don’t you mean your daughter “Smachel,” Betty… ??
My first, and worst, was two weeks after I got my license. I was not allowed to drive for a long time after that. It was dad’s fave little truck and apparently was never the same again. No one really taked about it afterwards.
Found out a couple days ago I lost yet another person I knew in an auto accident. Let’s keep trying to be as safe and careful out there as possible, OK??
OK, I’m trying to think of a good excuse for what happened with me and the wheelie bin! However there is none. Happily, that is the most damage I have ever caused to a car in my 15 years of driving.
Until 6 weeks ago, in fact, the only accidents I have ever had have involved stationary objects (logically of course they can’t have moved, but I absolutely believe Russ and Momma Lloyd when they talk about garages and trees jumping out in front of people). Wheelie bins have been involved on more than one occasion, as have metal poles and garage walls.
I think it must be a spacial awareness thing. Its never been my strong point. IQ tests are no trouble at all until you get to that point where you have to work out which shape fits into which hole – and other such pointless challenges as that. If I could work that stuff out I might well be a genius. So its probably just as well I can’t, because I don’t that would suit me!
Oh, and just in case you were wondering, 6 weeks ago, my first accident involving another vehicle was due to extreme tiredness on my part, but I was moving at about 2 miles an hour and caused no damage to either car. Phew.
Oh, and a message to the un-named driver – I am still ‘horrified’ (mortified, distraught and emotional) every time it happens – which, is not as often as the previous paragraphs may suggest.
My first wreck story isn’t entertaining but I know someone who has a great one. I grew up with my brother, his best friend (CL) and HIS brother, CJ. My mother sort of adopted them. We were at school to see a play that CL starred in. Mom parked at the front to drop off the older boys. When we were done unloading, she told CJ to move the car to a parking spot. He only had a learner’s permit but we live in a very rural area and it was a parking lot. CJ carefully put on his seatbelt and adjusted his mirrors (per my mother’s oft repeated instructions) and proceeded to drive into the back of the car in front of him. Which belonged to the principle of the school. CJ nearly died on the spot. There wasn’t really any damage to either vehicle but CJ was SO embarassed.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh – and I forgot to get my own back.
I can remember clearly my mother reversing into a milk-float. Annnnd, a driver-less car with no hand-brake on rolling off the driveway, over the road, up the curb and into a brick wall. You’re welcome, Mum
Don’t you mean your “schmother,” Rachel… ??
Oh, and if we ever go down the “schmother” story path, I have a few that’re consider legand by some in the town we grew up in. I exaggerate not. They do involve mostly stationary objects that do indeed sometime move, but not without warning.
Oh my goodness Tori! LOL Thank goodness all she hit was the garage and it was minor. I stay concerned every day when I pull out of this driveway that I’ll back into a car/truck or tear the side mirror off one of them. After all, we have 3 people living here as well as my brother next door and between us, we have 6 vehicles. Yep. Mom and I have cars; dad and Chris have their personal truck; Chris has the work truck AND…he has a dump truck parked in his front yard. Don’t ask….LOL….we live on a farm remember.
So I squeezed between dad’s truck and mom’s car today as I pulled in. It’ll be interesting trying to get out in the morning LOL.
First wreck? I was leaving Target and pulled onto Evans Street when a car ran the light and plowed into my blue station wagon that I had in college. Thankfully it only clipped the front of the car and was fixable.
Hope it doesn’t cost you too much to get it fixed and praying you can find someone good to handle the work.
My older sister backed into someone else’s mailbox once…but fixed it and left. Luckily, no mark was made…
My MOM recently made a butt-ugly scrape on the side of our car…now we have to check to see if that one door is completely shut.
Oh my heart…I am laughing so hard at Barbara’s comment of hitting the garage wall and knocking her hubby off the couch!!!!
Our daughter got her license in May and has had several “incidents”. The whole experience is enough to give one gray hair.
N.S. Mama, wouldn’t you have loved to hear the conversation when Barb’s hubby got up off the floor and went to the garage to greet her? Or maybe he just looked through the hole in the wall! I’ve laughed about this story all day long!!! Thanks Barb!!! Ya know I love ya!!!
Are ya feelin’ better yet ’bout the whole thing, Madi?
We were fixing my first car (a Chevette named Trixie, BTW) so I borrowed my Grampa’s pickup truck. A semi decided to switch lanes without looking and sideswiped the pickup twice. We both pulled over, then the truck took off (the police never did catch him) with me yelling something inane (“But it’s my GRAMPA’S truck!”) with possibly a swear word or two inside my truck as tho he could hear me. I was 30 min. north of my house; I called Gramma and Grampa, who lived about an hour south of my house and we met at the house. They were VERY quiet and I thought they were mad at me; then Gramma said “If you’d had the Chevette, you’d have gone under the truck.” and I realized they were worried about me and I felt SO much better. I told that sweet story to my friends.
YEARS later, I found out, as Paul Harvey said, “the rest of the story”. Grampa had recently let the collision insurance go on the truck so they had to pay for the repairs and he had listened to Gramma YELL at him for an hour to my house!!! (“I can’t BELIEVE you let that go,….”)
I did have an accident with Trixie that my kids LOVED to tease me about. I was driving on icy roads and hit black ice. I slid off the road and up onto a frozen mound that didn’t do the under-carrriage of the car any good at all. What my (then little) kids thought was so funny was that it was a frozen mound of,….um,….what comes out of the south end of a northbound cow!!!
My husband reminded me of our neighbor’s teenage daughter with a brand new driver’s license when she pulled into the garage and instead of hitting the brake, she hit the accelerator and went right through the back of the garage and moved the wall and her vehicle into their swimming pool! The reason I know that is that her snitchy little brother went door to door telling everyone, “Know what my sister did?” I was coming home from church and he flagged me down in the middle of the street to tell me about it! I really felt bad for that poor girl!
First – just wanted to send a message/prayer to the new driver…. May God always be your co-pilot and please be safe out there on the road. Those speed limits and those direction signs are there for a reason. You studied them to pass your test, now follow them it’s for the best!!!
I never drove until about 12-13 years ago and I am not 30 years old. I was just always “afraid” to think of driving and financially I wasn’t ready either. So my first attempt at driving was using my fathers “boat” of a car. I wasn’t even living at home anymore but he would come get me and I would take over and drive to church on Sunday. One time as I was pulling into my apartment complex, I didn’t have a good read on the front-end of the “boat” — I mean dad’s car and I didn’t cut the turn sharp enough to pull into the road leading to my townhouse and this dang “no parking” sign just jumped right out, scraping the front quarter panel on the drivers side. I just sat there, blocking the road… Dad motioned me to get going… I felt so guilty — I thought I had to report this as an accident. No harm was done to the “dark green” sign post. It just put a nice green scratch on my pop’s white “boat”.
A few years later and I don’t like anyone watching me (do anything)…. it intimidates me. Our private garage at work is very difficult to maneuver in. You have to be a pro-driver. 18 parking spaces and cement pillars at every two spots (holding up the 4-story building). I had a vendor due in to meet with me in the AM — well I’m running late and as I pull into the garage there he is waiting for me. Soooo – I felt rushed and instead of taking the spot on a three-point turn which is required to clear the pillar and fit in the spot, I turned into the spot and pulled right in… the rough white cement pillar met up with the passenger side rear quarter panel… of my new “at-the-time” SUV! Kind of looked like your vehicle now, Tori.
BTW – you’d be surprised how much of that they may be able to buff out. Depending on how deep the scratches are. May look worse than it is and the remaining scratches can serve as a reminder to concentrate on that location of the vehicle next time. Be safe!!!
Thanks Rachel! At least with all this you can see that it happens to the best of us so don’t worry Madi and keep enjoying driving!
From time to time the idea of a ‘bloomr get-together’ has come up on this blog. I’m starting to think…after some of these stories….that a central location on an Amtrack line might be more appropriate. I think a nice train ride could be healthier. The less time this group is behind the wheel, the better.
My granddaughter used my car last fall when I was recovering from surgery. That exact same fender on my car has about the exact same mark on it from the last day she drove it. Nice lovely scratch.
My first driving experience…. My brother took me out to teach me to drive. We got down to the corner and as I turned, (and this is where the DUH comes in) lol, I didn’t realize I had to straighten the wheels back out. So I kept turning and went up the embankment in the neighbors yard. This was in 1965. lol I will never forget that.
We’ve recently added a new driver in our home too, and Shmaige had her rite of passage…twice.
– Once in the gas station parking lot, on a Tuesday, as we headed home from Branson. She and another car collided lightly. We’re not sure whose fault it was, but our insurance said it was ours. Hoorah.
– The very next day, at home, whilst the rest our household was trying to sleep off Branson with an afternoon nap, P–I mean, Shmaige, called crying. “Can you come?”
UGH.
The accident was only a few blocks from our house. She’d rearended another car at a red light, but was going fast enough for the airbags to deploy. Thankfully, the bumps were minor, but did we ever have a weepy girl on our hands for a few days.
They are never fun, but at least these particular rites of passage are over – until the next ones start driving!
I’ve been laughing out loud reading all of the stories about first (or second or third or…) driving accidents. The stories just prove, once again, how much we all have in common. And that is….uh….that we’re not the greatest drivers? No, that can’t be it. Maybe it’s that accidents happen to everyone. (At least I kinda hope they do – little ones at least – or I’ve had way more than my share.) Anyway, a few years ago (quite a few), I finally could afford to buy a nice new car. And I bought a little red sporty one. I was soooo proud of that car. For a few months at least. Until it got all smashed up. At that time I parked in one of those parking ramps (that someone else also mentioned) that had two parking spots between two massive pillars (take my word for it, they were massive pillars, as I remember it). I always parked in a parking spot on the right with my new car because I’d scraped up my old car a couple times trying to get out of the spot on the left. For whatever reason (stupidity), I couldn’t figure out how to avoid the pillar as I backed out if I parked on the left. One day, though, I was forced to park in the spot on the left – and, you guessed it, smashed into the huge, massive pillar trying to back out. There were some scrapes (to my ego, for sure). But mostly there was a great big dent, and lots of missing paint. A couple weeks later, I picked up my repaired vehicle on a Friday evening. It looked like new. The following Monday morning, I again had to park on the left. But I’d learned my lesson. I just hadn’t learned it well enough. And before you knew it, my car once again had a great big dent, and lots of missing paint. I drove it that way for eight or nine months. There was simply no way I was going to walk into the repair shop just a few days after picking up my repaired vehicle and explain what happened. I just couldn’t. Once the car was fixed, though, I never ran into a pillar again. Well,….at least not that pillar in that parking lot with that particular car. Enough said!
Well..I will tell on myself. The day that I got my license, way back in 1980, I loaded up my 2 best friends in my momma’s big ol’ tank of a car, a 1973 Plymoth Fury, and off we went to Sonic. I was so excited to be out on the road, just me and my gals. I’m sure we were singing along with Barry Manilow or Karen Carpenter at the top of our lungs of course…we pulled into the lot and then as I was entering the parking spot…BAM!!! I hit the box that you do the ordering in and completely ripped off the side view mirror. But hey..we were at Sonic so we HAD to go ahead and order. After we left we headed to my friends house and I continued my panic attack and thought my mom is going to kill me!!!
SUPER GLUE!!! Well you get where I’m going with that. And NO it doesn’t glue everything like the ads promise.
I don’t really remember what my mom said, but do remember not getting to drive again until the repair was paid for.
I liked how your mom handled that.
I’m lovin’ these stories! I’ve laughed myself silly!
jonny, (notice the small “j”), you have a point—–lots of car wrecks aren’t funny at all, but change people’s lives forever. Sometimes I think these little fender benders are allowed by our Father to help us realize how fast things can go wrong and you can lose control of a moving multi-ton hunk of metal. Most of our stories involve the vehicle and a garage, or a drive-in ordering thingy, or a wooden Indian, or a husband on a sofa! LOL But we’ll be more careful——we promise! Your point is well taken!
I bet Madi is feeling pretty good by now!
Isn’t there a saying, “Misery loves company”??
And yes, LB, I’ve noticed your most considerate, and accurate, use of the ol’ lower case ‘j’ in my name! Much appreciated = )
my daughter, age 18, backed into the snow plow on a pickup – no damage to the truck thank goodness, but her car has an interesting dent in the back – it killed her because she saved a long time and paid cash for her car… ( glad she was okay AND that she wasn’t driving MY car) – same child hit black ice on the way the home from work last year and jumped a ditch – again she and car were okay. She shouldn’t have been on the road.. it took her an hour to make a 15 min trip to work – work called 5 min before her start time to tell her NOT to come.. uh too late… She always keeps a pewter guardian angel on her visor. I pray a lot for my teen drivers!!
OK so it has been a long while since I have left a comment, BUT when I was in highschool I once too the door off of my mom and dad’s Monte Carlo. I was used to driving stick. I had forgot I had put their automatic car in reverse WITH the door open, let off the break and the car naturally went backwards. Well with stick you let the clutch out and give it a little gas to keep it moving forward, so that is what I did. EXCEPT this car was NOT stick and I had put it into reverse with the door open, it caught the basketball pole in our driveway and took the door right off. My dad who I thought was going to kill me, smiled and said it is ok, we will get another door. Meanwhile my friend who stayed with us a lot in highschool was rolling on the ground in great laughter.
You guys have NO IDEA how much I am enjoying these stories! And in some weird way, they are kind of comforting…
At the very least it does give me a perspective about how much worse it could have been– which I totally need every time I look at my poor fender and wince!
Keep ‘em coming!
Please…I hit our garage with the bus…well, technically I hit the gutter that used to be ON our garage with the bus…but let’s not be picky.
Minor dents make for smarter drivers. At least that’s what I keep telling myself. Of course I do see where by best left a comment here about Pai…Smaige…but I don’t see where she mentions that SHE HERSELF hit our garage SEVERAL times with the suburban. Nuff said…
Our younger son’s best friend was always a very safe driver; however, he did have an altercation with a gas pump one time…..he filled up with gas, got in the car and drove off before putting the pump back in place. That young boy almost had a heart attack.
One day I was riding with our daughter, who had to stop by the drive-in bank. She waited patiently for her deposit slip to come back down to her and then drove off….taking the holder along with us. She simply drove around, got back in ine….but then had to get out of her car and walk that thang up to the front of the line so they could continue to do banking business. When she got back in our car, her first words were, “Mom, you’ve got to stop talking to me when I’m trying to think.” I said nothing. Sometimes mothers are wise.
(OK, I TOTALLY did that thing with the driving away with the money tube. And drove right back through and dropped it off. And I could hear them snickering in the bank.)
Hey Barbara….I feel your younger son’s best friend’s pain…been there done that! The gas attendant was banging on the trunk of my car as I was pulling away with the hose still in the gas tank…my kids were mortified…well so was I!
My dear Nova, this young fella tore the nozzle off completely and this was back when there was no shutoff valve…..so the hose was flopping every which way like a chicken with its head cut off…..and gas was going everywhere…..until somebody was able to shut all of the gas pumps down all over the place. There was a lot of excitement for a time in our little old sleepy town in the south.
Barbara my new blogging friend…you are too funny!
“the hose was flopping….”