Mrs Head, I salute you!

In 1985, at the ripe old age of 15, I enrolled in driver's ed. That was back in the good ol' days when you could get your driver's license at 14 (daylight only). My driving instructor was Mrs Head, and seeing how we were in Bonner County, Idaho- where the school budget was already tight, the cars we learned to drive in were of the, shall we say, vintage variety.

In other words, we drove big, boat cars... Not unlike this-


It might not have seemed to be an advantage at the time, but trust me- once you learned to parallel park that baby, you could parallel park anything!

I don't know exactly how she did it, but Mrs Head always seemed very calm- even when her very life and limb were at the mercy of the youth behind the wheel. I don't remember her ever raising her voice or even flinching.

As I went out on another practice driving session with Teenage Son today, I thought about Mrs Head. And even though Teenage Son is actually doing quite well, I have to admit I may have yelped once or twice. There was definitely some flinching.

So I just have to say, Thank you Mrs Head. As a mother of a driver-to-be, I salute you!