Journal Jar #1

My mom sent Darwin and I a Journal Jar about 10 years ago for Christmas.  It is a little jar full of questions on slips of paper.  The idea was that by pulling these slips out of the jar and answering them (in notebooks she also sent) we would have a "wonderful family keepsake".  I pulled out two strips and answered them in March of 2001...and that was it.  The little jar and the two notebooks have been on a book shelf in my bedroom ever since then.  Somehow, when we moved to Oahu the little jar ended up on my desk.  It has been staring at me everyday for the past 5 months.  So.... as it is a New Year, and a time for resolutions... I am going to try and answer one of these slips each Sunday and see how long I can go with them.  If you would like to participate, you are more than welcome to answer the questions on your own blog, in a notebook, or as a comment on here.

Happy New Year!

Question #1

How old were you when you got your driver's license and tell about the experience

I was 14 years old when I got my first drivers license.  I went to driver's ed classes in the summer of 1989.  One of my driver's ed teachers was Mr. Janzen (who was also my 8th grade History?? teacher).  We had some classroom time (that I don't remember too much of) and a driving range to practice on (which was a large empty parking lot with roads painted on it...along with places to parallel park and a set of painted on railroad tracks we had to stop at and look both ways) and then once a week we got to drive on the road in a brand new 1989 Ford Tempo!!  The cars that we drove on the range were REALLY old and broken.  I remember one time we were going to practice driving in reverse.  The girl in the car with me was named Audra Booth and she was taller than me.  She went first.  We had to put the car in reverse and drive backwards clear to the other side of the range .  Then when we got to the fence, we could put the car in gear (they were all stick shifts) and drive back to the starting line.  She did awesome.  Then we had to get out and change drivers.  I adjusted the seat forward so I could reach the pedals, put the car in reverse, and waited for the teacher to give us the go-ahead.  (We all had to wear headsets so the teacher could talk to us while we were driving and they were not in the cars with us).  On "Go", I pushed on the gas...and my seat slid all the way back and the car stalled!!  Stupid broken seat!  I was so embarrassed!  hahaha!  I was able to get the seat to stick in the forward position and drive through the requirement...but I was all by myself at that point since no one else stalled their car.  

Some other things I remember about getting my first driver's license are that my brother Micah (who is 15 months younger than me) had to wait until he was 16 to get his license.  Idaho changed their driving age to 16 and I was in the very last group of kids who could get their license at 14.  Another funny thing was my actual license.  I was issued my first driver's license on August 2, 1989.  The woman who prepared my license messed up on my birth year.  She listed my birth year as 1914....I'm guessing because we were talking about how lucky I was to get my license at 14 years old before the law changed!  I have a photocopy of my original license...I'll snap a quick picture of it and share! =)

HAHAHAHAHA!  Do you love the hair?!?  Can you see the birthdate with the year listed as '14?  Oh how I wish I was still 095 lbs!!

The picture above my license is the first time I drove by myself without an adult in the car.  I was driving myself in parent's station wagon about five blocks down the road to a babysitting job...lol!  I think my mom watched me the whole way!