Learning to drive in 1982 and 1988

I didn't learn to drive until the summer after high school in 1982 – my mother warned me that if I didn't take driver's education at school it would be expensive later. But I hardly drove at all until summer 1988, when I traveled the country with my friend Paul Baer. We met up in Chicago, and he drove us to Toledo, where we stayed at my father's house. The next morning, Paul taught me how to drive stick shift in a parking lot. So I drove quite a bit that day on I-80 East – until there was a huge traffic jam, and we changed drivers in the middle of the highway. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 13 January 2022)