Driving

Almost got creamed on the road today. My knee jerk mind's road rage thought, Where'd you learn to drive!? ... which, a block later, fertilized pleasant thoughts of my own experience learning to drive.

L.A. is a great place to learn to drive. First, there are huge parking lots everywhere in which the novice can safely practice. For me, it was the lots at the Rose Bowl and Santa Anita race track. You could practice everything there, including parallel parking into a marked space.

Later, I graduated to my neighborhood streets and after that to a trip along Colorado Blvd., Pasadena's main drag. But the big promotion and challenge came when you first ventured onto the Pasadena Freeway. Talk about stress and fright! This was a very early freeway, perhaps the first, and it's narrow and full of curves, no great joy to drive even today. If you made it on the Pasadena Freeway, you knew you were ready to drive just about anywhere. At least in this country ha ha.