tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post3468517533009581875..comments2024-03-28T04:55:50.771-04:00Comments on Jungle Red Writers: A New Kind of Driving TestJungle Red Writershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16646429819267618412noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-85603470415797938842016-08-10T03:53:50.563-04:002016-08-10T03:53:50.563-04:00I took lessons from a professional driving school,...I took lessons from a professional driving school, and they switched my instructor right before the road test. He was new to the area, didn’t know the written and driving tests were at different locations in the city, and took me to the wrong place. He got the address for the right location and, the entire time we were driving to it, kept muttering about probably having to reschedule since we were already late. Luckily, the line was so long when we arrived, it wasn’t a problem. <br /><br />My turn came and things went well for about the first 30 seconds. In the middle of parallel parking, the officer asked why I was taking my road test in Newark instead of Wayne where I took my written test. I told him I had taken my written test in Newark and was told to take my road test in Newark. He didn’t believe me and argued with me during the entire test, insisting I was lying to him as the person who signed my permit worked in Wayne, not Newark. When we reached the end of the course, he told me to stay in the car while he got out and stomped over to the guy from the driving school demanding to know what the deal was. New guy didn’t have a clue so he couldn’t confirm my story. Of course, other officers noticed something going on and joined the fun. Now I had a group to stare and point at me while they discussed the lie. Eventually, the guy who gave me the test went into their booth and started making phone calls. Outcome was he discovered I was telling the truth. - someone from Newark had called out sick the day I took my written test and the guy from Wayne covered the shift.<br /><br />Thankfully, I did manage to pass after all the commotion. I don’t think I would have bothered to go back if I had failed.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06032186882569925590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-89653162580912494322016-08-09T22:11:12.361-04:002016-08-09T22:11:12.361-04:00Pat Marinelli, you make me burst into tears. And y...Pat Marinelli, you make me burst into tears. And yes, that was so frustrating-I heard it everywhere. The "romantic suspense" people could not find it because it was in mystery. In other stores, the mystery people could not find it because it was in suspense. <br /><br />I cannot tell you how much it means to me to hear you say this. Thank you.Hank Phillippi Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17420701704169428286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-74133978246914371842016-08-09T19:37:25.835-04:002016-08-09T19:37:25.835-04:00Elisabeth, yes definitely quit while you're a...Elisabeth, yes definitely quit while you're ahead!<br /><br /> Diana, thank you! It is such a huge problem… And the problem is, you may have a recalled car and not know it. You may buy a car, and it will be recalled, and you won't know it. They rent a car with a recall, and not know it. System for notification and follow up is incredibly flawed. <br /><br /><br /> It did make a great TV news story, and also a pretty good book! XxxxHank Phillippi Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17420701704169428286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-61915567327969169002016-08-09T19:35:08.177-04:002016-08-09T19:35:08.177-04:00Coralee I am seriously still laughing. Still la...Coralee I am seriously still laughing. Still laughing. I have been laughing about your post all day. Hank Phillippi Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17420701704169428286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-68086368879539993942016-08-09T19:27:39.041-04:002016-08-09T19:27:39.041-04:00Barbara --the world is divided into "hurry up...Barbara --the world is divided into "hurry up and learn" and "never never never!"<br /><br /><br />Storyteller Mary--that is profound and wonderful. Thank you!<br />Hank Phillippi Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17420701704169428286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-75740480082718582212016-08-09T19:26:03.405-04:002016-08-09T19:26:03.405-04:00Storyteller Mary--I cannot believe you're look...Storyteller Mary--I cannot believe you're looking forward to self-driving cars! I think it sounds so awful...<br /><br />Patricia P--rolling stops, The scourge.Hank Phillippi Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17420701704169428286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-22677772659192800032016-08-09T19:24:31.959-04:002016-08-09T19:24:31.959-04:00Oh,Debs the stick shift thing. Once you learn, it ...Oh,Debs the stick shift thing. Once you learn, it is such fun! I even agree.<br /><br />Pat D--its not required! COme on..its a rite of passage!<br /><br />(Sorry to be away so long--we were out shooting a story!)Hank Phillippi Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17420701704169428286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-2449600896774385922016-08-09T18:25:46.296-04:002016-08-09T18:25:46.296-04:00Not so bad, although the first time I drove in sno...Not so bad, although the first time I drove in snow was the day of my driver's test.jpetroroyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07652079710462059513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-91214864685605294672016-08-09T18:10:13.913-04:002016-08-09T18:10:13.913-04:00Since my parents, sister, and all my friends had c...Since my parents, sister, and all my friends had cars I didn't get my drivers license until I was 19. I was working two jobs and going to school at night so my Dad said I had to get my license and he'd find me a car that I could pay for. <br /><br />I learned to drive in the cemetery at night in my best friend's car. When I went for my test I drove my Mom's huge Chevy wagon. I passed the test but didn't do well on parking. The nice, middle-aged man giving me the test told my Mom that was a huge car for such a tiny girl and wrote PP for poor parking on the test and passed me. My Mom told my Dad I only passed because I was a blonde and had on a pink sweater. Sounds sexy, right? It had on a pink button-down collar blouse, a pink shirt, and a button-down-the-front cardigan sweater. LOL I was dressed for work.<br /><br />Don't put me in for the book and I've read the whole series. I remember getting my first copy as a romance contest judge. When I went to get the second book in the series, I told the lady in B&N that "this author has a huge career ahead of her." We had trouble finding the second book because it was filed in mystery.Pat Marinellinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-86020032900267271082016-08-09T16:25:08.370-04:002016-08-09T16:25:08.370-04:00Hank, you are so funny! What car? Hahaha! It's...Hank, you are so funny! What car? Hahaha! It's little wonder your characters are so witty. I promise that I am getting to the Charlotte books, but I will probably make it one of my series reads, where I read them all one after another, and that's going to have to be after Bouchercon. <br /><br />Seems we all have an important relationship with parallel parking. I'm sure that being able to parallel park was what enabled me to pass my driver's test. I actually enjoy parallel parking, and it was a great coup when my husband and I went out to eat one night last year, and he was attempting to parallel park the car in front of the restaurant. After three or four trys, he looked at me and said, "Okay, you do it," and I did on the first try. Hehehe!Kathy Reelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17004247271452356577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-70359134866322236012016-08-09T16:06:07.817-04:002016-08-09T16:06:07.817-04:00My mother taught me to drive with a few lessons fr...My mother taught me to drive with a few lessons from HER driving instructors, Mr & Mrs Murphy. Mother had not learned until she was 29 (city girl) and vowed that I would learn young before anxiety could take over. <br />If any of you remember rubbery girdles of the early 50s, you can envision Mother so drenched with sweat after her lessons that the girdle would not come come off -- "suction cup" action.<br />So in 1962 at 16 I learned and passed the test on the first try including parallel parking. Driving the Murphy's automatic, although my main driving experience was stick.Twelve years later I had to take a driving test as I had moved to a different state with no reciprocity. Passed on the first try including parallel parking.<br />And those are the two times in my life that I have parallel parked...I'm not going to try for a third time. I'm with Mary -- keep driving until a good parking place appears. <br />Congratulations on Drive Time, Hank.Elisabethnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-87769338038163935352016-08-09T15:00:12.868-04:002016-08-09T15:00:12.868-04:00This conversation reminded me of a poem I wrote fo...This conversation reminded me of a poem I wrote for Howard Schwarz's class in '93.<br />Auto-Mobile<br />by Mary Garrett<br /><br />Ray Bradbury, the guru of space travel, will not drive a car.<br />More die each year from cars than from Vietnam at its worst,<br />And where are the marches in protest?<br /><br />Instead, we daily enter thin sheaths of metal, and Auto-propel<br />Ourselves at impossible speeds over hard concrete.<br />Only a thin line of white paint separates cars on either side.<br />We seldom ask if this trip, this job, this play, this class,<br />This visit is worth the risk.<br /><br />Highway rules are followed, most of the time;<br />Defensive vigilance is maintained by drivers, most of the time;<br />Guardian angels or luck protects us, some of the time.<br /><br />When those fail, the first law of physics prevails:<br />Two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-63734492266499819022016-08-09T14:57:31.355-04:002016-08-09T14:57:31.355-04:00Great comments today. I think extracurricular acti...Great comments today. I think extracurricular activities were developed so that parents would let their children get their driver's license and the parents would not have to cart the kids to all those activities. I know that's why I made my kids get theirs the first day they were old enough. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-64038032227788339612016-08-09T14:55:47.254-04:002016-08-09T14:55:47.254-04:00Our school was so large, all we got was the classr...Our school was so large, all we got was the classroom part. I failed my first drivers test as well. Something about rolling stops. I blame my stepfather, that's the way he taught me. Passed it the second time, though.Patricia P.https://www.blogger.com/profile/05880219418129776013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-59720161339174456452016-08-09T14:54:34.807-04:002016-08-09T14:54:34.807-04:00I took driver's ed. in high school, but didn&#...I took driver's ed. in high school, but didn't go for a license then; I did get signaling drilled into me, though. I was in my late 20s when I finally got around to driving, in order to work as a sales agent for Prudential, and my bosses helped me practice driving. I did fail the first attempt, with a rather arrogant young officer who wrote that I had "interfered with other drivers' right of way" by being too slow and timid making a left turn. The second attempt was with an older, mellower officer, and my then-husband had promised champagne if I succeeded. I also hedged my bet by muttering, "I am so looking forward to a car with automatic transmission" when struggling with changing gears on a hill. It wasn't quite a lie; I did get an automatic . . . twenty years later. I CAN parallel park, with a big enough space, but prefer not to. In fact, I'd rather have a space that doesn't require backing out either. I'll be very happy if they perfect self-driving cars. ;-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-39796257485737731482016-08-09T14:51:20.766-04:002016-08-09T14:51:20.766-04:00I only passed my first driver's test because h...I only passed my first driver's test because he let me parallel park in a space big enough for an aircraft carrier. <br /><br />Other than that deficiency, I love to drive and would constantly be on a road trip if I could. <br /><br />TerriTerri Lynn Coophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07290316565247120848noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-49839067510097859022016-08-09T14:44:53.734-04:002016-08-09T14:44:53.734-04:00Debs, am I a dog in the manger because parallel pa...Debs, am I a dog in the manger because parallel parking is not required on the driving test anymore? I think if I suffered so should everyone else! I learned to drive standard in my twenties when I was pregnant. I swear everytime I shifted gears on I-10 (this was El Paso) I had a contraction. I have had a car with manual shift ever since. It was certainly handy when we lived in Ohio and Minnesota and had snowy winters. Not so handy in Houston but I like to delude myself with the thought that I can drive my Liberty anywhere.Pat Dnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-46626079949730332382016-08-09T13:12:54.242-04:002016-08-09T13:12:54.242-04:00Hank, so excited to get this book! Kayti and I are...Hank, so excited to get this book! Kayti and I are loving the Charlies!!! And very interesting to read about the writing progression.<br /><br />Julia, praying for you, LOL. <br /><br />I passed my driver's test first time. I was so nervous, because I had to parallel park in my dad's monster Lincoln Continental, but I did. Must say I don't parallel park nearly so well now... I didn't learn to drive a stick until a couple of years later, when my dad got it into his head to buy me a used Datsun 240Z. We took it for a test drive and I had no choice but to learn on the spot! (What was my dad thinking??? But I loved that car, and drove it until I moved to Scotland years later.) I still prefer driving a standard, but don't anymore because it's just too hard in big city rush hour traffic.<br /><br />When my daughter was learning to drive, I had a Honda Prelude (RED.) My favorite car ever after the 240Z. She just could not get the hang of the shift, no matter how much we practiced. Then my big brother came to visit. He took her out once, for a couple of hours, and after that she was bloody perfect on it. I don't know what he did but it was magic. He also taught Kayti to water ski, by the way. He was the only one that could drive the boat just right.Deborah Crombiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16988750789088153601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-77804248047913231092016-08-09T13:11:05.432-04:002016-08-09T13:11:05.432-04:00 Laura, I am also a happy member of the second tim... Laura, I am also a happy member of the second time club. So all good!Hank Phillippi Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17420701704169428286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-61295917748549605452016-08-09T13:08:24.607-04:002016-08-09T13:08:24.607-04:00Pat D! That is too funny… Poor thing! And your po...Pat D! That is too funny… Poor thing! And your poor little brother! I am sorry… I am laughing. <br /><br /> Thank you for the kind words about Air Time! Indeed, I am still haunted by it every time I am at an airport too! My nefarious scheme could really work, right? Hank Phillippi Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17420701704169428286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-25252878490689238862016-08-09T13:06:21.696-04:002016-08-09T13:06:21.696-04:00 Mary! Love that parallel parking method! Perfect.... Mary! Love that parallel parking method! Perfect. Works every time Hank Phillippi Ryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17420701704169428286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-84624744670719466702016-08-09T13:00:26.083-04:002016-08-09T13:00:26.083-04:00My Dad was teaching me to drive. It was a snowy d...My Dad was teaching me to drive. It was a snowy day on a narrow road, a car was coming towards us. I said "What do I do???" He said "Pull over.." I did; right into a parked car. That ended driving lessons for many years. I did get my license but have yet to master a stick shift. Coralee Hickshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06691335135691119400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-36107151130045849302016-08-09T12:55:40.280-04:002016-08-09T12:55:40.280-04:00This book sounds good! Honestly, it's been s...This book sounds good! Honestly, it's been so long since I took my <br />driving test, I can't remember if I passed on the first try!Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07114083928201262609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-30911367542912473092016-08-09T12:42:37.358-04:002016-08-09T12:42:37.358-04:00Wow! My driver's education started in high sc...Wow! My driver's education started in high school. Unfortunately, my public school's driver's training program fell victim to budget cuts! I had to go to DMV to take the written exam for a learner's permit. Once I passed the exam, we had to look for a driver's school where the instructor knew sign language. The instructor was fantastic! She instructed me in sign language. I went to two different DMV places. The first one was awful. The second DMV was the same DMV where my 16 year old cousin took the test and passed. I was lucky that the lady who gave me the test gave clear instructions. I drove the family car for the test and passed! I finally got my driver's license in my 30s! <br /><br />Hank, your book, Drive Time, sounds fascinating! I would love to win a copy! I get what you mean about recalled cars. I never buy a car from a company that has recalled their cars.<br /><br />DianaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1001156153899984046.post-13066836267792231262016-08-09T12:36:17.105-04:002016-08-09T12:36:17.105-04:00I first got behind the wheel in a dirt lot behind ...I first got behind the wheel in a dirt lot behind a makeshift RV campground in Rosarito Beach (Tijuana) when I was 14. My girlfriend's brother said, "Here's the brake, here's the gas, go!" And I did. Formally took the driving and written courses the summer I was 15 and had the best instructor next to Floyd Whitaker --- Mr. Simms. Learned to drive manual transmission, parallel park (came in very handy while taking courses at UCLA Extension and having to find parking in Westwood --- ugh), and drive mountain roads.<br /><br />Still love to drive and have to say I'm a good driver. I wish everyone would take Floyd Whitaker's advice. I'm tempted to make some sign that says, "Your turn indicator is broken" and wave it past everyone who doesn't indicate a turn or lane change. But then I figure road rage might erupt from the other driver.<br /><br />Looking forward to reading Drive Time, Hank. Didn't have the opportunity the first time around. Congratulations on the re-issues.<br /><br />~TriciaTFJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01145220939173150233noreply@blogger.com