> I will always remember my first driving lesson. My dad and I were in our van in the parking lot behind the library. I got in the driver's seat, and after I got the engine running my dad told me to leave it in park. He then explained how you don't need to press the gas pedal very much at all to get acceleration. After that, he told me to hit the gas (with the car still in park).
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> Me: *press gas pedal lightly -- or what I think is lightly*
> Engine: VROOOOOOOOM!
>
> I jumped, I think. And I learned really quickly how lightly you _really_ have to press the gas. I'm just glad that Dad told me to keep the car in park... if I'd hit the gas like that with the car in gear and I then had to steer I'd probably have been so surprised that we'd have hit something.
>
>
> ~Chrysanthemum~

Heh. Kinda reminds me of my driving test. I have a tendency to get nervous in front of an audience, especially when said audience is "Ernie", who has a reputation for failing student on their drivers' tests.

I did fairly well on the entire test (except for slowing down at uncontrolled intersections), and then came time to demonstrate my Y-turn. So I pull the car across the road to the curb. Good so far. I go to back up. Nothing happens when I let off the brake. Ok... I tap the accelerator. Nothing. Nudge it a little harder. Still nothing. Finally, I give it a good push.

Hey, whaddya know! I'd forgotten to put the car in reverse; the front tire went up over the curb into someone's lawn. I can't even begin to tell you how mortifying that was.

Ernie passed me by just one point. Can't say I blame him.

Vida