i'm lost in translation

Stories of my mother

When I was ten years old, I discovered it wasn't normal for you to get into car accidents all the time. I had been in eight "fender-benders" with my mother by the time I had reached my first year of double digits. My mother wasn't a terrible driver. My mother was a tiny woman who drove like hell on wheels. She had a tendency to fall in love with big boats that doubled as cars - she drove huge Cadillac's, SUV's and minivans. With the combined force of a woman that barely cleared five feet and some of the biggest cars made - she was something to be feared. When she moved to New York, the accidents almost stopped. She said that she understood New York more than anywhere else in America. She never got lost or felt intimidated on the road again. She felt it was easier to drive here than anywhere else she had ever been. Of course, my mother drove like a NYC taxi driver - sometimes worse. But, she made me equally brave about getting behind the wheel in Manhattan.

When I was thirteen, my mother supplied blank video tapes and VCR tape cases to video stores all over Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. She delivered daily to mom and pop video stores and small shops. I was often left in the delivery van as "security" or to move the van if the cops came around the corner. She never gave me driving lessons, she just showed me once how to put the van in gear and step on the gas and the brake. "You are smart. It's easy to drive" she said to me. I usually sat in the car, white with fear that I'd actually have to move the car. My hands would get cold and clammy because I was sure that I would get caught and get into trouble if I even sat in the driver seat. The day finally came when my mother was in a store when a patrol car came around and flashed their lights behind the double-parked van. This was my first experience behind the wheel - driving a huge white van around city blocks so we wouldn't get a ticket. And it was easy. I mean, I was kind of jerky at first but no one really noticed. I drove on Flatbush at night years before I was allowed a permit. I cruised down Broadway. I sailed down Main Street.

And that is how my mother taught me to drive.

posted by Jin @ 6:18 PM