Recalling My Experience Teaching Driver's Ed

When you write a blog triggered by associations from current and past events you never know when or what will strike a creative chord. So it was with a small story from Long Island that appeared in a news feed Monday morning. 

An in-car driver’s education instructor was arrested for allegedly showing pornographic pictures on his mobile phone to students in his vehicle. 

Putting aside the question of his guilt or innocence, I was reminded of my nine month stint teaching driver’s ed during the 2011-12 academic year. 

Two years after I retired, Gilda suggested (strongly suggested) that I engage myself in some out of the house activity. We didn’t need any more income. I just needed to become more active in my pre-pickleball days. 

So, after looking at several classified sections—keep in mind this was during a time when the Internet had not yet killed classified sections in newspapers—I found a listing for an in-car driver’s ed instructor affiliated with a company hired by numerous school districts in Westchester and surrounding counties. My motivation for teaching driver’s ed was that roads I would be traveling would be safer if I taught them how to drive properly and defensively. 

Before being accepted, I had to pass a written test on driving rules and regulations and take a road test to verify my skills, especially that I didn’t cut corners when making a left turn.

And, most important, I had to have state police take my fingerprints and run them through their database. 

Though I didn’t sign up for the pay ($12 an hour), there were quite a few in my training group who clearly were relying on this opportunity to buttress their household incomes. I was content to teach two or three classes a day, about six hours, three days a week. 

Teaching in-car driver’s ed (there were separate classroom instructors) is not as dangerous as one might think, though I won’t downplay the potential for mishaps. The first day with any group of students was the most apprehensive, as you had no idea how much experience they already had. 

Prior to the first day in the late model car provided by the driving school many students have logged time behind the wheel. It’s those anxiety provoking students whose parents fear for their lives and automobiles, and who subsequently do not let them practice in the family car (which here in Westchester often is a Mercedes or Lexus or some other luxury vehicle they’d rather not dent, or worse), that made my time as an instructor a potentially challenging experience.

One girl from Briarcliff Manor started her first lesson by stating she had no desire to learn. She was there because her parents forced her. She related her father took her driving the previous Sunday in an empty parking lot. She hit a light pole!

After the three other students in the car and I gulped and giggled, I confidently told her that wouldn’t happen in driver’s ed because unlike her father’s car the training car had a dual brake. I would always have my right foot resting on the brake. In an emergency I’d also be able to reach out and seize the steering wheel. 

That explanation seemed to reassure the other students. She, however, lived up to, or should I say down to, expectations. Halfway through the semester she transferred out of my class. I don’t know if she ever passed a road test. For everyone’s safety, I hope she abandoned her parents’ quest for a license.

Driver’s ed in no way provides sufficient experience to budding motorists. New York State strongly recommends 50 hours of training time, including 15 hours nighttime driving, before one should take a road test. Students receive just six hours of driving instruction, usually meted out in 22-1/2 minute sessions per week over the course of 16 classes over four and a half months.  

Still, during the two semesters I taught we never had an accident. Except once. The student driver stopped at a traffic light on North Street in Harrison, right across from the police station. The three boys sitting in the rear of the Ford Taurus—most of the cars were that model, usually with 150,000 to 225,000 miles—wondered aloud why there were no headrests for the back seats. I had just finished saying headrests weren’t required for these older cars when WHAM!, we were hit from behind. An elderly man driving a new Acura confused his brake pedal with his accelerator and slammed into us. Two of the boys suffered mild whiplash. Both cars sustained no damage, but we spent the next hour in the police station filling out reports. All in all, one of the better real-life driving lessons worth experiencing.

I stopped teaching driver’s ed because an old basketball injury to my right knee flared up when I kept my leg hovering over the brake. By the end of the first class of the day I could barely sit without yelping in pain. It’s too bad. I really enjoyed (most of) the kids, even the ones who put the rest of us in jeopardy when they first got behind the wheel. I enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing them turn into accomplished drivers. 

Recognizing Noah Wyle and Other Beloveds

I was watching a “CBS Sunday Morning” profile of Noah Wyle, the star and executive producer of the Emmy winning “The Pitt,” when I realized I was becoming my parents. 

Growing up, whenever our family would be watching television, my parents—usually my mother—would point out Jewish notables—actors, musicians, playwrights, authors, politicians and other public figures. It didn’t matter if they were observant or not, or offspring from a mixed marriage. Or married a gentile. Or had anglicized their name. 

They were Jewish. The actors that played Ben and Little Joe Cartwright on Bonanza were Jewish. Jewish comedians and writers saturated 1950s TV—Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Gertrude Berg, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Phil Silvers. As we got older we became aware of more Jewish notables—Philip Roth, Woody Allen, Steven Allen, Alan Arkin, Peter Falk, Peter Yarrow, Lauren Bacall, Sandy Koufax …

Now, when I’m watching TV, even if they know it, I find myself pointing out to Gilda, our kids and grandkids the Jewish roots of entertainers and athletes. Noah Wyle, I told Gilda, was born to a Jewish father.  

Of course, not every Jewish public figure deserves recognition and respect. Stephen Miller does not. 

What’s in a Name?: It was recently reported that British author Joanna Trollope died. Her novels “grappled with adultery and the complexities of family life,” according to her obituary in The New York Times. 

Was anyone else darkly amused that her name was an “e” longer than “trollop,” defined as “an immoral or sexually promiscuous woman”?

Was She, He or It Beloved?: Probably the most overused word used to describe public figures who have passed on, or retail stores and restaurants that have outlived their reason to exist, or a product that no longer commands patronage, is “beloved.” 

No disrespect, but can’t writers and their editors think of different descriptors, such as “venerable,” “respected,” “esteemed,” “revered,” “venerated,” or “admired”? 

Something Worthy of Being “Beloved”: Because Donald Trump stripped $500 million from the budget of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, it officially closed down last week. NPR and PBS will continue contributing to the nation’s intelligent media offerings, so don’t think that “Masterpiece Theater,” “Nova,” “The American Experience,” “Firing Line” et al have gone dark. Nor has NPR’s “All Things Considered” or “Morning Edition” been silenced. 

But the ability of the CPB to support local, often rural, stations with programming has ended. Many of those stations will have to either shut down or dramatically cut back their offerings.

When I read about the hundreds of millions of dollars wealthy elite and business leaders and their companies have stuffed into Trump’s pet projects, I am left wondering, are there no billionaires and corporations with enough intelligence and heart willing to step up and donate sufficient funds to keep public broadcast lifelines alive? If not billionaires, how about millionaires, Hollywood moguls, actors, musicians and singers?  

Morning in America Rituals

I had forgotten it is still mostly dark at 6 am. I’m usually asleep till 9 (in bed till around 10 am) but Wednesday morning Gilda, who usually keeps the same morning schedule as I, had a 7 am volunteer stint with the Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardener program at the Westchester County Center in White Plains. 

So she was up and about at 6. I experienced collateral sleep deprivation damage. 

Before I retired my normal wakeup time was 6:45, giving me plenty of opportunity to shower, eat a light breakfast, and drive four miles to the White Plains Metro North train station parking garage to arrive scant minutes before the 8:05 35-minute express to Grand Central Terminal chugged in. 

If I was a few minutes late, no worry. There was another express at 8:08. Or, if I was really slow to get started, I’d catch the 8:25, or the 8:28, or even the 8:44. Those commuter options made White Plains an ideal city to commute to and from, in the morning and evening. As editor and publisher of Chain Store Age it didn’t really matter what time I arrived in the office, or departed in the late afternoon, as long as a meeting with higher-ups was not previously scheduled. 

My routine of two decades was disrupted when Gilda secured a nurse practitioner’s position in mid 1998 with the spine surgeons of Beth Israel Medical Center with offices on Union Square. As she did not yet possess her own parking lot sticker, she commuted with me.

It was not a smooth transition from sole practitioner to married commuters. Gilda did not like my just-in-time-to-step-onto-the-train arrival plan. She preferred—installed—a 5-10 minute pre-train arrival schedule. Once on board, she chose seats that faced the direction the train was going. To me, it made no difference. A seat was a seat. Going south, Gilda wanted seats on the eastern side of the train, so the sun could shine in. For the return, she liked seating on the western, sunny side. I did not like sitting on the sunny side, going or coming. Gilda also enjoyed conversation with friends we encountered along the way. I usually slept, though I admit hearing their voices provided a soft, lulling sleep-inducing contrast to the churning of the train. 

As we were using one car, going home together became a fluid endeavor. Often, Gilda’s surgeons had patient consultations that lasted well beyond 5 pm. I would stick around my office until she telephoned to signal she was leaving 14th Street. This was well before mobile phones were widely popular. 

Once Gilda obtained her own parking permit about a half a year later, tranquility returned to my morning commute. We still tried to coordinate our ride home but it was not mandatory. 

In July 2009, I retired. No more Metro North monthly tickets. No more annual parking stickers. No more early mornings. Until … until Gilda broke her left, dominant wrist and could not drive herself to work at Mount Sinai Hospital at East 98th Street where the surgeons she worked with had transferred their practices. 

She had been driving to work instead of commuting by train. No longer able to drive, she relied on me to get her to work by 8 am (meaning we woke up around 5:45) and pick her up at either 4 or 5 pm. In other words, I drove back and forth in rush hour traffic each way, twice a day. I did that for three years until she retired seven years ago. 

(In case you’re wondering, after her wrist healed she went back to driving herself but we quickly reached an arrangement—I would drive her in return for her cooking dinner, as neither one of us would survive my culinary skills. All in all, a savory compromise.)

A Postscript: Did you know that once your annual White Plains parking permit expires you may no longer legally keep it displayed on your rear side window? Neither Gilda nor I knew that. Ever since her last permit expired December 1, 2014, it has been affixed to her car window. 

No longer. Monday afternoon, in the White Plains Library parking lot, a super-diligent meter reader tagged her with a $25 violation. She’s already mailed in her payment. 

 

Our Outlaw in the White House Plans a New World Order With Russia and China

Reporting Tuesday on Donald Trump’s plan to keep Venezuelan oil, the Daily Voice noted, “Officials have not provided a detailed timetable for Venezuela’s political transition or how oil assets would be managed under international law. Additional information is expected in the coming days.”

“Under international law” could be the most comically hyperbolic statement in many a year. Trump doesn’t abide by American law strictures so there is absolutely no reason to believe he would bow to international law. 

Who would make him? The United Nations? NATO? Russia? China? 

No, our Supreme Court has made Trump an outlaw, invulnerable to domestic constraints which translates into immunity from international pressure as well. As long as the secretary of defense and the military’s top officers do his bidding we and the world are stuck with a narcisstic megalomaniac who has the power to unleash nuclear weapons.  

As for picking a replacement for the captured and indicted Nicolas Maduro, Trump says the recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado does not have the respect of her countrymen to merit consideration. Well, neither does he, as more than half of Americans disapprove of his presidency (https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-approval-rating-change-nicolas-maduro-capture-11319872). 

Whoever gets the presidential hot seat in Venezuela will be a modern day example of a feudal system vassal. Trump will strip Venezuela of all assets, mostly oil, without enabling the economically challenged populace to benefit from the petrodollars under their soil. His appointed president—surely you didn’t expect Trump to permit an independent, free, honest election to be held?—will be in charge of garbage collection and other essential but not critical services. Nothing that could pose a threat to the puppet state Trump will set up or the oilmen and women he will install to revive the country’s crude capacity. 

Experts believe it will take years to pump up Venezuela’s production. Do we really believe Trump is doing all this heavy lifting just so his successor, from any party, can benefit? Or is this just another plank in the platform many believe Trump is building for his continued stay in the White House after his constitutionally set length of tenure ends at noon on January 20, 2029? 

Meanwhile, Trump is presiding over the partitioning of the globe into three spheres of influence—the Americas controlled by Trump, EurAsia controlled by Vladimir Putin, and Asia-Pacific controlled by Xi Jinping. 

Western Europe will become shallow independent states, as will Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Africa and the Middle East will be exploited by all three superpowers. Only Israel has nuclear weapons but is not expected to deploy them as long as Iran and Moslem countries do not threaten it. 

Pity the freedom-loving Ukrainians and Taiwanese who will be among the first to endure Trump’s new world order.  

From the Bohemian Corporal to Draft Dodger Don

During Nazi Germany’s march and subsequent retreat through Europe, it was common to disparage Adolph Hitler by calling him the “Bohemian Corporal,” recognition of his rank in the German army during World War I and his non-Prussian heritage. 

Now that Donald Trump has tasted military success in Iran and Venezuela and is saber rattling potential new assaults in Colombia, Mexico, Cuba and Greenland, is it time to christen him with his own nickname from his experience during the Vietnam War? 

How about, “Draft Dodger Don”? 

Or, “Bone Spur Don”? 

Or, “4-F Donald”? 

Under his authority as commander in chief, is Trump’s fixation with flexing military might—in actual combat and through military parades—a manifestation of a latent insecurity complex from his repeated evasion of the Selective Service System draft during the height of the war in Vietnam?

Are these campaigns his way of demonstrating he has the “right stuff” to lead men in battle? (Women are not combat-qualified in Trump’s world.)

So far, Trump’s military excursions have not cost any American lives (though two servicemen were recently killed by ISIS in Syria, a posting he inherited, for which he ordered a retaliatory air strike). 

But if he orders troops on the ground and more air attacks, combat deaths are almost sure to result. How will Trump’s electoral base which supported his platform of no international military engagements, no nation building, react? 

Negative rumblings among the MAGA faithful are already airing.  

Trump: Teacher of the Year

I know we are only four days into the new year but Donald Trump has locked up my vote for Teacher of the Year for his unparalleled instruction that politicians once in office renege on campaign promises when they can flex their power over weaker forces or when confronted by equally strong, if not stronger, adversaries. 

Lesson #1: Trump has promoted an America First agenda, yet he has spent an inordinate amount of his non golfing time in a Quixotic quest for a Nobel Peace Prize. By his own count he has settled eight foreign wars, though none have been legitimized by treaty. Meanwhile, back in the U. S. A. he has done nothing to bridge the conflict between Democrats and Trumpsters. 

Lesson #2: Trump longs for the “good ol’ days” of American dominance. You know, the time when we orchestrated regime changes in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), South Vietnam (1963), Congo (1965), and Chile (1973), to name a handful. 

Back then we acted sometimes to contain the spread of Soviet or Chinese influence or to protect the economic interests of American companies, the latter similar to what Trump is now saying about his intent to return Venezuela’s oil fields to Chevon and Exxon Mobil. 

Trump asserts Venezuela wrongfully nationalized oil assets that belonged to American companies. The oil was ours, he says. I wonder if he sees the irony of denying Native American rights to land the tribes claim was forcibly and illegitimately taken from them by the U.S. government despite signed treaties? 

Lesson #3: A whole new generation of students will learn the meaning of “gunboat diplomacy.” 

With his testosterone level peaking after blowing up unarmed speedboats, crippling Iran’s nuclear program, and taking pajama-clad Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife to New York for prosecution, Trump can be expected to lean heavily on Mexico to shut down drug cartel activity or else American forces will attack them, with or without Mexico’s consent.    

Trump even has suggested he would interfere in internal Iranian affairs if protestors there are harmed. 

More worrisome is Trump’s fixation with wanting to take control of Greenland. He claims America needs Greenland for our security and strategic defense.  

Greenland and mother country Denmark are not on board with his plan. 

Now that he has invaded Venezuela, a land of 30 million, it is not hard to imagine Trump salivating over an island with just 60,000 residents that already harbors a U. S. military base. 

Lesson #4: Saved from prosecution and possible conviction in federal court by the Supreme Court, Trump has exerted sympathy and empathy for foreign and domestic politicians accused and in some cases convicted. 

He has lobbied Israel’s president to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of corruption charges that have yet to go to trial; he sought a pardon for Brazil’s convicted ex-president Jair Bolsonaro for his role in an attempted coup; he pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, an odd move considering Hernandez was convicted in an American court of drug trafficking and sentenced to 45 years in prison even as Trump was hyping the prosecution of Maduro for drug trafficking. Well, consistency has never been one of Trump’s favorable attributes.

Lesson #5: Neither has Trump been successful in large stake confrontations with superpowers. Despite his claim of friendship with Vladimir Putin, Trump has yet to get the Russian dictator to back off his illegal invasion of Ukraine. Indeed, Trump’s regime change assault on Venezuela reduces any moral leverage America might have had in discussions with Russia. 

Trump also has had to make a swift about face in his attempt to control China through tariffs. China’s dominance in rare earth metals, its cheaper manufacturing base, and its emerging dominance in alternative energy production, even as Trump guts America’s similar projects, have foiled Trump’s gamble. Remember, Trump’s history of bankrupting four casinos shows he can lose on even a sure thing. And, as with Russia, China now can point to Trump’s Venezuela escapade when it embarks on its long-stated goal of incorporating Taiwan into mainland China.

Lesson #6: Trump cannot be trusted to follow through on what he says. He campaigned on not reducing medical coverage and vaccination schedules. He said he would not demolish any part of the White House complex to build his big, beautiful ballroom. He signed a bill to release all material on Jeffrey Epstein by December 19. On none of those issues and more has he fulfilled his word. He is teaching us all he is never to be trusted.

In ancient civilizations, even extending to the 21st century, monarchs, authoritarians, tyrants and despots placed their names and visages on coins, paper money and buildings. Trump is following suit. His ego does not allow him glorification after death. He wants it all, NOW, while he is alive and cognizant enough to savor it.  

Pay attention, America. Cutting class will not get you detention. It will result in loss of most, if not all, of your rights guaranteed in the Constitution.