It was during my high school years, that my Independence opened up and I became more myself...  Since I turned 16 {Birthday is 11 January; for those who want to send something :-)} in the second semester of the sophomore year, I had a car... I had taken Drivers Ed first semester[This is a hot button with me, since 99% of HS students are going to drive soon, why is Drivers Ed not offered in all schools nationwide now?]  So I had a job thanks to my step father, and a set of wheels...

Well for the most part I did local driving around St Pete, FL...  Did experience my first  blow out [ fortunate for me] on a rear tire..  Not that everyone should have one but life is full of unexpected moments, and one should all ways be ready for them... ( there may be a message here - key word ready)

 As part of my life training; Charlie, step dad, told me that the car was mine after I paid for it of course... And that he would not help fix it, ect...  {I never saw him fix any car, as far as that went..} So I became a auto mechanic, the hard way...  Remember having to go out to a Junk Yard, to remove a rear knee action shock in the winter, cold.... Burrrr....    Do not let anyone tell you that it does not freeze in Florida.... It does, I lived there for twenty some odd years...  Those were fun times...

Another occurrence happened on an out of town trip up to one of my uncles lake cabin in north central Fla...  My younger brother and self were motoring north in my Cadillac V8, it was dark time on a two lane road... There was traffic not heavy, but enought...  A trait I posses to this day; in that I drive to get where ever as quickly as possible...    Well we were on a nice straight section of road... {BTW Fla is the only state on the Eastern Seaboard that is setup under Township / Range...  All the Western States are...} This means that many of the roads follow the latitude or longitude lines, straight as an arrow....    I saw an opportunity to pass several slower cars, and pulled out and commenced the maneuver...  Well we went by the first two cars quickly and was parallel to the last or third car...  That was when I noticed that we were not making much progress...  I look over and the black guy driving the Red Ford, was grinning and had stomped it and was not letting me pass him....  Nice, as we were coming to a curve, I tried to break and fall in behind, but at Eighty MPH, with a 3500LB car, the drum brakes, and marginal tires it was not happening....  So the only alternative was to stomp it.... {Ya I know, but you were not there and I was successful} and the Caddy V8 kicked in and we just made it in front of my black buddy as we came up on the curve, missing a on coming VW bug by a few feet... Never will forget the expression on the faces of the woman, and the girl in that VW that nite...  They were just minutes from meeting their maker...

I was really steamed at my black buddy and thought about stopping him and having a road side rage party....  But as I normally do, I review the data and say this turned out ok....  Under the circumstances of course...  I am really a nice guy.... 

Well this should give you a glimpse into my past...   Stay tuned for the next chapter..   See ya then...  

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