This morning I saw a sign that said "Don't park in drive."
It was telling people not to park in the driveway in front of a building on campus, but I laughed to myself about a different way of interpreting the message, i.e. "Don't park while your car is in drive," as if you would tell someone: "Don't swim on land." Duh.
The sign also reminded me of a poem my dad once wrote for me.
I share a driver's license anniversary (meaning, the day I got my first driver's license) with my friend Kristen. We went through driver's ed together and went to the DMV together, with her mom and my dad, to redeem our laminated prizes. We got them on Lucille Ball's birthday, which is appropriate because we both love her. When we're in the same town on our anniversary, we go out and do something fun.
Go ahead and say it--we're precious.
On the day we got our licenses, to celebrate we went out for ice cream with our parents afterward.
As I took action to get out of the car--either tried to take the key out of the ignition, or took my foot off the brake, or something--I realized I had missed a step. The car was still in drive.
My dad gave me a look, and I laughed.
Later that night my family presented me with a bouquet of flowers, and they had signed a card. I still have it somewhere. Dad's note was reminiscent of "Roses are red, violets are blue..." and read something along the lines of:
"P" is for Park.
"D" is for Drive.
Try not to mix them up.
So I guess some of us, on certain occasions, need a sign with a more blunt reminder. Luckily for me, Dad told me the secrets of driving back in 2002.
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