My Mum Learned to Drive.....

Now then, I wasn't born when this incident happened, but had heard the story from both my late Mum and late Dad so I believe it to be true.

My Mum had just obtained her driver's license and she borrowed the car to take a bunch of girls camping for their Girl Guides patches (Mum was a Girl Guides Leader).  The path to the campsite was narrow and suddenly Mum heard a loud PLUNK as she ran over something metal.

Dad had already warned her to "be CAREFUL" with the car (he felt she was too new a driver to pull off this camping assignment, but let her go nonetheless....just with a lot of lecturing to be cautious, not wreck the car, not bruise or dent it in any way.......you get the picture!).  Mum and the girls disembarked.  There in the path was an old stove pipe....the kind that comes from a pot belly stove.  Mum remembered Dad's solemn words of warning, and felt surely she had caused this pipe to fall from the car....but where?  "If I tie it back on the vehicle, he'll never know!" she said.  So, with the help of all the girls they cleverly tied this stove pipe (which Mum felt SURELY had fallen from the car) underneath the car.  They had their camping session and returned home.

Dad immediately asked "you didn't wreck the car, did you?"  "Oh, no!" replied Mum.  The next day my Dad was about to drive the car to work and he heard a horrible plunking noise.  He parked the car and looked underneath......"what the heck?".  He almost couldn't believe his eyes.  Surely this was a prank?  Why would anyone tie an old stove pipe under the car?  He untied the pipe and threw it in the driveway.  By then my Mum came out sheepishly.  She was afraid he was going to shout at her for breaking the car.  Instead, he laughed with all his might.  By then, Mum realized he wasn't angry, but why was he laughing?  "So, you're the one who tied this to the car, eh?"  "Well, I didn't want to just leave the car part there in the woods!"  "It's not a car part; it's a stove pipe!"  Poor Mum never lived that one down and Dad couldn't wait to get to work to tell all his co-workers what his wife did!