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Personal Narrative: Ride In The Car

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“Hey, kids, you wanna go for a ride in the car?” Mama yelled out the front door of the little white four room house our family of six lived in. We kids jumped up and down, yelling, “Yes, yes.” “Where we goin, Mama?” “Just get in the backseat of the car and you’ll see when we get there,” Mama replied as she scooted under the steering wheel of our beloved light gray Kaiser that was our only means of getting anywhere. Four kids crammed into the backseat, halfway sitting on top of each other and arguing the whole while over who’s going to get to sit next to the door. “First we have to stop and pick up Daddy from work,” Mama told us as she tried to calm the excitement we were all exhibiting, “then you‘ll find out where we’re goin.” The back seat, …show more content…

Not even close. It was the weekend. I was lucky enough to get to spend the weekend at my best friend’s house. She was a little more street smart than I was at that age, or at least she gave the impression that she had been around a while. Her parents were much more lenient than mine, and I really enjoyed her company. She and I concocted a plan for later that evening. As soon as her parents went to bed, we unlocked the back door and went back into her room. After we were pretty sure her parents were asleep, we climbed out her bedroom window to begin an adventure known as growing up. Freedom at last, at least for a few hours. We lived in a small town outside of Chicago, which had not yet been touched by crime. We weren’t afraid to walk the streets at night, how naïve. I remember the blue Ford Galaxy that pulled up to the curb, windows rolled down. Did we want to go for a ride? Well, of course we did. That was the reason we crawled out that bedroom window in the first place. Two guys in a nice ride, why not? We were ready to be teenagers and do the things teenagers do. I wasn’t really sure what that was, yet, but I was ready to learn. My friend Vicky jumped in the front seat, and I jumped in the backseat with the best looking guy I’d ever seen. It was love at first sight. We never did give them our real names. Chances are they didn’t give us their real names either. It was scary and exciting to be …show more content…

Adolescents have also been known to sleep in the backseat. Seventeen happens to be a special age when the decisions being made are not always in one’s best interest. It’s a time when the road to adulthood can take unexpected turns, like the night a couple friends and I decided to have someone buy us a twelve-pack of beer. We all knew we were treading in dangerous waters, but lack of experience, poor judgement, and the desire for having a good time prevented us from making the best decisions that evening. At least we had enough sense to know we should get out of town to prevent getting caught, so we traveled down a country road looking for a quiet, private place to park and drink our beer. A farmer’s field with a lane down one side looked perfect. Two of us sat in the backseat while the other friend sat behind the wheel. It started getting late and began to rain, so we decided it was time to head home. The car started with ease, however, when it was put in reverse and given a little gas, it didn’t move. The tires just began spinning. We pulled forward a little, hoping to get better traction, tried backing up again, but the tires continued to spin every time we put the car in reverse. I hate sleeping in the backseat when it’s raining and cold, and no one’s around to help get me out of the rut I’ve dug myself into. The next morning, a farmer showed up with a tractor and pulled the car to safety. Lesson

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