Yeah, I don't think Tom got his license till 25, give or take a year.

But in America, the driving thing is so necesary in 90% of the country, and a whole mythology has grown around it, which I find, um, eye-rolly.

Since I grew up on a farm, getting my drivers license was a Really Big Deal. Because then I could actually Go Places and Do Stuff. I also figured it would be pointless to ask a girl out on a date until I got my license.

I only really drove when it was ridiculous - I totalled my mom's car at 17 or so, no drinking, just driving rain and an unfamiliar street with a sudden curve, and also drove under the influence of one thing and another a few times, but never very far (like the other cars on the road cared how far I was going!!). I haven't driven regularly since I was 18, and not at all in years.

But in America, the driving thing is so necesary in 90% of the country, and a whole mythology has grown around it, which I find, um, eye-rolly.

This is what the boy says. He finds the lack of cars and general acceptance of public transport to be the hardest thing to adapt to.

I think the drinking age should be 16, and the driving age should be 21.

In one of my other moods, I think everyone should have to be 30 to do almost everything.

To my mom, getting a license was No Big Deal, because she grew up on a farm. But then, she had been driving the tractors, and occasionally the car, since she was heavy enough to put in the tractor's clutch (that was how my grandfather deemed you old enough to drive. ) She was 9, and had to jump off the seat onto the clutch with both feet, but she could drive that damned thing (she's only 5'2" and slender now, and she was small then too.)

I would rather live somewhere where driving was less necesary. It's getting slightly more possible. If I had a job downtown and a bike, I would only use the car for shopping. The rail line has made not driving, at least in south and central Dallas a little more possible- except for of course now, when its 110 outside.

She was 9, and had to jump off the seat onto the clutch with both feet, but she could drive that damned thing

Wow. I think I was 10 or 11 or so before I started driving tractors. (I was average height for a boy back then, believe it or not.)

If I didn't have a driver's license when I was 16 (and I had to wait 3 months after my birthday to get it, since I was taking driver's ed when I turned 16), I would have had very few options to get to school, and work would have been right out of the question. My parents were divorced (Dad lived on the other side of town), Mom worked, brother was in college in MN, and sister had her own job/friends/things to do other than ferry me around town. Since the bus system back then (early '80s) between Joliet and Shorewood really sucked (two buses going to Joliet in the morning and two coming back in late afternoon, and that was it), driving was the only option.

I did get in an accident that first year (pulled out onto a busy road without looking to see if anyone was coming--got my front bumper torn off) and also drove into three-foot high water (2:00 am, street lights were out, couldn't see that the road was flooded) so I had to wait for the engine to dry off before I could finish bringing my play castmates home, but other than that, my dumb driving moments were relatively minor.

I have moods where I want to require passing a maturity test before anyone can do much of anything "adult."