Taking Away His Keys

Taking Away His Keys, Take 1
s we do every summer, the Atlanta Penkavas visited West Haven in early July. This summer – more than any other – mom was concerned about dad’s driving and thought maybe it was time to take away his keys. She stated that he drives really slow…like 20 mph sometimes. Her angst was probably heightened that day because they had gotten in a fender bender that very morning. It wasn’t their fault yet still this event startled them pretty good. They did not call the police and left the scene with only the at-fault driver’s info. I told mom that they should have – and if this ever happens again – should call the police to check out the accident. Ironically, she was worried about what a policeman would say about dad driving and didn’t want the police to take away his keys.

So, that afternoon when pop was going for his daily visit to the WH library in the center of town, I was to be his passenger/driving school teacher/key-taker-awayer. I will admit as I did to Michelle that day, I was a bit scared to be his passenger but knew that I needed to do it in order to judge his driving ability. I was scared for my own safety. We pulled out of the driveway. He was doing fine, looked both ways before turning into an intersection and maintained a speed close to the limit (below but close to the limit). He did fine all the way to the library and when we pulled up in front of the library, he parallel parked (maybe trying to get extra credit on this test)!! He done good.

We entered the library and down memory lane I went. Suddenly, I was 13 years old again, going to the library with dad. I walked through the library as he read his papers. I approached the librarian to ask about books on the history of WH. I recognized her as the same library who was there 35 years ago. She was to retire soon but yes, she was there all those many years ago. We got to talking and she asked if I still live in WH. I told her exactly what brought me to the library that day and that my dad was right over there. She adoringly told me how he comes in every day and reads the papers and photo copies the Sudoku. The younger librarian told me how they have to sometimes remind him that the newspapers are not his, but the library’s. All in all, they like him.

On the way home, he drove down Campbell Ave (what is the speed limit???). I got distracted as we drove along. I looked at all the changes to the buildings since I last drove along this avenue 24 yrs ago. I snapped out of it and realized that he was indeed doing 20 mph on Campbell Ave. After a couple seconds of pondering what to say, which seemed like a looooong time, I said, “Pop, you need to go a little faster on this street.” Uncharacteristically and maybe knowing that his driving was being covertly graded, he sorta snapped at me and said, “WHAT?!! I like driving slow and enjoying the view when no one is behind me”. Well, remember I said that I was distracted looking at the buildings. I had no idea what was or wasn’t behind us. So, I leaned forward and look into my side view passenger mirror and turn around to my left to look out the back window and son of a gun if there wasn’t a car in sight. HE WAS RIGHT; there was no one behind us! How could I argue his driving slowly with his reasoning?? I was no longer scared. When we returned to 59 Rochdale Terrace, I kind of giggled telling Michelle how he did. He did fine. That July day, he retained the right to drive.

Taking away the Keys, Take 2…. less than 90 days later, he would lose the right to drive. Health was the culprit and his doctor was a tougher driving instructor than I was. But really, parallel parking???