It was my senior year of high school. All I decided to take driver's ed as an elective. I had lucked out and got the first class of the day as far as scheduling. The first half of the year we studied the rules of the road and such.
During that year there were a string of bad weather events that pushed our use of the school trainer car. By the time we were able to use the car, my class was first. And coincidentally, I was the first student to take the car out.
This was literally my first time ever driving. Just like in the movies and tv shows. I'm nervous the whole way. I hadn't practiced at home because I made up excuses. On the first day, I'm thinking we are just driving around the parking lot with a bunch of cones. Nope. Coach says "we're driving on the road, today." My heart stopped a bit. And the nervousness went up higher. (Especially when my driver's ed teacher was a hottie.)
As the first class and the first set of students to get on the road (there were about three other 3 person teams after us, we were lucky enough to have the lunch rush that leads directly into Ft. Stewart. Traffic was everywhere.
As I pulled on to the street, I may have scuffed one of the tires onto the curb. Nothing to really fret about. I drive a total of 1/4th a mile towards Ft. Stewart. At that time, there was this huge pothole directly in the apex of the road bending to the left. Huge. Largest pothole in all of Hinesville. Very famous pothole because everyone knew about it. Coach even reminded me of it when we headed in the direction of base.
I'm nearing the pothole and start to drift to the far left side of the lane to begin my dodge. Coach says something about not going into the other lane and leans over. I watch him grab the steering wheel. My reaction told me to release my grip from the wheel. Coach was expecting me to still hold on to the wheel as he corrected my course. Nevertheless, the car at 35mph takes the pothole head on. Front passenger tire blows instantly. I guide us over on the side of the road. I have a mini argument with Coach on whose fault it was ending with him changing a flat tire and us students walking back to school. It sucked. We waited so long to drive the car and now it was broken down.
We all know that high school aged children are fucking demons.
Once we got back to the classroom, I had to explain to everyone what happened. Of course everyone was mad. It was the one thing we were looking forward to all semester; and I ruined it. I got picked on for the rest of the day, ha ha ha.
But a week goes by. Everyone is very anxious and disturbed. Why is the driver's ed car broken for a week? It was only a flat tire. What else was there to fix?
The true victim of this story is the Driver's Ed car. After two weeks go by, Coach explains to all the classes that the car has been put out of commission for the rest of the school year. The front tire blew instantly because of the impact with the side of the pothole which also bent the rim to the point of not accepting new tires. The rear passenger tire was discovered to have a bent rim as well causing a slow leak. The rear tire's malady wasn't discovered until they tried to take the car back on the road after the first week.
That year everyone who enrolled in driver's ed passed driver's ed class without driving the car once. The only road time that car experienced was the 1/4 mile sprint towards base.
So there you have it, the reason I had the nickname Pothole Boy in school.
Kids are mean.