Since a lot of embarrassing memories from my past are surfacing, rather than bemoan them I might as well laugh at them and share some stories. One such story is my first attempt to wash a car. This was for Traffic Safety class, which I was given an Incomplete because I did all the bookwork correctly but whose driving was so bad that it was a miracle I never had a collision.
Well, one of the things you had to do was wash a car and clean the inside so I dutifully attempted to clean the old 1978 Volare’ in November with somewhat soapy water and, I am NOT making this up, paper towels. The result was, of course, predictable. The car looked worse than before. For one thing, in our semi-rural jody setting the car had more filth than the average suburban car. Some dirt DID manage to come off, but the fact that the outdoor cats walked all over the car became evident as their paw prints became visible all over the hood and windshield.
Needless to say my father was NOT happy. Still the poor man could never accept his children were less than stellar and honestly thought that such an irrational being was college and law school material. What I wished he had done was tell me to and assist in getting a job at a car wash. I DID succeed in a couple years later AFTER being shown what to do.