The Slice: Dumping out The Slice mailbag

Let’s start with some Slice answers.

“So, in regards to your question about a parent teaching you to drive,” wrote Craig Whiting. “I grew up on a ranch. No one ever ‘taught me’ to drive. I was just told to get in the pickup and go feed the cows.”

I’ve had computer training much like that.

Pat Holland shared this memory.

“When my mom was teaching me to drive in 1960, I wanted to practice parallel parking between two real cars. So I drove to Post Street downtown, which was a one-way street.

“We found a space. I started parking. I went in and out of the parking space four or five times. A man walked across the street to my car window. He said, ‘Ma’am, if you can’t get in that parking space, you can park in my lot.’

“I thanked him and explained that I was practicing for my driver’s test. He laughed and said OK. My mom was embarrassed.”

Pat passed her driver’s test the very next day.

And this is from Steve Heaps.

“Though they must have done so, I have no memory of my parents teaching me to drive. Instead, I remember our neighbor, Frank Howard, giving me lessons in 1959 in the Joe Albi parking lot. We were in his chartreuse Cadillac convertible while my ’46 Ford sat in the driveway awaiting my 16th birthday.

“A 6-foot-4 logger, Frank had contracted polio in his 30s. I used my feet for the accelerator and brake rather than his cool hand controls while he gave me patient instruction in that big ol’ boat in return for getting his lawn mowed. Those skills brought me back there a few times to watch the submarine races with Karen.”

Reason No. 51 why I like my readers: Mike Storms was one of several correspondents who responded in a similar manner to The Slice’s proposal for a No Exclamation Points Day.

“Great idea!” he wrote.

“Everyday!” wrote Jim Parry.

“Monday!” wrote Shelley Davis. “Or Friday!”

On a related note: Longtime Whitworth English professor Laura Bloxham is renowned for her reluctance to use exclamation points. In fact, she has employed a grand total of one so far this year.

It was part of a retirement tribute to a friend. It said, “Go Cougs!”

Today’s Slice question: When you think back about the last day of school, what memory stands out?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Do men who would have been fathers if the pregnancy had not been terminated think about that on Father’s Day?