We were driving the farm pick-up truck home from the field, as thousands of farm kids are often called upon to do.
My sister, about 14, was driving for what must have been one of her first times on a country grid road. I was her 12-year-old navigator.
On that straight stretch, we could see another truck approaching in the far distance. It looked like we’d meet it at square dance corner, where we’d have to turn left to reach home.
“Should I signal now?” she asked at about one mile away.
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“No, it’s still too soon.”
“Should I signal now?” she asked 10 seconds later.
“I don’t think so.”
“Should I signal now?” she asked at the half-mile mark.
“I don’t know! I guess so!”
She applied the left blinker, which clicked off several times in that half-mile stretch and had to be repeatedly re-applied. The other driver had a good long look at two little blonde heads poking above the dash (trying to look taller) but likely concluded it was part and parcel of life and farm work in the country.
Many rural folk have been trotting out their early driving stories this week, in response to Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall’s comment that he had taken his 14-year-old daughter driving on a grid road south of their Swift Current home.
It was hardly a revelation to members of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, to whom Wall made his remark. They’re almost all farmers and accepted the admission with knowing smiles. (Later, some of them offered the premier a place to give driving lessons.)
However, it was a revelation to the opposition New Democratic Party, who demanded an apology from Wall and noted the illegality of his actions. It fell to justice critic Frank Quennell to raise the matter in the provincial legislature, thereby solidifying all assumptions that the party is out of touch with rural Saskatchewan culture.
One can’t deny the fact that the premier admitted to an offence, but this particular activity is so widespread and so unenforceable that it is silly to make an issue of it at the political level.
An informal poll in the newsroom last week showed equivalent lawlessness. Everyone questioned had an under-aged driving story to tell, many of them involving deserted rural backroads and most of them involving some farm-work related necessity.
My own early driving experience with my sister and later on my own, taught me valuable lessons.
In hindsight, it also equipped me for Saskatchewan driving, where I note the left-turn blinker is a constant accessory for many drivers.
