On Tuesday, a six-year old boy drove a Ford Taurus ten miles to get to school before crashing into a utility pole. He was unharmed.
He was six! He drove ten miles before crashing! He was not wearing a seat belt!
How did he not die? How did he not cause a major pile-up?
You can read the full story at washingtonpost.com, but the background is that his Dad, who was under court order not to leave the kids alone with their mother, went to work at 6.30 a.m. Boy 6 missed the school bus and, while his mother was sleeping, took her car. He wanted to go to school to get breakfast and do P.E.
Parents were arrested. Kids are in care. Tragic, but fascinating.
It reminded me of those unhappy years with fighting parents when the normality of school life and schedule were such an attractive haven. After the crash, he tried to walk off to school. He really wanted to get there. I’m amazed at how resourceful and determined we can be, even at age six, when challenged to survive.
He learnt to drive from Grand Theft Auto and Monster Truck Jam. Thanks to Trixie and Fawcett, I have personal experience of GTA, but not yet MTJ. Sure, I can see how the skills are transferable—and how entirely inappropriate it is for a six-year old. He passed people driving at 60 mph, clearly living at video game speed. And Boy 6 drove off the road several times but, just like in GTA, drove back on to the road and carried on. (Hopefully he did not think of stopping at the strip club for a lap dance.) I passed my driving test first time to the surprise of my parents…would I have been better prepared with a few hours of GTA, had it existed in 1985?
I like the following news coverage of this story:
Richmond’s WTVR, for its discouraging pictures of the parents.
The BBC’s News Round for its naivety. This is a TV program and website on current affairs for kids, without irony. Do they really think kids are going to remember the cautionary ending of the story or the fact that you can learn to drive on Grand Theft Auto?
The British Expat discussion forum makes the insightful observation: only in the U.S.! Bet you want to expatriate them from here as well.
And finally, the best racial/class insights from Wearerespectablenegroes.com.
The WTVR site quotes the father as saying his “son has driven the family car in the past, but only around the house,” which strikes me as pretty humorous. The only cars I have ever driven around the house, before or after I got my license, are Hot Wheels.
I’m having trouble getting my head around the court order for the father not to leave the children alone with their mother. Presumably (at a guess) this means she had been convicted of some kind of child abuse or neglect. But were any resources provided that would allow him not to need to leave the children with her when he went to work in the morning?
we visited england several years ago, staying with a friend who was, at the time, in the armed services.
he recounted one of his favorite british tabloid headlines. it was about a family of immigrants who had all jammed in a car for some sad illegal reason. it ended with “TWO IN THE BOOT!”
he thought that was so funny and joked about it the whole time.
it is funny, and still makes me smile.
that’s so weird about that 6 year old. weird.
Hey Stella, maybe we’ll see you around the 20th!
i guess it wasn’t a stick shift.
my friend’s kid, Ben, when he was 5 yrs. woke up his dad early in the morning and asked him if he wanted coffee.
dad joked that he’d like a grande latte as he rolled over in bed. he dozed for a minute and when he got out of bed he discovered Ben gone from the house.
in a panic he jumped in the car and drove through San Francisco’s city streets to find Ben running through an intersection with cash in his hands.
The dad pulled over and yelled Ben! What are you doing?
I’m getting your latte! Ben yelled back annoyed.
I would like to give you the highest thanks for linking “We are respectable negroes” to your post. I’m am extremely amused by their header, “Zora/Chauncey De Vega/Gordon Gartrelle – 3 happy, non-threatening, colored folk,” and I can’t wait to explore that site further.
I think the best part about their post is where the word “tweaker” links to a health-care website about the symptoms of Methamphetamine use.
Anyway, great post!
Like, Mister Modesto, I, too, liked that first link. I think it’s funny that there are two mugshots there: “David Dudson, father” and “mother”.
I guess a few things:
1. they found out the mom’s name and had it in the caption as “__ __, mother” but found at the last minute that they weren’t supposed to reveal her name.
2. They figured they ought to have a picture of the mother as well as the father, so they just picked a picture out of the mugshot archives who looked similar to the father and just put that up there. After all, they’re both to blame and they both have new charges against them. And, you gotta admit, that insolent head tilt of hers is a good touch.
Update from washingtonpost.com – sorry couldn’t figure out how to hyperlink…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/09/AR2009010901848.html?hpid=moreheadlines
AB drove a car backwards into a tree once. We joked about it but the car drifted across a street that is frequented by trucks barrelling by – it could have been bad, bad, bad. It makes me think of that scene from Benjamin Button – if just one thing was different – the kid couldn’t find the keys, someone was crossing the street at a particular time, the shoulder of the street had a pothole. This story could have been much different. It reminds me of LPs magoo post of yester year.
As always Stella, your keen writing and dry wit – I love how you weave in your own experience.
You know, that scene in Button bugged the heck out of me. It was the one place where he completely stepped out of character — she was reading from his diary, right? So, how did he know all those tiny little details of the accident, unless he was Mr. Super-Sleuth after the fact? It was a nice little diversion, in theory, and it wonderfully illustrated the Magoo theory, but it completely flouted the narrative rules the screenwriters had set. Not that I’m picky about that kind of thing, heh.
truthfully the whole movie sort of bugged me – Brad Pitt is pretty but boring. There was no emotional center. Give me Gump any day. Only my girl Tilda held any interest (could she have not just played the main character ala Orlando?) But hey, the example worked with what I was trying to say. And I got to reference the Magoo theory, right?
To the expats saying, “Only in America!” I say, “Right back atcha!“
PB: I agree! I thought his best acting was done by the makeup department. And thanks for the shout-out to Magoo.
I’ve had this perplexing way of looking at people ever since I was little: I see old people as they are young and I know what young people would look like when they get old. Some people are old souls, like I was, when I was little, and some old people still act like they are in their 20s. It really all depends on a person’s mind and not on the biological factors. I loved the movie for the ideas:
Dad rejects his kid because of his looks and then lives his whole life without any family; meets with his son as a stranger for many years, and at the time of his death ends up willing all of his money to him anyway (never actually having a real relationship with his son, which he could have had).
A kid is born old and never enjoys his childhood or friends; pulled into adult things because of the way he looks; has no experience on how to handle an affair with the older woman, who actually thinks he is older. He never experiences life the way others do. When his brain gets older, he only gets younger. He gets dementia when he is 5.
He leaves the love of his life because he does not want her to deal with the two children, when he could have been there for her at least for another 20 years and gotten to know his daughter. The love of his life ends-up taking care of him anyway.
It’s the decisions we make in our life because we think we are doing the right thing and then time puts everything in place anyway. We realize that our ambitions or our sets of believes (which do not mean anything) just waste our precious time, which we could have spent with our children, our parents, the people we love. We can change the course of events, but we don’t have enough wisdom.
Come on, girls! Cut the guy some slack. Edward was a bit dull too, but everyone loved him. Brad can’t be playing “Troy” all the time. “Meet Joe Black” was also criticized, but it had some good ideas.
Tim – i’m traumatized. i grew up with Tufty the squirrel…who helped us learn the green cross code i.e. how to cross the road safely. He doesn’t deserve to be mocked or eaten.
OK, speaking of young British boys and their hijinks, I just stumbled across this video. I wondered if I was alone in finding it oh-so-charming — but then I noticed it had been viewed nearly 75 MILLION times. Wowsers.