Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Young driver to old driver, it’s a slippery slope
It’s funny to think that all the prejudices and stereotypes that exist about “old fuddy duddies” will also one day apply to us.
My grandfather likes to berate me, saying things like, “You young drivers, with all your satnav gizmos and electric cars, your brains will go stale.”
When I ask him why, he tells me it’s because we don’t use them enough. He argues, perhaps more accurately than I care to admit to him, that “in his day” all young men used to read maps, whereas these young drivers “just let microchips do all the work, while their brain cells lose muscle mass”.
With his words still ringing in my mind, I wake the next day and go to the gym. I even drop round to his place the same evening and offer to help him chop firewood.
Granddad effortlessly slices his way through log after log – I’m still stuck on my first. Soon I complain that the axe is blunt. No it’s not, he says, you’ve been cutting against the grain. I wish he’d told me that five minutes ago, but, truth be told, I know he’s enjoyed it, watching me struggle as I learn the hard way.
Yes, one day, I’ll be old, however much I may struggle to comprehend it now. Pretty soon I won’t even need to find a young driver car insurance policy and from there it’s a slippery slope.
But when I am old, I only hope that I can manage to pull off being grumpy with half as much insight and humour as my dear old grandfather.
Image © cogdogblog via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: young driver car insurance
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posted by Fuse @ 2:09 AM 
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