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A Message From the President

On behalf of myself and the Board of Directors, welcome to 2026! I am incredibly excited for the year ahead. Our Board has been working tirelessly to blend the best of our club’s traditions with innovative new ideas, ensuring there are activities for every member to enjoy all year round.

Board Updates & Governance

The full Board met in person on January 31 to discuss our roadmap for 2026. A primary focus of our meeting was improving how we communicate with you. To streamline our efforts, we have formed several key subcommittees:

  • Communication & Transparency: We are addressing how to best share Board happenings while managing risk and utilizing best practices. While the old bylaws required the posting of minutes and allowing all members to attend board meetings, this led us to a different question: How do we communicate with the full membership to ensure full transparency as to what is happening at the board level? Moving forward, you will receive more frequent newsletters featuring Board updates alongside club human-interest stories.
  • Website Refresh: A dedicated team is working on a total website overhaul to provide better activity overviews and participation guides. We expect a full release by Summer 2026.
  • Policies, Procedures & Bylaws: We have established committees to “Fix and Clarify” our bylaws and document checks and balances. This includes defining attendance policies for board meetings to ensure we remain effective while maintaining full transparency.

Upcoming Events & Activities

While the winter weather keeps us indoors for now, the Board is actively scouting new locations and fresh ideas. Keep an eye out for a membership survey coming soon to help us tailor our programming to your interests.

Driving & Track Events

  • Autocross (AX): The 2025 end-of-year event has been rescheduled for March 22 at Billiard’s Café. Registration for the 2026 season opens on Motorsportreg on March 1.
  • Driver Education (DE): Registration is open now!
    • Ground School: March 7 at HMS – perfect for those new to the track.
    • HPDE Primer: May 22 at Thompson – a low-cost, half-day opportunity to try DE for the first time.
  • The Ramble: Our Lake George event sold out in record time (under 3 hours!), promising a fantastic turnout.

Rallies & Tours

We are delivering on your requests for more driving tours:

  • Spring Rally: Sunday April 19 with a starting point at Billiards Café in Ayer MA. Registration is up on Motorsportreg.
  • Summer Rally: Currently in the planning stages.
  • Dow Fall Rally: Our annual tradition continues.
    We are intentionally spreading these events across the region to ensure every member has a rally or tour nearby.

Social Events

The Social Committee is expanding our “Cars & Coffee” locations and adding more tech sessions.

  • First Membership Social: Sunday March 15th at The Archive in Framingham MA.
  • New Concepts: We are working on a mix of seasonal events and reviving popular activities from years past.

Get Involved

NER is fueled by the passion of our volunteers. If you have an interest in helping out, whether in a small way or by joining a committee, please reach out to us at [email protected].

I look forward to seeing you all on the road and at our events very soon!

Kristin Larson

2026 NER President

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The Forgotten Porsche

Normally on this web site we expect to see the latest adventures of Tom Tate.  This article is a little different.  Instead of a story by Tom, this is a story about Tom.   This past Thursday Tom presented his latest adventure to a packed house at the Lars Andersen Museum entitled “The Forgotten Porsche”. 

This was the story of the restoration of the “Puddle Jumper”.   Tom’s black 356A sunroof coupe.   If you are a regular reader of Tom’s work, you have read of this car before as Tom went thru the tribulations of the restoration process and wondered just how did it get that name?   I’d assumed it probably had something to do with the water filled pothole riddled streets of New England combined with the rust prone floor pans of an old 356.   But no, the “Puddle” referred to is rather larger than that.  There is a placard on the dash installed by the original owner’s son that explains the origin of the name.   Look for the car at the next Concours or Cars and Coffee where Tom brings the car.   ( Tom has a number of Porsches to select from so it’s always a surprise which one he shows up with.)  I guess you’ll just have to attend some  upcoming events to learn more of the origin story.

The physical restoration of the car from the engineless non-drivable car with front end body damage to show ready condition that was done over a period of 15 years is only half the story.  As with any classic car or antique, a large part of the value is in “The Provenance” – The history and the story of the car.   As only the second owner of the Car, Tom had the advantage of talking with the family of the original owner  so, over time he was able to document the entire history of the car,  right down to a photo of the original hand written in German Porsche Factory  “Cardex”   ( Build sheet) .     

Another element of the story was the effort to find parts for a 60 year old car that had a total world wide yearly production was only 600 + examples,   Parts for the original optional hand windup clock that was part of the Glove Box door or the 2nd cable drive for the Halda SpeedPilot Rally clock that was added by the first owner.   The number of 356’s  built that were Black Sunroof Coupes  (an unpopular color and expensive  option in the period)  dwindles the total examples down to just a handful.   Tom’s car is remarkably complete with the original engine back in it’s place, missing only the electric auto-retractable radio antenna that still is on the “needed to find” list.   If you know of one, I’m sure Tom wants to hear from you.    

Ted Shaw

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Random Thoughts and Other Musings

Ok   —  I get it  – Print Media is dead.  Things that were required back then, or at least expected,  when I first Joined PCA  in 1971 are just no longer available,  Everyone had a subscription to Road and Track and Car and Driver.   ( and a  dozen others depending on your various passions)    Those of us who followed racing and wanted our news that was only 10 days or less  old  subscribed to a weekly newspaper,  Competition Press  / Autoweek.    On Sundays Cameron Dewer  (  yes – as in the Scotch ) had an automotive column in the Boston Globe Automotive section.    Most of it is now gone.   Who needs 6 week old reports on races like the 24 hours of Le Mans when you can watch them live on TV with things like in car cameras and see more than if you actually attended the race in person.  I can personally attest that being a Crew Member for a 935 Team at 3 AM at a cold rainy 24 Hours of Daytona is not really quite as much fun as you might imagine. 

But there is Print Media that is still hanging on.    Panorama for one,  Not quite the same as when Betty-Jo ran it with Len doing the principal Photography, but Pano is now a much more refined and Professional publication that deserves your full attention every month. 

All of which brings me to the point of this column.     At this years Winter Warmer I picked up a copy of Christophorus.    For those of you unfamiliar with Christophorus ,  It is the official Porsche Publication published quarterly.  In ten different Languages.    It’s available by subscription.   24 Euros a year payable by credit card  on the Porsche web site.      Subscription | Porsche Christophorus

……   which is a whole lot easier than when I first subscribed.   Then you sent a check payable in Deutschmarks in one those thin Blue overseas airmail envelopes to an address written in German, hopefully spelled and formatted correctly.   Somewhere along the line I allowed My subscription to lapse.  I just resubscribed. 

The current issue  ( # 413  Q4 2024)   includes a driving report of a trip from Vietnam to Mongolia in a 911 Dakar,   a story on 25 years of GT3’s, a fascinating and candid  interview with  Oliver Blume   the Chairman of the Board of Porsche AG.  Another road trip  story  driving 4 difference  Taycans  2,700 miles  Stuttgart to Istanbul  with details on charging times, energy use using the Porsche charging Planner   

If you’re not quite ready for the full Christophorus experience  in glorious print on premium paper you  just go to the web site Porsche Christophorus for the web version of the same content.  But, trust me.  the print version is the better choice.  

  

 More random Things

Here a link to t an interesting You Tube Porsche adventure  I Bought a Half Price Used Porsche Taycan and Drove it 2,300 Miles Home In Winter! – TheSmokingTIre .   Matt purchases a used Taycan Cross Turismo  –  a 2 year old –  under 20,000 Porsche for 50% off the Original MSRP!  In Detroit And then proceeses to immediately drive it home to LA in the middle of Winter.  What could possibly Go wrong with that plan as the old saying goes.   Well  — amazingly nothing did.  Instead he spends most of the time  praiseing the performance of the  Built-in Travel Planner app to minimize recharging times.   

 

And here’s another You Tube series along the Same lines.    Racing From Seattle To Boston In The Best Road Tripping EVs! The Cross Country I-90 Surge – Pt. 1/4     A four part series of 8 different EV’s on a cross country Trip.  You can probably guess which one came out as the best of the bunch. 

Ted Shaw  

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Four Speeds and Drum Brakes: New Cars and New Prices

                     Back in the early ’70’s I worked at a Porsche dealership in Boston and watched as the price of German cars was headed north due to the rising value of the German mark against the US dollar and changes required by the EPA. Big bumpers, door guards and emission requirements added to the costs of every car everywhere. The new 914 quickly went from a starting price of $3995 to $6995 in just 5 years. New 911’s that had a base price of $8600 in 1970 but started at $15,000 by 1977.
                     Compare  those numbers with Pony cars that started the period with Mustangs at $3800 and Camaros at $3500. By 1977 they were only higher by about 15% ($4300 and $4000 respectively). For a driver looking for a sporty car it was a tough sell unless they could be educated in a hurry. 
                     I remember when the first new 911 arrived that had a MSRP (base price before shipping and any options) of $9995, we thought the game was over. A Z-28 was half that amount and the goal of most buyers was to keep their car payment under $100, tough to do using those numbers.  
                     Cars have never been cheap but over the years while we haven’t been paying attention they have really become a major expense for every family, not just rich single guys looking for a super car.  
                   A recent article in the Wall Street Journal prompted the above review.  Edmunds.com, as quoted,  reported that the average monthly car payment in the US is a record $754 per month. The report went on to say that 18.9% of all buyers pay over $1000 per month to put that car in the driveway, plus the cost of insurance and various taxes. What happened? 
                  Data shows that the average auto loan today is $42,113 compared to $39,977 a year ago and that’s just the average, some are higher. Interest rates on auto loans have declined in the last year from 7.4% to 6.8% but those zero interest loans from a few years ago are long gone. Used car loans start at 11% so it looks like cash is king nowadays. 
                  Six year loans are common now, while we couldn’t go beyond 48 months back in the day. Most cars then wouldn’t last that long. 
          Those kinds of numbers are causing drivers to keep their cars longer than ever before with the average age of cars on the road at 12.6 years. Even with high parts and higher labor rates, $700 per month will cover a lot of repair bills, so used cars look like great value. Just keep throwing money at it and keep it on the road.
                  With the higher costs of cars everyone needs more insurance to cover the risk of accidents. As I reported last year a slight bumper cover scuff is no longer $1000, it’s $10k and four weeks to repair.  Insurance rates are up over 32% in the last two years and that’s if you haven’t crashed or been caught speeding.  Do I have to mention the annual car excise tax in Mass?
                  Excise taxes are based upon the original cost of each car without any options. The tax is $25 per $1000 of value but that value is reduced in the first 5 years to 10%of original base price. For old cars like a couple in my garage I pay the $5 minimum. For newer cars like the Audi RS4 (2001) the bill is less than $70 per year. When I get those bills I can’t get the check mailed fast enough. 
                  A new Porsche, like a 992 ,even after the 5 year depreciation window, would carry a $330 per year excise tax bill into the future. No wonder there are so many expensive cars driving around with NH plates on them.
                 The price to play has never been cheap but it’s always been worth it. As they say, ” you can’t take it with you”. We made it this far, now’s the time to drive fast and take chances.
           

-KTF 

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Good News – Bad News

 As many of my loyal readers know, this column tends to pass along stories that are upbeat; at least, that is my intent. Since I’m the writer I realize that I tend to also post tales that make me look good. Sometimes that is tough to do because I make some of the same mistakes that everyone else does. When an axle nut didn’t get tightened correctly, and the rear wheel came off the Speedster on the way home from an autocross, I just didn’t mention that in my next column. But when I want to change the oil in a C4S and save $450 off the dealer’s price, the description goes on forever. The underlying thread is that I’m a genius. Of course, we all know that isn’t true.

 I am the first to complain about the media and the biased reporting that we are all subjected to every day. I know that Walter Cronkite died years ago, and with him, the news reporting that I grew up with. A news story reported today could sound like two different events depending upon what station you are watching. No wonder the generation behind me doesn’t watch TV news. In the interest of full disclosure,  this month’s column will have some bad news in it. The good news is that I’m OK.

The race season is finally at full speed, and my first race was at Watkins Glen last month. It was an AER race, a two-day enduro that ran 8 hrs one day and 6 hrs the next. The cars were provided by Matt Connelly Motorsports. BMW 330’s that I have driven in the past. Terrific cars that can pretty much pass anything on the track at will.

 My co-driver, Rob, couldn’t make the trip, but I went up a couple of days early to get in some practice. The weather wasn’t great, but the ride out was great fun in the newest garage resident, a 2015 Turbo S.   I even had time to look around The Glen a bit and see some of the local attractions.

 

 

 Practice started with a wet track, but the car stuck pretty well even if the lap times weren’t that good. Matt brought two similar cars, and they were set up exactly the same. We had four drivers for each car, and everyone took a turn as the track began to dry out. My morning time was the slowest in the group, so I had to get serious in the afternoon; besides, I like driving in the rain. There is a nice data screen on the dash that shows the projected lap time as the course is being driven. If you brake too early or don’t carry enough speed through a turn, the projected lap time will be increased. In the same way, if you do the corner just right or hit the brakes later, the time on the screen will begin to fall. On my last practice lap, the racing line was finally dry, and my times were starting to fall, so I was determined to finish strong.

 With only two turns left and the timer looking good, I drove into turn ten flat out in 4th gear. Carrying just a bit more speed than the dry line could hold, I dropped two wheels onto the wet portion of the pavement and began to lose even more traction.  I have spun in turn ten before and always caught it, but this time was different. I remember thinking, keep my foot down, don’t lift, steer in the direction of the skid, you got this. But I didn’t.  The back of the car snapped around before I could react, and I was headed to the inside guard rail. I did get both feet down before impact, but it was close. The good news was that because this turn saw a lot of spins, there was a double row of tires up against the Armco barrier. That allowed a bit of a cushion before metal hit metal. The right front corner hit first as I was sliding backward, and that slammed the entire right side into the tire wall.

As the photos show, the left side still looks good, but the right side lost a lot of pieces. Tires, brakes, part of the front spoiler, and even a door handle got left on the track.

 I bounced around inside the car a bit, but the 5-point harness, along with the Hans device and race seat (which was displaced), kept me from any serious injury. I could hear the helmet tapping the roll cage as the Hans straps held my head on straight. The seat belts left their marks on my body, and my right arm suffered a good size bruise when it was restrained by the netting that did its job.  

The crash crew was there in less than a minute, and I had my arm out the window so that they knew that I was OK. I was certainly more embarrassed than hurt especially considering that this was practice. Nobody crashes in practice, a race, maybe but not while practicing. The fire extinguishers were at the ready but not needed, and the ambulance pulled up to offer me a ride a minute later. There were questions to answer (like: where are you?) and forms to fill out.

I have certainly crashed before; it happens when you race, but never bad enough to total a car. The front frame was pushed left when the right front tire hit the wall, but the engine and drivetrain were spared any damage. That became important when the other car suffered an engine failure due to a driver finding 3rd gear when he meant to go to 5th at speed. The engine swap was done on Sat night in less than 4 hrs, so the other drivers didn’t lose their racing seat time. That engine ran to the end on Sunday, proving I would’ve had a great race if I hadn’t crashed.

I was thankful that I didn’t break any bones, and I still knew what day it was when I was asked at the Care Center, but I sure felt like a jerk. The track insurance saved my bank account, and Matt was really good about the damage I did to his car. As he said, “you don’t really know where the limit is until you exceed it” sometimes it hurts, sometimes it doesn’t. This time it hurt, but I definitely know where the limit is, in turn, ten on a damp track.

 -KTF   

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Getting My Driver’s License

I grew up in Upstate New York on the family farm.   We raised oats, hay, sheep and horses.   At that time you could drive on the road at 14, if the vehicle you were driving had Farm Plates.  (no actual paperwork was needed  —  and the county cops rarely patrolled the roads anyway).     But the rule on the farm was different,  if you were big enough to fully depress the clutch on the Tractor (by standing on it),  you were big enough to drive it.  Now my initial actual road driving was limited to a mile or so down the road from the farm to one of the leased fields we used for oats,  and the traffic was basically non-existant.   So, remember,  the next time you are on the Ramble and stuck behind a Hay Wagon that’s using ¾ of the road and going 12 MPH,  the 13 year old at the controls has that tractor flat out – as fast as it will go,  has no turn signals, and is likely to turn  left into a field at any moment,  without checking to see behind him ( because he can’t see who’s there anyway over the 5 tons of hay in the wagon ).

Experience with the tractors led to being allowed to drive the other vehicles with farm plates,  the WWll surplus Willis Jeep that served as the snow plow and did the trail clearing and the Ford Stake Bed,  both with non- synchromesh transmissions.   The Stake Bed was the most fun, not just because it had no muffler and made a great noise when opened up,   it also meant driving  a 20 minute trip alone into town to the Feed and Grain to pick up whatever had been ordered.   The roads at the time were still gravel and in the late spring after they had been freshly grated, they were smooth as glass.   Did you know that you could 4-wheel-drift a big (empty ) under powered truck?  It’s amazing what you can do when you are young and stupid.        

Actually getting a valid driver’s license would have to wait until I was 16 and home from school for the summer and had the time to study the rule book for the written test and practice driving in actual traffic.  ( There were rules to learn ???  who knew ).   The dreaded parallel parking test was never really a problem, and I was disappointed that I didn’t get tested on my ability to back a trailer.  By that time I could not only back a trailer exactly where it needed to be on the first pass, I could back the 4 wheel  Hay Wagon connected to the Bailer which was connected to the Tractor.        

  •   Ted Shaw
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Getting Your Driving License is NOT as Easy as it Seems

Anker Berge-Sonne’s recent story regarding how he first learned to drive and eventually got his license got me to thinking. In some ways my experience is similar and yet certainly different. I was born way back in late November 1949… so not very long after World War II.

We lived in a nice 3 bedroom house in Johnston, RI. My folks had bought that house with the money they had saved up after my father (a licensed electrician) worked MANY long hours after the Hurricane of 38 pretty much devastated a lot of downtown Providence. My dad worked at the US Rubber plant (later called Uniroyal) and the plant sat right alongside the Woonasquatucket River. When the Hurricane blew up the east coast the storm serge was about 12 feet in the city. There are still markers on some of the downtown buildings showing how high the water rose.

With the US Rubber plant being right along the river… the water came up fast and pretty much took out the manufacturing capacity on ALL of the first floor buildings. For almost a year my dad worked from sun up to sun down, 6 and 7 days a week …repairing the damage. LOTS of overtime… and thus the money to eventually buy a house. One smart purchase my family made was to buy the extra lot next to our house. The lot was maybe 120 feet long and about 60 feet wide. This lot will soon be part of the story.

Cars (and motorcycles) were always a big part of my dad’s interest… and as a boy I would watch him (and help) as he worked either on his bike or his cars. “Hand me that 7/16-inch box wrench” …
“Ok… what’s a box wrench?”. I learned by doing. 

Dad followed racing…. Indy, Daytona, anything local like midgets and stock cars at Seekonk and Thompson. In fact, one of my early memories was going to Thompson (I was maybe 11 or 12) on the back of the Harley and ending up near the paddock of the second configuration of that track. We watched real “road racing” and I remember the Ferrari of Mike Gamino (of Providence) go head-to-head with a Jag and an early Corvette. I’m pretty sure this was an SCCA event and I think the Ferrari won.

So, about this time I am in my early teens and the “car bug” had bit. I wanted to learn to drive. We had a Hudson Hornet (anybody remember those beasts ??) that was “surplus to our needs” and was not registered. It sat in that extra lot. Eventually my mom gave me the keys and encouraged me to “drive it back and forth” in the lot. I did this for hours on end. Back and forth… back and forth. (note: I had never heard of the Hudson Hornet prior to posting this article – here is an example of Steve McQueen’s I found online – Luis)

My mom giving me encouragement will come into play in a moment.

After about a year of this (I think I was maybe 15) one day my mom leaves the house while a friend of mine was with me. I get the bright idea to take the Hudson out on the side roads for a little run. Remember this is suburbia… there are houses and people and other cars all around… we are NOT out in the country. My buddy and I are gone no more than 10 minutes…during which time I ALMOST crashed the car. As I am driving back into the yard… I realize my mom is HOME.

@$%&.. caught red handed. Mom has one comment. “Wait till your father gets home and hears about this!” How many times have we ALL heard that expression?

Well, I did not get smacked across the back of my head, but I did get a STERN talking to by my father. Needless to say, … I never took the Hudson out on the road again.

My mother basically taught me how to drive. She had a 64 Dodge Dart convertible with a small V-8 and automatic transmission. I got my learners permit and together we would go out and drive around and she would instruct me. But since I had spent so much time in the Hudson… there really was not a lot to lean.

In high school I went to LaSalle Academy in Providence, an all-boy’s Catholic school… rather strict. I was a sophomore when I turned 16. I took a day out of school and my mother takes me to the driving test. I had one demerit (did not turn on my flashers when pulling out of the slot at the beginning of the test) and passed with flying colors. We got my paper work and Mom takes me to the registry and I get my license. All in the same day.

So, the next morning … as I’m getting ready for school… I ask my mother for a “note” to give to the teacher… saying I was sick yesterday. My mother looks at me and says “you were not sick… I am not giving you a note”. “But mom” I protest… “I’ll get in trouble.” “Well, you should have thought of that beforehand”. Needless to say, I did NOT get a note!

At school, after the first class session, there is an announcement over the PA system. “Mr. Raymond Boyer, please come to the principal’s office”. Now you have to understand that up to this point I had NEVER missed a day of school at LaSalle.

I walk into the office and there is Brother Patrick… the principal. (I will have another run in with this authority figure later in the year… a story for another time).

“Mr. Boyer, you were not in school yesterday. What is your excuse. Do you have a note from home?”

“No Brother, I do not have a note.”

“Why not, you missed school yesterday?”

I paused before I answered, considering my options.
Finally, I just fessed up.

“Well Brother, yesterday was my birthday and I turned 16. I took the day off and my mother drove me to take the driving test, which I passed I might add. After that we went to the Registry and I filled out the paperwork and I got my license. Then my mother took me out for lunch to celebrate me getting my license.”

 

This is all BS… but hey… I might as well spin this yarn as far as I can and see what happens. In a final act of defiance, rather proudly I say …

“Would you like to see my license?”

Brother Patrick looks at me with a bit of shock and perhaps with just a bit of incredulity. He just stands there looking at me. It seemed like forever, but was probably no more that 10 seconds before he says.

“I have to commend both your mother and you for your honesty in this matter”

“Thank you, Brother,” I reply.

I figure I am home free. Patrick just stands there thinking, perhaps for another 5 seconds. Then the verdict comes down.

“Three Weeks Detention. Report to room 102 every day after class.”

So, for the next 3 weeks I go to room 102 after class and spend those 45 minutes each day with all the other “hooligans” of La Salle Academy.

But at least after detention I got to drive myself home. You see, my dad gave me that old Hudson Hornet as a birthday present.

Contribution by: NER Member Ray Boyer

Additional Info

Ray Boyer is a newer member of the Porsche community. He bought his first P car (a 2011 Carrera 911) in August of 2019 as a present to himself for his 70th. birthday. Raymond joined the New England Porsche club in January of 2021. He is also a member of the SCCA and has been racing Formula Fords for more than 30 years. He does most of the mechanical work on the car himself. He now knows the difference between a 7/16-inch box wrench and a screwdriver.

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Getting My License (on the cheap)

Most of my teen years were spent in Tanzania from 1963 to 1966, from age 14 to 18. As with all teens, these were transformational years for me, and what a great place to spend them. Tanzania had just gained independence. Actually, it was Tanganyika when we moved there; Zanzibar rebelled against their Arab rulers in 1964 and subsequently merged with Tanganyika and was renamed Tanzania.

My family moved there from Denmark because my father had taken a job with the Danish foreign aid agency, which was building a high school in Kibaha, about 25 miles from the capital, Dar-es-Salaam, in cooperation with Sweden, Norway, and Finland. The first year we lived in the Central Highlands in Iringa at a boarding school built by the British, called St. Michael’s and St. George’s School when we arrived, but quickly renamed Mkwawa High School after a chief who in the very late 1800s rebelled against their German colonialists. The rebellion failed, mainly because the magic potion, water, failed to protect the warriors against German bullets, and poor Mkwawa’s skull was kept in Berlin until it very recently was returned to his homeland. The school entirely transformed over the next two years from being extremely British: almost exclusively white students and teachers, and teachers wearing gowns and mortarboards daily, to still an almost exclusively white teacher body, but the student body being almost exclusively native Tanzanian.

At the end of the first two years, the rest of my family moved to Kibaha, 300 miles away. But I stayed on for a term as a boarder because the Scandinavian-built school in Kibaha wasn’t ready to accept students. Kids either really enjoy boarding school or hate it. I loved it. My younger brother went to a different boarding school in Nairobi, Kenya, and hated it. The only thing I wasn’t happy with was that as a white person and the son of a former teacher, the staff went to great lengths to not show any favoritism towards me, on the contrary.

Well, I digress and better start writing about cars. While I was a boarder in Iringa, I turned 16, the age at which I could get my driver’s license. I was able to talk the headmaster’s wife into letting me drive her car, a VW Beetle,  around the school grounds, with a big L sign on it. After a couple of weeks, my birthday came up, and since I was now confident in my driving skills, all done at 20 to 30 MPH, to make an appointment for my driving test on my actual birthday. For some reason, the headmaster’s wife’s Beetle wasn’t available, so I had to borrow another teacher’s car, fortunately also a Beetle. Driving tests were conducted by the police, and after I paid the fee, 5 shillings, approximately 80 cents in the US, a cop joined me in the passenger seat, had me drive around the block, and then parallel park. I passed!

To my surprise, the paperwork given to me authorized me to operate any land-based vehicle with wheels, including motorcycles, cars, trucks, and buses. I chose to have the actual license issued for motorcycles and cars. Much to my later regret, but because the truck and bus license required a picture, which I didn’t have. I could, however, use the original paperwork to upgrade my license later, which I didn’t, to my even greater regret.

My parents were blissfully unaware of my shenanigans, and when the term ended and I rejoined my family in Kibaha, I showed my license to them and asked if I could borrow the family car. To my huge surprise, my dad pulled out the keys, handed them to me, and said, “here!”

That 80 cent license got me a Danish driver’s license for almost nothing, and that, in turn, got me a US driver’s license for almost nothing! I did, however, have to take the written test, which the Danes hadn’t required.

The pictures are of my family taking a lunch break under a Baobab tree on one of our many vacation trips (I am the tallest kid), and of the lowest grade of road that we encountered!

I challenge all of you to write a better story about getting your driver’s license. To accept the challenge, write it up in a Word document and send it to [email protected]!

-Anker Berg Sonne

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