Marlborough High School - Marlborough High Yearbook (Marlborough, MA)

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Johnny has just reached his sixteenth birthday. What about it? you may ask. Well as is natural with almost every normal American boy. he wants to get his driving, license. He. ' s. been counting on it for some time but he ' s not so sure now, because Dad hasn ' t said anything about it lately. Finally our young aspirant puts the question before the war department and then awaits the reaction. The head of the family muses a while, and finally says that he isn ' t sure that he should let Johnny have a license, because new cars can ' t be bought now without a priority rating and a lot of red tape, Johnny indignantly makes it known that he will never smash up a car. He knows how to drive. But then there is the tire shortage. Father argues that there aren ' t many more miles in the present tires and he doesn ' t want any youngster cruising around town, and picking up his f rlends just to have a good time. Here the would-be driver adopts other tactics by saying that he could do a lot of errands for the family. Half convinced, the man of the hour (for Johnny at least) sits silently for a while. Seeing the tide of battle turning, father is quickly informed that the car would be washed, polished, and cleaned, inside and out, every week, or. well, at le st every t?;o weeks. Prospects brighten as the last remark registers. Perhaps it wouldn ' t do much harm to le ' t him get his license, thinks father, He wouldn ' t be able to have the car much except over the week-end. and then he ' d be so busy doing his homework and cleaning up the car, that little time for driving would remain. Continued silence indicates a temporary advantage, so Johnny follows up. reminding Dad of the way he gets so tired when driving on a long trip. He himself could help out quite a bit in the case and Dad could sit back and take it easy, (There was a good points Why didn ' t I think of it before?) Just then, Mother, who has until now kept a discreet silence, helpfully suggests that perhaps she could go shopping more often if Johnny could take her, leaving Dad free to putter around the house or listen to his favorite radio program, (That should surely be the decisive argument.) Johnny nods gratefully to Mom, and glances at Dad for signs of further weakening. A long silence follows. He decides to rest his case and avait the verdict. You ' ve guessed it. Johnny is driving around on a pink slip and will shortly become a full-fledged operator. To him, this is life. . —Allison P. Stevens