José Cruz: How did you actually learn how to drive?

Alex Bodnar: Well, as soon as I got my uh as soon as I passed the paper test I immediately got in the vehicle with my father and started driving and uh our town was and is still 10 km away.

José: Ten kilometres away from…?

Alex: So the licence office (Ah) and my town were 10 km apart so as soon as I passed the paper test uh as long as my father was sitting next to me because he’s a licensed driver uh, I could start driving (Right) with my uh 365.

José: Your three, what’s that three sixty…

Alex: The 365 meaning the learner’s permit. It’s valid for one year.

José: Oh, is that what you call that in Ontario?

Alex: Uh, that’s a nickname, right.

José: Oh, I didn’t – that’s a cool nickname the 365. (Yeah yeah yeah) Now, I uh I don’t remember calling the learner’s permit in British Columbia or BC I don’t recall calling it anything but the learner’s permit, or my learner’s permit anyway. (Mm-hmm) That’s a cool nickname. (yeah yeah) How long did it take you to get your learner’s permit? Ah, not your your full driver’s -no sorry, not your learner’s permit – how long did it take you after you got your learner’s permit to get your actual licence?

Alex: Right. Eh, I can’t remember now. I think somewhere between six months and eight months something like that.

José: I was kind of under pressure to be able to drive to my high school prom because I wanted to drive. I wanted to drive the car and my father said yeah OK, you can drive to your high school prom uh and that was about two months away so if I remember properly it took me about two months.

Alex: Wow, (right) that’s pretty fast.

José: It was pretty fast but because I was under pressure uh it was felt, it made me feel nervous and I was under worse pressure because about three weeks from the prom was when I took my test, (yeah) my my final test and I failed my first one. (mm-hmm) I failed it. So I was I was wreckedIn this case, wrecked means that José felt disappointed, panicked and very worried. (2:10) (no kiddingAlex means to say, “I completely understand how you feel” (2:10)) and I had to go take it again.

Alex: How much time after the first one, uh first driving exam did you take your second?

José: Uh, I think you had to wait like two weeks. (Mm-hmm) You couldn’t go the next day and do it again. … like that. But I took it three weeks later and I think there was like only another two weeks until the prom (Yeah) so like total pressure or else I’d be taking the bus with my date or something or we’d have to like uh, get a ride with like somebody else. (Right right) What kind of interesting stories do you remember from from your time learning how to drive?

Alex: Uh interesting stories uh well I most of my friends learned driving small cars, (Uh huh) but my family had big cars so (Right) uh I would drive a big van you know this- like the size of an ambulance because it used to be an ambulance because my father bought it at a, at an (Oh) auction (Oh oh) right they retire the vehicle.

José: Oh did it, did it have the sirens on it and stuff?

Alex: No no no no.

José: Oh! What about the inside? Did they gutTo gut something means to remove all the internal contents or parts. (3:16) out all the medical stuff?

Alex: Yeah yeah they took it all out like there’s a type of bench seat in the back. Uh…

José: For the medics.

Alex: Yes, yeah there are a couple of spaces for shelves in the back, but (that’s great) basically everything was you know, everything related to medical emergencies was removed.

José: Oh (Yeah) cool cool cool. I actually learned on a big car too. Um, do you know what Chevy Suburban is?

Alex: Yeah yeah yeah.

José: Okay, that was our car and and I think because I learned on a big car that’s the reason why I like driving only big cars. I find it very uncomfortable actually to drive small cars. (Oh)