My Aunt Lorraine was one of my favorite aunts, but she was a pretty scary driver.
Growing up in Milwaukee’s inner core, dad was the only driver in our house until after we moved to the northwest side in 1964. I didn’t even ride in a school bus before then so my exposure to riding with other drivers was very limited. Dad was a skillful driver, took pride in driving and he told me once that his long time dream was to drive race cars.
His older sister, Aunt Lorraine was a whole different matter. She was 4 years older than dad and basically raised all the younger siblings after my dad's mom died when he was only 14 years old.
In the early 1960's, I remember riding a few times in her big Oldsmobile. She scared the hell out of me, seeming not to be paying attention to where she was going. She could not hold the throttle steady, always either on the gas pedal or off of it, especially if she was talking, which was most of the time! She had what they called a Safety Sentinel on her dashboard speedometer. It had a little button to adjust the speed setting you wanted, say 65mph. As the indicator approached 65 the indicator bar would turn yellow and then red when you hit that speed and an irritatingly loud buzzer would sound off. So she would be on the gas until the alarm sounded and then off the gas coasting until she realized how slow she was going. Then hit the gas pedal and repeat the cycle again. It drove me nuts as it seemed she wasn't paying attention. I was always so happy to get out of her car.
I later found out that her driving caught the attention of the police as well, being frequently pulled over. She almost always got a break however, talking her way out of a ticket with just a warning to be more careful.
Later in the mid 60's she bought a brand new Checker Marathon car that was specially built by the Checker Cab company. I think it was built in Michigan and they were for sale to the general public. It had a Chevrolet motor and had enormous back seat leg room due to the special configuration. Throughout the years, it seemed she always had a new dent or scratches on her vehicles and she had a couple crashes I remember hearing about as I got older.
She was one of my favorite aunts, but after the first few rides, I always tried to avoid having to go anywhere with her driving. After we moved to the suburb in 1964, mom grew increasingly frustrated being without transportation. She always had a driver license but never drove and dad was against it. In a brilliant move, mom decided to try and get Aunt Lorraine involved to help out. She expressed her frustration and dad’s resistance to his sister and one day she came over to the house. Mom got in Aunt Lorraine’s car and they went out shopping. I came home from school to find a 1962 Plymouth Valiant in the driveway that she bought for $300. Aunt Lorraine stayed until after dad came home from working second shift that night, knowing there was going to be a confrontation.
She kind of raised dad into adulthood and he reluctantly backed down against the both of them. It all worked out though as he found out a second driver in the house relieved him of a lot of running around. It also forced him to finally get car insurance as he always figured he didn’t need it. That would have quickly become an issue for me because I was nearing 16 years old and dreaming of getting a driver license and driving a car! So, very grateful to dear Aunt Lorraine for her help!
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