by Mac a'Bhaird

Created on: January 29, 2010

I promise you that I don’t make my living by deception; neither am I a law breaker, but I do admit from time to time I have been  a law ‘skater’, not in any serious capacity, and most likely, the following account was the outer limit of anything I have ever done.

It happened quite a few years ago (1979); the reason I remember the date is because I was getting ready to move from a secure job, and was taking a leap of faith – so to speak – to a new community, and I wanted to be prepared for any contingency, so I decided to arrive in the new community with my class 1 driver’s license, in case I needed to fall back on taking a job driving a truck.

I already had my class 2 license for driving Sunday school buses. I had driven tractors, back hoes, and just about everything else on wheels. All I needed to do was show up at the DMV and take the test. So I called around and found a trucking company that would rent me a truck and flatbed for the day for only $75.00. In order to rent it, someone had to drive it off the premises for me. That was my friend Chuck, the proverbial gear grinding truck driver.  We drove to the truck yard, he drove the truck away, and the next day he was going to take me for some lessons then to the DMV. The only problem was Chuck got a call and had to go to work, so I was left alone with the truck.

I had a choice – either show up at the DMV with the truck and take my chances or return the truck and lose my $75.00. That is when I decided to be a ‘law skater’. I drove around a little bit with the truck by myself, backing it up until I decided I had nothing more to learn, and headed to the DMV. Not just any DMV, I had decided my chances of passing would be at the DMV of a smaller community instead of the larger city where I resided. So I headed out to the smaller community DMV, stood in line with the filled out application and my written test score verifying that I had passed.

When it became my turn a Sergeant-Friday-from-the-LAPD look alike called my name and we walked out the door to the testing area where Chuck should have parked the truck, but I had a hand in it, of course, since Chuck wasn’t in the picture. Fortunately for me, ‘Sarge’ never asked me about how the truck got there. Strange, because this guy was strictly ‘the book’. White sidewall haircut, military precision DMV uniform, pursed lips and a dry look.. this guy was all business, and here

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