StoryCorps Shorts: Rules of the Road
Special | 3m 6sVideo has Closed Captions
A father recalls how a driving lesson gone wrong turned into a legendary family story.
Raised in New York City, Maritza Bell never learned how to drive. Later, her husband Danny tried to teach her. At StoryCorps, Danny and their daughter, Sydia, fondly recall how a driving lesson gone wrong turned into a legendary family story.
Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, the Open Society Foundations and the...
StoryCorps Shorts: Rules of the Road
Special | 3m 6sVideo has Closed Captions
Raised in New York City, Maritza Bell never learned how to drive. Later, her husband Danny tried to teach her. At StoryCorps, Danny and their daughter, Sydia, fondly recall how a driving lesson gone wrong turned into a legendary family story.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship-I used to take your mother for driving practice.
-Mhm, because she did not know how to drive!
-And I remember one day, we was in this park, and your mother had said to me, "I'm nervous.
Y'all get out the car."
-What car was this?
-Oh, that was my black Maxima.
-Talk about it!
-Oh, Man.
That was like my love child.
-Hello!
Was it paid off too?
-It was paid off.
-All right, so she's driving, and, to my recollection, she was doing a really good job.
-She was.
Until I told her, "I want you to park the car."
I stood in front of the car to guide her, and I kept pulling my hands towards me as a, "Come on, come on."
And for some reason, she stepped on the gas, and the car flew.
I had to jump out of the way, and the car went over the embankment into the water, flipped upside down.
-And me, and you, and the dog.
-The dog.
-Roxanna.
-Yeah.
-Looking down.
I could not believe this happened.
-What just happened?
-I ran down the hill, and I went into the water, and I couldn't see nothing.
-Mmhmm.
-But I knew she was in there.
-And I remember these two women came up and they called 911 and stuff.
Do you remember that?
-I remember the ambulance and the police.
-And I want to say even a helicopter!
-Yeah.
The feeling was, "It's too late.
She's gone."
Until I pushed her up to the top of the car, they thought she was dead.
-I'm left with this memory of my Dad coming out of the water, like, literally holding my Mom.
And saving her -- against all odds.
-Mmhmm.
-That moment was love embodied to me.
But, what I also remember is you going, "Oh, I saved her, but Lord, my car.
My car!"
-Yeah.
I had just shined my car up, it was -- it was beautiful.
And she said, "I ain't never going to touch a car again."
Until this day, she just sits in the passenger seat and complains about, "Turn over there, slow down."
-Truth, truth, truth.
-Everything.
-That's a Bell family story.
-Yes, it is.
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Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, the Open Society Foundations and the...