• Mama Learns to Drive

  • Stories That Celebrate Mothers
  • By: Donald Davis
  • Narrated by: Donald Davis
  • Length: 53 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (90 ratings)

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Mama Learns to Drive  By  cover art

Mama Learns to Drive

By: Donald Davis
Narrated by: Donald Davis
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Editorial reviews

This charming, and hilarious, collection of childhood reminiscences is a wonderful showcase of Southern storytelling. The stories concern, among other incidents, Davis's memory of his mother learning to drive. He also gives some family background that makes these stories endearing. An experienced storyteller, Davis is perfect. He has a mellow Appalachian accent that is skilled and nuanced. One need only see him telling these tales to get a fuller experience.

Publisher's summary

If you've ever been in the car while a loved one was learning to drive, then think of this as cheap therapy!

Learning to drive has occasioned emotions ranging from reasonable caution to unbridled terror. Learning under the watchful eye of one's spouse is an added challenge. Undertaking the task with anxious children in the backseat can only heighten the sensory richness of the moment. Davis recalls his mother's driving lessons through the objective eye of a patient and restrained child, in contrast with his little brother, whose oft-shouted refrain, "You're going to kill us all!" rings in memory.

©2002 Donald Davis (P)2002 by August House Publishers, Inc.

Critic reviews

  • Parent's Choice Award, Gold Winner, 2003
  • Storytelling World Award, 2003

"This charming, and hilarious, collection of childhood reminiscences is a wonderful showcase of Southern storytelling....An experienced storyteller, Davis is perfect. He has a mellow Appalachian accent that is skilled and nuanced." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about Mama Learns to Drive

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good

I loved this audiobook but I was a bit disappointed that my favorite narrator only read the epilogue

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My favorite storyteller

Donald Davis has the knack of telling a story of childhood (and his own son’s childhood) with heartwarming characters. For younger people, Donald Davis is a ‘historian’ of what the 1940s to 1960s was like in the rural south

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wow

I really like this audio book. nice content. excellent narration in this content. Fantastic story
I really like this audio book. nice content. excellent narration in this content. Fantastic story

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wow

I really like this audio book. nice content. excellent narration in this content. Fantastic story

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Delightful

This was Delightful! More of this type of book would be fun! 😃😃Some more wholesome free books would be nice too!

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Fun Memoir

Love the lighthearted, true to life humor in this book. It is read with perfect timing to set up the laughs. It gave me just the pick-me-up I needed today! Guaranteed to leave you with a smile.

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Wonderful book

It’s Funny, well written, and a joy to listen to. I really recommend this book

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Silly Short Stories

Love these silly short stories about childhood memories. The speaker is a pleasure to listen to.

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Good For the Soul

Donald Davis always serves up a lot of laughter, but the stories leave you centered on what matters most in life.

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Peas and Carrots Mystery Uncovered 🤣

Mama Learns to Drive is another of Donald Davis' hilarious short listens that had me cracking up. His mother, a school teacher, who had first gone every day to school by horse and carriage, and later found herself married with two young sons, wanting to return to teaching, her husband, told her it was time for her to learn to drive. Long before seat belts and automatic transmissions, mama had an audience while learning to drive, which included her youngest son, sitting in the back floorboard insisting, "You're going to kill us all!" When dad made mama drive to the one little town that had a stop light, and go through it three times, until it actually turned red, before he would let her go and take her driver's road test, it was hilarious. But not as funny as when mama came back, after taking her test, license in hand, and said to her husband, you didn't say I would have to do that!!! Proving to me that women are universally and timelessly the same: weight conscious 😂 The other story about seven year old boys not having any control over what their hands do, was equally funny . . . as the mom of two such boys growing up, I can attest to the truth of it. And I will never think of peas and carrots the same again. 😂

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