I learned to drive before I ever rode...a team of black draft horses,
Percherons maybe, named Bob and Queen, a mother and son. This was on
Mackinac Island, Michigan where there are no cars unless you count the
ambulance and fire truck. Bob and Queen pulled a dray and carried
suitcases from the docks to the hotels, or groceries for the hotels,
occasionally coal to be shoveled down the coal chutes in the fine old
homes, and sometimes garbage to go to the dump. An old man named
Reggie was their driver. I was six or seven. I got to sit next to
Reggie and when there was not too much traffic on the road (all of it
was horse traffic), he would let me hold the reins. When we were
hauling garbage, he would instruct me to sit on top of it so that it
would not blow away as we were trotting down the road. Occassionally
he would hook B&Q up to a nice carriage and we would take tourists up
to the middle of the island to picnic. Eventually he allowed me to
really drive and I became pretty good at backing the team up on the
docks. I couldn't do now though, I don't think. Annie
