Fifteen-year-old Kaitlin Ridgeway doesn’t follow the crowd.
A sophomore at Gorham High School, she won’t be taking her driver’s license exam for another 11 months. Nonetheless, she has just purchased her first vehicle – a pickup truck.
“I’m not getting a little sports car like the other girls,” Ridgeway said.
And Ridgeway, an honor roll student, is earning the money to pay for the 1996 Chevrolet Silverado by pumping gas at her stepfather’s Mobil station on Mosher Road in Little Falls. When she turns 16 next July, she will be able to take the exam for her license, and her truck, which she bought from her stepdad, Rob Walker, will be paid off.
“We’re very proud of her,” said her mom, Kristi Walker.
Ridgeway plans to do much of her routine maintenance on the truck. From being on duty at the gas station, Ridgeway knows basics like how to check engine oil levels and tire pressures. And she plans to learn more. “In the 11th grade, I’m taking vocational education for auto mechanics,” she said.
The truck has an extended cab, but Ridgeway’s mom hoped her daughter would choose a smaller truck so she couldn’t carry so many friends. “But she had her heart set on this one,” Walker said. She thinks the larger truck will be a safer vehicle for her daughter.
“It’s not a little shoebox,” she said.
Walker said earning the truck is a good lesson in life for her daughter. “You don’t get things handed to you. She’ll appreciate it more,” she said, “because she worked and she bought it.”
Now, having earned her permit after successfully completing driver’s education, Ridgeway is chalking up experience in her mom’s car. Ridgeway is chauffeuring her mom around town these days, and didn’t waste much time getting behind the wheel. “I drove my mom home,” Ridgeway said, reflecting on her final driving lesson.
Her mom is confident in her daughter’s ability to drive. “She’s doing very well and hasn’t made me overly nervous,” Walker said. “She has good judgment.”
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