Tom Menino is returning to life as a regular Bostonian after 20 years as Boston's mayor. And that means needing to drive on his own again.
Think about that - Menino, who is 71, has spent the last two decades being driven almost everywhere by someone else.
A lot has changed in 20 years - tape cassette players, radio dials, roll-down windows. It's all new for Menino, who is looking to maybe buy a Lexus SUV.
“There was a button to turn on the engine!” he told the Boston Globe. "A button to call somebody. ... I kept looking for the clutch!”
For the record, they did have automatic cars in 1992.
Menino, who was known for bickering about the best route to take with his driver as mayor, isn't a complete stranger to modern driving. He owns a Ford sedan and had been driving himself to church on Sundays. But now he has to venture out of his neighborhood to deal with rush-hour traffic on his own to get to his new job at Boston University, where he's helping set up the Institute on Cities.
"Driving to town in the morning is the worst thing in the whole world," Menino told the Globe. "People come in from New Hampshire faster than I come in from Hyde Park."