Who taught you to drive? Grampaw taught me.

[trof]

It was 1956.
I was 15, but as soon as I was 16 I could get my license.
WooHoo!

Grampaw was a car salesman.
Buicks and Cadillacs.
He was very good at it.
Got a brand new Buick Roadmaster 'demonstrator' every year from the dealership.

One Saturday afternoon he said "Come on, buddy. Let's take a ride."
I was always ready to go for a ride with Grampaw.

We arrived at Elmwood Cemetary, and I wondered why we were there.
Our extended family had several plots there, but we only went a few times during the year, and always on a Sunday.
I soon learned why.

Elmwood had an extensive network of paved roads.
Some very narrow and some wide.
Some with sharp turns and some with broad curves.
And there was almost NO traffic on a Saturday.

Grampaw got out and walked around to my side and opened the door.
"Move over."
INTO THE DRIVER'S SEAT!? UNDER THE STEERING WHEEL!?
WOW!!!

He gave me a short briefing, but I'd watched him drive for years and already knew about the accelerator and the brake.

I started out slowly, v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.
A crawl.
After a few minutes he said "OK, bump it up a little. But If I say 'STOP!', you STOP! Understand me?"
"Yessir!"

That afternoon I began to gain confidence and learn.
How much gas to give it. How much wheel turn to keep it where I wanted it to go. How to make a smooth stop. We wound around those streets for a couple of hours.
I was in heaven.


We spent a couple more Saturday afternoons at the boneyard.
Then came my final exam.

Grampaw brought a jar of water on our last trip.
He took the lid off and sat it on top of the car.
"Drive where I tell you and don't spill any."
He then directed me.
"Turn left here. Take a right. Stop. OK, go to the corner and take a right. Stop. Back up."
I didn't spill a drop.
"OK, buddy. You're ready."

And I thought "Today I AM a man!"


Your experiences?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dad taught me...

I don't remember much about it, but I know I didn't have as much fun as you did!



On edit: I do remember that even after I got my license they didn't trust me to drive. My baby brother had to drive me!

It wasn't until I met my now husband that I did any significant driving. He made me drive his 51 stick shift Ford on our dates! I got good in a hurry...

[trof]

2. The Roadmaster was automatic transmission, natch.

Later I learned to drive a stick.

[Little Star]

3. Good story telling! Me, I went to drivers ed.....

They tried to teach me on a standard shift in 1962. They gave up and taught me on a automatic. It was too bad because the car that I ended up having to drive was a standard shift.

Once I had my license for automatic shift, my future husband told me to just get in the standard shift car and drive. Alone. I bucked quite a bit at first but soon got the hang of clutch & shift.

I could only learn one thing at a time it seems.

[trof]

4. No drivers' ed when I was a kid.

Just Grampaw.

[Little Star]

5. LOL. What year was it when Grampaw taught you?

[trof]

8. 1956

[ret5hd]

6. automatic: my father. stick: my uncle.

i taught my sister, then my brother.

[MrYikes]

7. My older brother

But see, I didn't need him to teach me, I already knew everything there was to know about driving a car, and told him so. He just smiled and said get in. It was a 49 jeepster.
I had watched everyone closely as they drove and my stepdad was a race car driver; that had to mean something about my abilities, don'cha think? It took me three tries at slipping the clutch until I was able to take off and we drove to every stop sign we could find so I could practice more and then I declared that I was good to go. Dick just smiled.
He told me to turn right and then after about a mile to turn right again and then left, then he shut up. I had to drive up a very steep hill with a stop sign at the top. I tried to take off from the stop sign but was rolling back down the hill and had to put on the brake which killed the motor. I mean I only had two feet but needed three, how do you do this? Dick was quiet. I tried again. But a car was coming up behind me; and I was sweating. Took my foot off the brake and floored the gas and popped the clutch, , and the motor died. Slammed on the brake just as I was about to back into the other car. Dick was quiet. The other car backed up some and I tried again, but now Dick was yelling at me, crazy stuff, turn on the radio, turn off the heater, where is the windshield wiper switch, get going we can't sit here all day, hurry up dummy, did you check to see if there were cars coming? Now he was screaming at me, go, come on go, get us out of here, go go go. And I did.

[RebelOne]

9. My ex-husband taught me on an old Studebaker.

I don't remember the year, but I think it was in the late '50s.

[jwirr]

10. Well, my uncle sat me on a tractor and told me to steer while he opened a gate when I was 5 years

old. I was scared and did not really know what I was doing. Had drivers education in high school.

[LiberalFighter]

11. My Gramps taught me to drive a tractor when I was about 13. Around 1967.

One of those small size farm tractors for the fields. He used it mostly to haul stuff like firewood from the woods.

[trof]

12. A lot of farm kids learned to drive at an early age.

Necessity of the job.

[LiberalFighter]

13. I was just there during summers for a few weeks.

Didn't live on a farm. That gramps was a blacksmith and other assorted occupations but not a farmer.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Yep, had a farm license at age 14 that allowed me to drive on the

roads if on farm business, like hauling a wagon-load of wheat to the elevator. I guess my dad 'taught' me to drive, starting at around 11 or 12. Drove tractors and the truck ('55 Chevy with standard on the steering column) on the farm for a few years before being allowed on the road.

[pipi_k]

15. The Amusement

Park.

For real. All the other kids were trying to slam into each other.

Even at a young age, I was practicing defensive driving...

[RKP5637]

17. Yep, LOL. Same for me, plus a rider mower and driver ed on an automatic. Did my

drivers test on hard packed snow. They were open, so I said what the hell, and passed OK. My birthday's in the winter, I sure wasn't going to wait 'till summer.

[mysuzuki2]

16. Mr Snowden at Willowbrook HS in 1965.

He was also the biology teacher and later became an administrator. I heard from younger relatives that he had developed quite a drinking problem and kept a bottle of vodka in his desk drawer at school. I have always felt a little guilty because the strain of teaching me to drive may have helped drive him to drink.

[RKP5637]

18. Ohhhh lol, hope not!

[haikugal]

19. Granpa taught me when I was 12...

I learned on the old farm truck that was a stick shift. It had to be older than I was and I only drove it up to 2nd gear, in the field during hay season. It was going to get rained on and the whole family had to get out to the field and get the hay in so it didn't get ruined...I saved the day!! I'm glad it was him and not my Dad...neither had much patience but Grandad was easier on me.

I never had an automatic until this last vehicle...a truck to use with the horse trailer so I got an automatic for them.