Are you flying high in your taxi right now?
Drivers Ed.
- Thread starter Rustyt1953
- Start date
Are you flying high in your taxi right now?
model70hunter
Member
1964, I already had my license, like the other farm boys the tractor and the the 51 Chevy pickup. My dad said take drivers Ed before you graduate, it will reduce your insurance. Wrong.
Another farm boy was ther for the same reason, had his license and thought he too would get cheaper rates.
The instructor, Mr. Foster had also been the HS baseball coach. When I transferred into th Army National Guard he was a 2nd Captain who was there to finish his last year for retirement. He did not do much.
He was a nice man. The other farm boy and I did not get much time behind the wheel. Ok, Duane your turn to drive, Start it, merge safely into traffic. Stop at the a store on the right. The car never had time to shift into 2nd. There were several girls who had never driven. I did not like riding with them. I thought I would hate the job.
When he had folks out driving an audio visual club guy would run the movies, the one movie I remember most was an 18 wheel trucker was carrying a load of 20' rebar and hit something. The steel rods came thru the cab, trucker and dash. We didn't know wheter to laugh or cry. Lots of folks did not watch, they put their head on the desk.
The instructor took the class outside to teach tire changing. He had the other farm boy, Ralph, and I do the change while others watched. Ralph and I knew each other since 1st grade and had played summer ball together. Mr. Foster had his back to us and was explaining how to do it, by the time he said after you loosen the lug nuts we were putting the freshly changed tire in the trunk. He got a little testy, made us do each step on his command. When he turned around and realized what we did his mouth stayed open mid word, he had to reload his brains computer. It was funny to the class.
Another farm boy was ther for the same reason, had his license and thought he too would get cheaper rates.
The instructor, Mr. Foster had also been the HS baseball coach. When I transferred into th Army National Guard he was a 2nd Captain who was there to finish his last year for retirement. He did not do much.
He was a nice man. The other farm boy and I did not get much time behind the wheel. Ok, Duane your turn to drive, Start it, merge safely into traffic. Stop at the a store on the right. The car never had time to shift into 2nd. There were several girls who had never driven. I did not like riding with them. I thought I would hate the job.
When he had folks out driving an audio visual club guy would run the movies, the one movie I remember most was an 18 wheel trucker was carrying a load of 20' rebar and hit something. The steel rods came thru the cab, trucker and dash. We didn't know wheter to laugh or cry. Lots of folks did not watch, they put their head on the desk.
The instructor took the class outside to teach tire changing. He had the other farm boy, Ralph, and I do the change while others watched. Ralph and I knew each other since 1st grade and had played summer ball together. Mr. Foster had his back to us and was explaining how to do it, by the time he said after you loosen the lug nuts we were putting the freshly changed tire in the trunk. He got a little testy, made us do each step on his command. When he turned around and realized what we did his mouth stayed open mid word, he had to reload his brains computer. It was funny to the class.
Big Cholla
Member
I started driving my Dad's Case tractor at the age of eight because there just wasn't anyone else around to drive it and he had to operate the Fresno it was pulling. I did fairly well and he got his pasture leveled to his satisfaction. I then moved on to the family car just around the place and in that very same pasture. He then got a '49 Ford PU with 3 on the floor and I learned to drive it around the place. He then started building small custom homes in Las Vegas and at about the age of 13/14 I was being sent to the local hardware/lumber yard store for building items. He told me that if I got a ticket or was in an accident I wouldn't drive again until I was 18. I never did get a ticket or have an accident. I had Driver's Ed in 1955 in a Chevrolet Coupe with 3 on the wheel. When Mr. Schultz found out how well I drove he didn't let me drive much anymore. The others needed more help than I. I taught him how to 'down shift using a double clutch technique'. He came up to UNR my senior year to finish his master's degree and was driving a MG. I became his tuneup mechanic and got to drive his MG around Reno a lot. 
At the end of the year he had acquired a serious girl friend with a lot of 'stuff'. He needed a pickup truck to get her and her stuff back to Vegas. So, he took my '56 Ford Pickup home and I took his MG home a few days later. Fun, fun...fun.
At the end of the year he had acquired a serious girl friend with a lot of 'stuff'. He needed a pickup truck to get her and her stuff back to Vegas. So, he took my '56 Ford Pickup home and I took his MG home a few days later. Fun, fun...fun. 
I have a vague memory of drivers ed in a parking lot with big old sedans,but we started with simulators.Pop went with me a time or two when I got my permit at 15? and just started sending me out for materials or whatever.Didnt get around to getting my license til 17 or so.Great memories of double clutching that 51 ford pu [emoji2]
model70hunter
Member
I started driving my Dad's Case tractor at the age of eight because there just wasn't anyone else around to drive it and he had to operate the Fresno it was pulling. I did fairly well and he got his pasture leveled to his satisfaction. I then moved on to the family car just around the place and in that very same pasture. He then got a '49 Ford PU with 3 on the floor and I learned to drive it around the place. He then started building small custom homes in Las Vegas and at about the age of 13/14 I was being sent to the local hardware/lumber yard store for building items. He told me that if I got a ticket or was in an accident I wouldn't drive again until I was 18. I never did get a ticket or have an accident. I had Driver's Ed in 1955 in a Chevrolet Coupe with 3 on the wheel. When Mr. Schultz found out how well I drove he didn't let me drive much anymore. The others needed more help than I. I taught him how to 'down shift using a double clutch technique'. He came up to UNR my senior year to finish his master's degree and was driving a MG. I became his tuneup mechanic and got to drive his MG around Reno a lot.
My Dad's VAC Case tractor was the first vehicle I drove.
Dad bought it off a Widow, it had sit under a tree for several years. Her husband bought it new and expired very shortly after that. She never sold it, her STL Grandchildren who were not old enough to drive would come spend the summer, they would pile on the tractor and drive it to town. They never checked the oil, ruined the rod bearings. Dad and Mom's oldest brother propped it up under a large Oak limb, they pulled the motor out and had it rebuilt. It was a 6 volt system, it tried but was not turning the engine fast enough to start.
My uncle told me to get up in the seat and push the clutch in, he and Dad gave me a fast running push off a hill that had the previous years corn rows in it. It looked like a giant washboard.
I was in road gear, 4th, and my uncle yelled let the clutch out. It fired up, he had pushed the hand throttle to max.
It sort of looked like riding a bucking bronc, I was bouncing off the seat, I had to hold the wheel with both hands to stay on, I wrapped my legs under the seat. I was 10 or 11, my Dad and uncle were running after me yelling push the throttle up.
Somewhere between the Case firing up an heading for the moon and the next Tuesday I pulled the throttle up. Slowed down. I drove all over the waiting to be plowed corn field.
31FordA
Member
I learned to drive in '91. Drivers Ed for me was my Dad. We started in his '76 F-100 because he insisted I learn to drive a stick before an automatic. I then moved on to our '80 Pinto wagon (no power steering or brakes) and '85 Vic (power everything, what luxury). Nothing I did ever bothered Dad. Even after I 180'd the Vic in traffic all he said, calmly, was "well, get it turned around". Best instructor I could've ever had.
I never had driver's ed. In 1946, when I was 13, my father took me out to an an old abandoned airfield on Ft Lewis WA, and taught me how to drive on the family sedan; a 1937 Chrysler Royal. It took while to get the hang of it, but I turned out to be pretty good. That old car had been across the country and back twice. It had a big iron engine; I think a straight 8. Still, it didn't have much power. I'm still driving at 83.
ParadiseRoad
Member
...I got my license in the late sixties...the era of the "Land Yacht"...monster sedans that caused many young new drivers to fail the parallel parking portion of the driving test...my parents had a '67 Plymouth Fury...
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Frank46
US Veteran
Didn't get my license until I got out of the navy which I enlisted right after high school. So basically drove pretty much anything the foreman had. '46 power wagon, little standard shift jeeps, old ford vans, and a very old stiff boom crane that was way older than me. Frank
grizz700
Member
Started driving when I could see over the steering wheel. Moving farm trucks and pickups. Started driving tractor when I was 9, dad would drop me off at the field and I would get the pony motor started and then get the diesel engine started, then fuel the tractor up. Drive all day until my dad would come back from the field he was working in. 14 got my ag permit which limited me to driving within 75 miles of my residence. Had a jeep I would drive to the field, mountains, and when school started I would drive to school. The drivers ed teacher hated me because he thought I was being special. Tried to get my license revoked, but after my dad and our local state trooper had a talk with him he cooled his jets. When it came time to take drivers ed he again tried to make my life miserable, but I just keep my head down and passed the class.
At some point during the early 70's my Dad gave a bunch of us neighborhood kids their first try at driving in a 65 whale of a four door Polara with the 383. Usually we'd be coming back from somewhere and within a few blocks of home he would stop the car, turn to some kid and say take us home. I think it was the wide eyed look of surprise, joy and fear on the kids face that kept him doing it for years.
Took drivers ed in a 57 ford, we had two, an automatic and a stick on the column. No big deal. Then when I was in the USAF and got to Great Briton I took my drivers test in a 2 1/2 ton canvas covered bed truck with a ?4 or 5 speed floor shift, and had to back it down a path using just the outside mirrors. When I got the license it was stamped "Qualified Flying Field Operator" and listed aircraft tugs, cherry picker crane, etc. that I was qualified to operate.
My parents insisted that I take the drive eds course because they would get a reduce in the insurance rate. When I took the course, I had had my drivers license for almost two years. The very first day I was out on the highway cruising 60 mph much to the chagrin of the two girls in the back seat!
brigeton
Member
I took drivers training in about 67. I don't remember what kind of car. It was a one week class in the summer. The only thing I remember was when another kid was driving on a busy 3 lane highway for the first time he panicked and started jerking the wheel back and forth at 70mph like a kid on a ride at the fair. The instructor reached over and grabbed the wheel to keep us all from dying.
I learned with a Chevy 2 ton truck. First you loaded it with bales of hay, then grandpa drove it slowly to the feed pasture, then when grandpa would put it in compound then had me idle around jolted by the frozen cow pies while he tossed the hay off the back. Once I mastered that I got to drive it to and from the hay stacks! If you turn to fast hay would fall off and then you had to reload it, so that lesson was easy to remember.
Eventually I had to take drivers ed to get a license at 15. Gore movies, 60's Chevy, Shop teacher who was a very calm guy. Small town with no traffic, 65-70 on highways that had NO SPEED LIMIT. Most of the guys had drove before, just a formality. Mr Banks the shop teacher was a good guy. Unfortunately he and his wife were killed in a head on collision on a 2 lane highway. It was not his fault.
Montana in those days was a dangerous place to drive. All 2 lane highways, no speed limit, lots of narrow bridges, curves, drunk drivers and even a few drunk HPs. Oh, yea, then there is the winter weather.
Eventually I had to take drivers ed to get a license at 15. Gore movies, 60's Chevy, Shop teacher who was a very calm guy. Small town with no traffic, 65-70 on highways that had NO SPEED LIMIT. Most of the guys had drove before, just a formality. Mr Banks the shop teacher was a good guy. Unfortunately he and his wife were killed in a head on collision on a 2 lane highway. It was not his fault.
Montana in those days was a dangerous place to drive. All 2 lane highways, no speed limit, lots of narrow bridges, curves, drunk drivers and even a few drunk HPs. Oh, yea, then there is the winter weather.
No formal drivers ed but got a learners permit at age 14 so I could drive motorcycle, my Honda sport 65. Took drivers exam and passed on my 16th birthday. After third year university got a summer job as a driver examiner for the province of Manitoba along with 5 other guys. We would slide the eye test machines back on the counters when attractive females came in for testing. As well we had a Rambler Ambassador as a driver ed test vehicle. It was loaded with air conditioning. We would crank up to max and point all vents at driver. Test candidates were always too nervous to take a hand off the wheel to make adjustments.
7shooter
Member
Got my North Dakota drivers license when I was 12 .You could get a license 6 weeks before your 13th birthday if you had a reason. Mine was that my grandfather wanted me to drive the panel truck to the warehouses for his store.
I was so little I had to sit on two pillows to just be able to see through the steering wheel. It had a manual transmission . The passenger " seat " was a metal milk crate that would slide around during starts and stops.
Never had an accident.
I was so little I had to sit on two pillows to just be able to see through the steering wheel. It had a manual transmission . The passenger " seat " was a metal milk crate that would slide around during starts and stops.
Never had an accident.
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Being around farms etc all the time I drove most stuff pretty well. When I was 12 went to Baltimore with my father in his 54 Chevy wagon.. He had a few hundred pounds of fish he needed to sell(he was a Chesapeake bay waterman) and there was no market. We went to every gin mill in south Baltimore and he sold fish. But he also had a drink or so at every place. By the time he got all the fish sold... he was about blitzed. So I had to drive home. Across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge where I had to pay a toll. You shoulda seen the toll lady. She looked at me and asked if I was old enough to drive. I told he oh yes ma'am..been driving for a long time. I was 12 at the time. When we got home..60 miles later...my father was kinda waking up a bit. First time I ever saw my mother that umm upset... bad choice of words... at my father. First time I ever saw my father ripped. 2nd and last time we were fishing and caught 6 ton of Rockfish(striped bass). I had to drive the boat that time too. But I ran boats all the time anyway. Drivers Ed was kinda anti climatic once I got to take it. Ah but I do remember Mr Pope
What PILGRIM said. By the time I got my drivers license I as well had driven for years. My problem was that all my driving was in the remote areas. Many many miles of backroads chasing jackrabbits with "borrowed" cars. When I got my license it was in Denver of all places. Mom just walked off and I was on my own. Now driving in a city was FAR different from country backroads. All I can say is, there were some fine drivers in Denver that avoided me the first few days.
carpriver
US Veteran
I learned to drive a tractor then the pickup, the the 21/2 ton stock truck. got a farmer permit at 12. when to took drivers ed in 1964 the school used 1964 dodge Valiants with the dual controls 3 on the tree. I took it as a summer school class. saw all the movies and did the road test and passed the class. nothing out of the ordinary.
