when did you learn to drive and where? what kind of vehicle?

S

SkinnyJoe

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just curious. :D

1991-2, South Bend, IN - stadium parking lot on Notre Dame campus, 1982 Dodge Aries.
 
Grand Ledge, MI. Drivers' Ed. in high school with an Olds Cutlass Calais. This must have been 1988 or so.
 
1957. We had a family friend who was a professional driving instructor, so he taught me. He had two 1953 DeSotos. One with a stick shift and one with an automatic transmission. Both had dual controls. (A good thing with me driving.:o) He tried to teach me on the one with the stick shift, but I couldn't handle it, so I learned on the other one. After I got my license, I taught myself how to drive a stick shift.
 
Late 1950's on an Arkansas farm in the Missisippi River Delta, first a John Deere model B, then a 1948 International bobtruck (two-speed rear axle), then a 1956 F-100. All standard shift except the tractor which had a hand lever clutch. And a big flywheel for a starter. All were a "get-in/on-and-go" learning experience in thousand acre fields with dirt roads around them.
 
I learned on a 1974 Mercury Montego MX on the streets of Broward county. My eldest daughter is one year shy of the age I got my learner's permit...god help us all.
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IIRC I was 15 1/2, that would be 1968.
My Dad's car. I'm not sure what it was. Oldsmobile? I think.
Rose Bowl parking lot for the first few times. Then on the street that goes around the Arroyo Seco (the canyon or riverbed in which the Rose Bowl is located.)

My son and daughter were both 16 when I taught them.
 
LOL. This sure brings back memories.

Somewhere in the mid 60’s – I was around 6 years old and helping my father and grandfather pick up irrigation pipe. I think it was an Allis Chalmers tractor – they put it in first gear and had me steer the tractor and the trailer along the end of the field as they walked and loaded the pipe onto the trailer. I ended up hitting a mostly buried metal fence post and ruining the rear tire on the tractor. I think that first “lesson” cost my grandfather a couple hundred bucks.

By the time I was 14 I was planting corn and combining – but never ruined another tractor tire.

It was very common to drive well before the legal age – most kids (I knew) had to help out on the farm and we grew up driving tractors, trucks and pickups all over the place.
 
My first car was a 1965 Rambler 440 American.

The first car I DROVE was a 1962 VW Beetle, Dad let me pull it out of the garage. Never forget that moment.

best regards -

mqqn
 
Here in St. Louis about 1967. My family didn't own a car till just before I went into the army in 1964. We didn't need one... Old-fashioned neighborhood with everything you needed within a few blocks, including my dad's job. If we wanted to go "downtown" to shop, we just hopped on the bus or took a "service car". (kind of like a taxi with a fixed route)

In the army, I did fool around with driving APCs and such when we were out in the field, but never got a license. On getting back to civilian life in '67, I enrolled in a commercial driver's course offered by Famous-Barr. Best money I ever spent. The guy was a real pro, and taught you all the "tricks" of driving in addition to the mechanics and legalities.
I told them I wanted to learn on a standard transmission, and the guy showed up with a huge Chevy "boat" with three-on-the-tree and no power steering. We spent a whole day on parallel parking and I thought my arms would drop off!
 
1954 Chevy 150 series station wagon. I drove around the parking lot at the Alameda drive-in/flea market until I could shift, brake, and not hit stuff.
I took my license test in this car; the instructor commented on my bravery. I still have it and drive it about five times a year.
 
First drive? 12 (1994), 1940 Willys 2-door with a fresh from the box V8. Sucker would purr like a tiger.

Seriously learning? 1997-8, in a 1990 Accord. Driver's door was broken, no speedo or tach (but I at least had a working fuel gauge!). I still never look at the speedo- go strictly on feel.
 
1975, I was 16 and we were living in Bogota Colombia. My dad figured it was time to learn so he took me out to the family VW Bug and off we went. As I remember it got cut short when I cut off a buds driver and he started chasing us. Steven
 
1971 - Oakland CA - Skyline Blvd - '58 Droptop T-Bird and 1970 Porsche 914/4


j
 
2002- San Tan Mountains, AZ(50 Mi south of Phoenix) 1987 Chevy quad cab, 1-ton dually with a hi top conversion and Dodge/Cummins power train swap. Was the mostest redneckest truck ever, even had a hat rack inside, along with red velour upholstery.
 
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Small town in Northwest Iowa. The car was an Oldsmobile Cutless Supreme. Drove around the parking lot behind our house. No, we didn't live in the camping section of Wally World. My father was a pastor, so the church and parking lot were next to the house. Pretty handy for a first-time driver.

- Mark
 
I was about 8 years old and on a A John Deere in the middle of a BIG hay field :eek::D
 
1990ish bout 11-12 years old in the Bonne Carre Spillway with my fathers 1978 International Scout.
 
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