Hell;I could probably write a book about this subject! I couldn't even apply for a license until I was 23. The first time I got stopped for driving without a license was when I was 11 years old. I was helping a friend of mine's older brother install a new motor in his 53 Ford.He wanted some stuff at the store and I didn't feel like walking so he told me to take his sister's car.The store was only about a mile away so it shouldn't have been a problem.WRONG! Leaving the store who pulls up behind me but a cop.He sees me behind the wheel and,knowing my grandfather,knew I wasn't old enough to drive.Long story short,I get a ride home courtesy of the Saugus Police,an ***-kicking by my grandfather,and Art(the guy I was helping)got chewed out by the cops for letting me take the car. The following summer I was hustled off to my grandfather's cousin's farm;the idea being that a lot of hard work and removal from my friends would straighten me out.Right! I did work my *** off but I also had a great time.My grandfather's cousin Ed who was in his late 70's at the time and had just finished building his own house by himself was definitely an inspiration. He only had two rulesick up after yourself and don't touch the shotgun that hung over the fireplace.It was an old Ithaca 10 gauge side by side with exposed hammers and was kept loaded.Ed was not above grabbing the shotgun off the wall and firing it out the window at the deer who seemed to have a fondness for the apples in his orchard.If you've never heard a shotgun go off 10 feet away from you when you're half asleep you haven't lived. The great things that happened that summer were:I got to fire the shotgun(the first gun I had ever fired),I got to drive the tractor around a lot,and I even got to drive his old 41 Ford pickup(ugly green with a flathead six) around the farm. I also had to split a bunch of firewood that he sawed up on the tractor attachment and help him remove some boulders with dynamite.That was fun! The crowning touch was the Sunday that I was destined to return home,he let me take the truck into town(about 5 miles one way)by myself to pick up the Sunday paper! Needless to say I was in heaven! Between that summer and when I finally got to drive legally I lost count of how many times I got stopped. I know that the judge threatened to send me to reform school for six months if he saw me in his court again. This thread brought back a ton of memories,
Believe it or not, it was my mom who insisted that I be taught how to drive. I was 12 then. She never did learn to drive a car, and during the summer vacation months, with dad working on his farm up on Beaver Island, MI, and being 6 miles from town, if anything happened to him, such as a physical injury, and with no phone, we'd be in trouble. So dad took me down the 1/4 mile long driveway to the county road in his 64 Ford Falcon station wagon (that ended up being my first car) and taught me how to properly use the clutch and shift the three on the tree transmission. I ended up being pretty good at it, (after stalling it about a hundred times it seems) and mom was satisfied to hear that if dad got hurt in the woods that I'd be able to go to town to get help. As dad got older, I got to do more of the driving for him He thought it was nice that he could sit back and relax, and stop at a roadside tavern for a burger and a cold beer, and let me do the driving. Last Monday, I let my son Dan drive around the Wheatland Music Festival site in Remus, Michigan, after everyone went home from the traditional arts weekend. My daily driver is a 20 year old Ford station wagon not much larger than the old Falcon, but with a V6 and an automatic transmission. Dan's 13 and did a pretty good job of keeping centered up on the two tracks that dot the Wernette Farm where the festival is held. I told Dan that I'd have to wait 3 more years before he'd have a license to drive and then I could take it easy, in the p***enger's seat, and get that cold beer at the tavern with the burger.
When I turned fifteen, and got my learner's permit, I drove to Alaska from Ohio, by way of the Alaskan-Canadian Military Highway, to see family. Then when I came home, I had to go to Driver's Ed! The teacher asked how many of us had driven around, and how many miles...my answer was 7000 miles. Tucker
I had the really safe parents being the only child........so anydriveing before 16 was done with them in the car.......so i thought i had all this driveing stuff figured out.........so when i got my licence me and my cousin took the car out (86 t-bird with 4 cyl turbo......so it had the really good suspension with wide tires) we went out to a friends house playing around in the curves on the way out there.......well it rained while we were there.........and on the way home we decided to try it again........after spinning around at least 8 times and just missing two road signs we wound up in the ditch ......*** end of the car down in the ditch and ft of car faceing the road......right before we hit my cousin remembers me saying " OK , here is the story".......luckly the only damage to the car was a small dent in the p***enger side lower rear quarter pannel........a old farmer p***ing by pulled us out.........we told our parents a rabbit ran out in frount of us and i hit the brakes .....then the rear of the car hydoplaned and pulled us into the ditch...........they still don't know..............
Hmmmmm, Best one (there were many) was last day of school freshman year of high school. I hot wired my uncle's 66' VW bug. I justified it in my head by telling myself that I had to clean out my locker and there was NO WAY I could carry all of them books! So, I drive to school and all was well. After school my pals came out to the parking lot to check out my wheels. We were doing burnouts and such and out came security. ****! I ran for the v dub slammed her in reverse to take off and BAM smacked right into a guy driving his Toyota truck. In my spazticness i jumped out of the car (still in gear) and then watched as it lunged backward 3 more times slamming into the Toyota. Long story short.....The guy with the Toyota ended up being the biggest dope dealer in the school and I started his career with the $$$ I gave him to fix his bumper. He never did fix that bumper! FONZI
i used to think that about my son..i thought fukem,,when my boy gets 16 he's drivin..now, i see the way these kids drive..cell phone in hand , pullin out without lookin...now im thinkin 25 before you can get a dl. ..these kids are fukin idiots!![atleast where i live] they have no respect for the power of a car>.spooky!![/QUOTE] The cell phone knows no age. I think a lot of kids drive that way because their parents do. So maybe it should be a requisite that the kids are taught to drive by only non-dumb***es. "Yes, I would like to apply for my official license of non-dumb***-ness, please."
Living in South Dakota seems to mean driving young. I learned in Dad's 55 Chevy wagon when I was 11. When I got my coupe at 13 and after learning how to shift a floor shift, I decided to take it six blocks to the gas station and fill it up. A block short, it quit. I had the floor up moving the battery off the brake rod it had shorted on when a voice over my shoulder asked if I needed help. I replied from under the floor that I needed a jump but didn't have cables. The voice replied that he did, just a minute while he turned the cruiser arouund. Cruiser??? Sure enough, it was a police black and white. This is in a town of 5000 people where everybody knew everybody...and their kids. He jump started me and then, when I had the floor back in, said " I know you don't have a license. But I'd rather see you driving like this than sitting in the pool hall, sneaking beer and cigarettes like some of the kids you go to school with. Just stay off main street." He eventually became a school teacher, and a damn fine one.
its that darn rock and roll music and i think some of them are takin the gr***!! now i must go and punish the BEAVER!!! imlucky enough to have lived in the counrty my whole life so its a real easy thing fer a kid to learn to drive.. it would have to **** fer one in a large city to learn..i agree with ol scratch....it has alot to do with the parents...most of them are just glad there kids arent in the house in there way....i cant wait to teach my kids how to drive..but there 3 and 7 so i got some time. want to get them into jun dragsters but its too far from home to do and i havent won the lotto yet!!!! breeder
i bought a 1960 F100 when i was 14. it was fun racing my cousins around the fields. it lived on the family farm till i was 15. then i was allowed to bring it home 175 miles. the motor died within a month of getting here. been sitting out back in pieces for 13 years so far.
My dad was an old, old man. Born in 1892, so he was on Social Security retirement when I was a sprout. He had this '52 Hudson with Twin H Power and a milled head, fast car. When I was 13 we got a paper route so I could earn some money for school clothes. We lived in the So Cal desert then and it was pretty spread out, so a paper route was miles and miles long. No way to do one on a bicycle. We started off with the old man driving and me throwing papers. Pop would explain how to drive and I'd watch and learn. For my 14th birthday he started letting me drive while he threw papers. After a few weeks he started driving again and timing the route. This was all on dirt roads. Wasn't long before he was setting the car up into a drift around the corners, all the while explaining when to give more throttle to get the rear out and let off and counter steer to reel it in. Then he let me drive again. He'd egg me on to go faster and faster. Teased me with how much faster he could drive the route with him being nearly 70 years old with cataracts on his eyes. Pissed me off on purpose. Taught me that anger could cost you because if I got mad, I'd spin the ol' Hornet out. By the time I turned 15, I could do the paper route so fast he almost couldn't get the paper out of the back seat and hit the yard. Like a few others on this thread, by the time I took Driver's Ed in high school, I had a lot of miles under my belt. I street raced that ol' Hornet and surprised a lot of 265 Chevies by stomping them with a flathead six. My pop's been dead for 38 years. I think of him a lot and sure miss him. I know I've been a good father and I just hope I have been as much of a fun and interesting one as my good ol' pop. I do know that I'm the favorite grandpa to my granbrats. I'm the one who lets them steer the cars. This is a fun thread, made my remember some good times. Thanks, 4T64rd. Phil
I can't say how old I was for certain, but I was maybe 7 or 8 when I drove for the first time. My Dad dragged home an old Crosley, and it was "JUST MY SIZE". I could see over the wheel, reach the pedals and drive! He only allowed me on the dirt roads around our place, and I couldn't go past second gear. Later when I was about 10 he had a 56 Ford pickup with a push****on starter. When he and my mom were gone to town my brother and I would take it for a drive. I would sit on a box on the seat and steer and shift. My brother sat on the floor and worked the gas, clutch and brakes. It was better than any roller coaster I've ever been on. When I turned 14 I drove the truck all the time, almost anywhere except to town. Florida in those days was pretty rural and a kid in a truck didn't attract any attention.
Started driving when I was 10. First was an Allis Chalmers model C then the old man's 72 F250 with a 390 and a big piece of channel iron for a rear bumper. My dad had a summer part time job clearing fence rows and I was helping him. He started me out by chaining the Allis to the fence posts and I'd pull 'em out. When the tractor proved to be too weak for the job, he put me in the truck, chained up a post, had me take out the slack, then hammer it. No wonder I like doing burnouts so much.
I started driving at age 12 had my first car when I was in 7th grade.It was a 1967 Rambler Rebel SST that belonged to my mother.The car was parked and used as a storage after my dad bought my mom a new car.One day a friend of mine and I were sitting around ********ing,when he asked me what my dad was going to do with the car.I asked my dad what he was going to do with it after he said nothing I asked if I could have it.The first thing we did the next day was to clean it out,air up the tires and wash it.Latter on that day I told my friend that we were going to go shopping for tires he ***umed that my dad had given me money for tires.We went to the local GoodYear store and looked at the used tires that they threw away(this was before tire places cut all the old tires) found a good set of 4 GoodYear polygl*** tires took them home and that is when I learned to dismount and mount tires by hand.The next thing was to try and start up the car since it had been parked for about 5 years.Thanks to 4T6 4RD for taking me back in time good memories wish my kids would do 1/2 the things that I did at their age.Well it is a different generation.
I forgot to mention I got my DL at age 16.I lived in a small town never got stoped by the local police.
A little different from most, but my mom taught me to drive real young. I guess she though that since she was a single mom, she had to try to keep my interest as a teenage boy. So at around ten or so I was driving around the neighborhood. When I felt comfortable enough with driving I decided to go to a girls house to try to impress her. Mind you Im about 13 or so now. I go to visit her thinking im bad***, park in front, chat for a while. I decide to leave in spectacular fashion. Busted a u turn and got t-boned by an old lady. Not the last time I get him by an old lady either. No license, no permission from moms. I got hit so hard when they took me home. Never forget that.
Great Thread!!! I grew up on a big farm in Kansas. I don't even recall my 1st driving experience. Mom, claims it was when I was 3 or 4, I was riding on a D6 Cat with my gramps, and he just climbed off the back. She said, he said "Pull the levers and see what you can do, pull that other one to stop it (Throttle)" all the while laughing his *** off. I have no idea if thats true, but its in line with everything else he'd done to me. Skip forward 1990, the day I turned 14, dad came and got me from school. We drove to the neighboring town and I took my drivers test. I drove back to school that day. Been a regular driver every since.
I started driving when I was 12. It was 1956 and my dad bought a 56 Olds. We were building a summer camp along the shore of Seneca lake in upstate New Yook. To get to the lake we had to take a farm lane about a mile and a half so my dad would let me drive up and down the farm lane. I'd find any excuse to drive up the farm lane alone. Those were the days. The farm kid was my age and he drove one of the farm trucks all the time so on Friday nights we would take the back roads 5 miles in to Penn Yan to cruise for chicks. I can only imagine what we look liked. Two 12 year olds in a beat up 49 Ford farm truck acting like we were king ****s.
Yup, I was out on the road at age 10 on a Farmall 460 utility tractor. My dad fastened 2x4 blocks on the clutch and brake pedals so I could reach. Super M right afterwards. First car driven was my aunt's VW bug, also at age 10. She let us drive it around the farmyard. First non-tractor I drove on the road was a Honda Trail 50 (also age 10), first over 30 mph was my Honda SL 125 trailbike at age 13. Bought my first car at 14, drove it on the blacktop right away. My dad really had it good - he had a valid, legal South Dakota drivers license at age 12. Farm living rules.
My dad learned when he was 13 so i got to as well and ill make sure when i have a kid they get to. It wasnt very long ago but i remember the first time i was allowed to go on the main road with it (we wont say what "it" is) I was scared but confident. i remember it like it was yesterday. So when it was time for drivers training i had plenty of miles under my belt allready as most of the kids had never touched a steering wheel before. I owe alot to my dad for doing that for me. 12 years driving and ive never been in a wreck or hit any thing but a dumb deer that jumped in front of me on the freeway.
I do not remember when I started to drive, but my brother let's his 12 year old son drive on I~95 thru several state at night. He started to drive at the age of 7 or 8. And believe it or not he drives better than I do.
This is a great thread...seeing lots of people started on the farm brings back many memories. I started on a Ford tractor 8n. I don't even remember how old I was but I was not big enough to push down on the clutch, so I had to jump off the seat to push down the clutch. I was driving loads of grain to town before many of my friends even held a steering wheel. We had an old 50 chevy that we used to haul a trailer with hogs. I would take the 50 out in the fields and do donuts in the dirt and hay field. My cousin and I took my uncles Ford Pickup one time...he pushed the pedals and I was on the seat on my knees driving! The night I turned 16...i was going to choir practice at the church (I always drove that 50 the 3 miles to church) We had a freak snowstorm late in April, so I was doin fishtails and crashing through the drifts. i guess I got going a little fast and ended up doing a 360 and going into the ditch...the car rolled up like it was going over but luckily it hit the snow drift and came to rest on all fours...I slammed it into reverse then 1st and got it out...luckily there was no damage! The next day my dad and I were going to the other farm and we saw where I had gone into the ditch...dad said, "look...some fool didn't know how to drive...wonder how he got out!" I never did tell him the truth!
I remember sitting on my dad's lap when I was 6 or 7. He started with just letting me steer... then I got to shift gears (manual ******) while he worked the pedals I couldn't reach. When I was 13 I helped him do some work on a hunting cabin a guy was having built one summer. It was way up in the sticks in the mountains... between Roan Mountain, TN and Elk Park, NC. That's where I learned to use the clutch ... it was an 85 Mazda pickup with a 5-speed. But the roads were so narrow and curvy we'd never make it out of 3rd till we hit pavement. I agree with those that commented about raising the age now. I swear I', all for it. Not only do they have no respect for the poer, but there's no understanding of weight and inertia. Woa, I sound like I'm 127 years old now!
Me and my buddy use to cruise the Jersey shore[pleasure Island ]in his grammom's gold with white top 60 caddy .Taking turns up an back to see which one of us would get busted hahaha two long hairs dam we were lucky.Age 15
I got an Idaho "farm" license at 14 - first thing I got to drive was an F600 Flatbed truck..then a bunch of dump trucks hauling pea vines into the cannery...when the hauling was done, the younger drivers (such as myself) got to operate the in-plant forklifts...I got a car early on, so I never really had to "steal/borrow" anything...besides, all my adult relatives were boring, and drove boring cars. "older I get...the faster I was" dj
My Dad used to let us drive the 2 miles to town on Sundays to get the newspaper - probably about 12. Bought a GPW about that same time - top speed about 35 - used to tear *** down my neighbors 1/4 mile long drive way when he wasn't home. Snuck out in my sister's car a time or two before 16. Never anything too crazy though
Guilty also. New 72 Caddy, almost made it all the way thru a drive-thru garage & turn around in the yard & come back through......barely hit the door handle on the brickmoulding and cut a perfect 1/2" deep shape of a Caddy doorhandle into it....it's still there. 9years old. Lots of driving after that (after I could sit again......) My daughters' been at it since 6. .
Istarted driving when i was 6 or 7 on my grandpa's land he had about 5 acers with a loop all the way around for drivin the sand buggies so i sat in the drivers seat and steered and he worked the pedles and shifted. Still drive them every day around the yard till i get my licence. Then when I was a little older aabout 9 or 10 he had two riding lawnmowers and we used to drage race them in the yard he always won...
Well I did steer my dads Model A into the garage after riding along on a Bonzai Run upstate with a rented chevy truck and trailer. the whole adventure started at 4 AM on a Saturday and ended at around10 pm that same day. He took that trauck apart that weekend and sold in in pieces 17 years later. He died three months later, I was 26, What a loss. I'm 33 now and a die-hard hot rodder, I still have my 66 Chevelle that he bought for $200 when I was 14. I wish I had that A to finish as a tribute, but instead I got a 32 Ford PU .... Dad would be proud !
the first time i drove was wen i was around 3 or 4. when we got close to home, i quickly jumped up to the front seat and dad let me take over while i sat in his lap steering my way home and sometimes pushing the pedal also.
The Jalopy Journal
