History Earning your license,how was your drivers test?

Took my driver's test in a small town (Chowchilla Ca) in a 37 Ford pickup. Had been driving it all over for a while. Passed no problem.
This was in 1958 and they had driver's ed in High School. The driver ed car was a 58 Chevy 283 with a 3 spd. We all knew how to drive already but took the class anyway. The Instructor's wife was a teacher at a school out in the country. He would have us drop him off to have coffee with her-crazy! Told us just cruise around from 20 minutes and come back. We would take turns from a dead stop popping the clutch and speed shifting-surprised we never broke it but some other guys did doing the same thing.

 

Had to take my test twice. Past the written exam, but on the test drive the first time, I was told to turn left across traffic into an alley, back out onto the street going the opposite direction back to the DMV. I crossed the center line while backing out onto the street. Failed me for not staying in my own lane. That car I used was the family station wagon. A 1967 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, man, you talk about a boat! It did have a very kool roof on it though.

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Great stories! I don't remember the specifics of getting my license, but it must have been uneventful. I do remember I was 16¾ in early 1979 and took the behind-the-wheel test in my mother's 1978 Mercury Zephyr Z7.

 

At the Utility I worked for they had a man that was authorized by the state to test on the driving portion of the Class A. One of the tests was for reaction time (he did this in his Co car-a 4 dr dodge). He hung this deal on the rear bumper and when he said stop, he will pull a string that fired a 22 blank with yellow chalk on the road then measure distance. I was driving (prior to seat belts) and another guy was in the back seat. He told the guy to be ready and brace himself against the back of the front seat. He said stop and I hit the binders. The guy in the back wasn't paying attention and over the seat he came head first right between us! Hilarious and he didn't get to take any tests that time around.

 

Failed first test on my 16th bday. Took in my grandma's 95 crown Vic. Then went back a week later and passed. I don't get how kids now days don't want/need their drivers license.

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Bless Clara's Heart. I had myself a Jamaican woman give me my test. Before long I realized I didn't fasten my safety belt (a new requirement that needed to be met) and that was driving with two feet in an automatic vehicle. "No problem man" she said as I drove back to the DMV after only 2 blocks of testing.

 

1964,I took my test in my fathers 56 Chevy 210 sedan (which I later rolled over and totaled ). I almost flunked the verbal test but in the driving test I stopped to let a little old lady cross the street and the inspector gave me my license because of my "courtesy". If he only knew the crap I pulled driving later on...... I'm lucky to have survived my teenage years.

 

Took my test in my 1955 chevy 2 dr ht 265 3 speed. The highway petrolman ( they came to our little town to give the test) had to help me push the car to get it started, then I backed into a car. Next week I passed the test in my sisters Comet .

 

My dad had to have his CDL renewed at the same time I was getting my license. I had forgotten my learners at home, so while he was testing I jumped in the car to go get them. When the DOT figured out I had driven without license, we'll needless to say there was no way I was passing that day.

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I almost passed lol I also drove with my right hand hanging over the wheel just like I seen my pops do for yrs and thought it was cool looking but I was taking my test in a 67 ford Fairlane with 3 on the tree but when I down shifted and spun the tires trying to make a right hand turn to beat the orange light she also said I was going to pass u even though u drove with one hand the whole time but that last stunt just got u failed lol the first car a brought to take it in was a 69 camaro with side pipes I jumped in fired it up and he says turn it off ur not taking ur test in this bring back a car that's not so loud lol it also had fatties on the back and high jackers to raise it so they'd fit lol my third time was in a 65 stang coup also jacked up loud pipes flunked it a 3rd time in one city drove over to another city and retook it that day and passed lol yep took 4 times to get it right hahahahahaha I still drive with one hand but not during my test lol and stopped at every orange light used my blinkers but man the questions now days are a lot harder lol


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My friend Andy let me use his car, He was leaving for the Navy and the State Trooper who did the road test was former Navy so those two just talked a blue streak the whole time. A lot of "Um just turn here".

 

Took the test in the summer of 1976. I drove my fathers 1969 Olds Delta 88 four door. after being picked apart by the test administrator, was told I passed. On my way home my Dad asked if I enjoyed driving his car. I replied yes, he replied "Good, that will be your last time". Having two older brothers and two more coming up behind me I understood.

 

I took my test in August of '64 at the West Covina D.M.V. office. I must have passed 'cause I've been driving ever since! I don't remember whether I drove my dads '57 Chevy or mom's '61 Ford but it must have went o.k. because I don't recall anything about it.

 

Had my $100 ‘59 Ford 2 door, no accessory fleet car well before my 16th BD. Mom or dad would ride along while I practiced driving & dad made some stand-up sticks that I practiced parallel parking with. One day while I was still 15, I talked my mom into letting me drive the car over to the next street with 3 buddies in it. On returning, was turning around in a drive and the buddies said “let’s hear it peel”. No problem I thought, 3500 lb. car, no radio, one sun visor, no arm rests, 4 guys, 6 cyl., 3 on the tree, concrete street, what could go wrong. Revved it, let the clutch out and stalled it. Lots of laughter and derogatory comments about the Ford. Revved it up and sidestepped the clutch. BANG! There went 1st & reverse gear. Limped it home and buddies helped me turn the car around and back it into the garage. Next morning my dad is taking me parallel parking. Start out in 3rd right out of the garage ‘cause it looks like it’s in 1st. Car is bucking, dad says what’s wrong? Shift! Shift into 2nd and we get up the street a bit. Dad says pull over, gets behind the wheel, no first or reverse. Limp the car home and $100 later, a weekend and a new, used trans is in. 2 weeks later passed the written test 100% and aced the driving test on the morning of my 16th birthday. After that if I wasn’t in school or at work, I was spending every minute either working on or driving that car! Filled the quarter panel rust holes, and also across the hood where it said F-O-R-D with screen and bondo. Painted the car a Chrysler metallic dark gray. The winter of ’64, guy behind me had a ’59 convertible with a 332 but was putting in a 427 so bought the 332 and dropped it in where the 6 used to be. Put in some kind of 6 volt radio with a huge wire-wound resistor hanging under the dash. My buddy, Donald Schreier was some kind of electronic genius back then (had his own oscilloscope) and told me it would work. Got so hot you could roast marsh mellows on it but had my WHK AM radio tunes playing fine! Taught my dates to shift the 2nd hand Hurst floor shifter so I could have my arm around her while we cruised Manners Big Boy, The Red Barn, or Bearden's on Saturday nights.

I just don’t understand kids today. I know quite a few that don’t have their license and don’t seem to care. My license was a freedom license. I can remember going out into the Ohio country just by myself trying to get lost and finding my way back cruising the 2-land back top. Cruised all the drive-ins Friday and Saturday nights. Put a dollar’s worth of gas in and could drive all week long. Shortly after the V8 transplant, I dropped my girl off at home and then peeled out across an intersection where a cop happened to be parked. Cost me 2 weeks’ pay working after school at a bowling alley for the reckless operation ticket! Didn’t take my freedom license away though and was grateful for that.

Wife & I passed a suburban high school yesterday and looked at the parking lot. We laughed and wondered which cars belonged to the kids. All looked like mom & pop cars (and we couldn't even tell what models they were) with a smattering of pickup trucks. In my high school parking lot, you could tell the cars belonging to kids just by looking.

 

I learned to drive in my mothers Morris Mini 850 . I started to actually drive when I was about 12 y.o. around our back yard in about 1969. We had about 15 acres , so there was room to do this. When the time came to do the practical driving test in 1973 I knew how to manage the car well enough. However travelling down one of the back streets I knew quite well, there was and still is, an intersection which had stop signs for traffic approaching the intersection from both approaches on the other road. Knowing this I just kept watching the speedo to ensure I was within limits. All good , so I thought. Went to the end of the street and turned left to go back to the Police Station. The Police Officer back at the station sorry I can't pass you , you drove like Jack Brabham. You needed to slow for the intersection in case of an errant driver not stopping. Fail! Back then Jack Brabham, a 3 time world Formula 1 champion, had become a childhood hero for me. On reflection I saw that as a glowing endorsement despite not gaining my official licence.

 

That 59 just has the look. Have any more pics of it?


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Got my permit on my 16th birthday in 1964, had to wait 30 days to take my driving exam. Took the test in my moms 53 chevy and passed with flying colors. State trooper said I was going to be an excellent driver, little did he know. My dad was a police Officer and we had an odd last name. Got stopped lots of times for speeding, reckless driving and squeeling tires and was aways let go, thanks dad!

 

Hell, this damn near happened to me at 50! The California DMV has a bunch of VERY trick questions on their test, they are worded so closely to other questions on the test that they seem to be a question you've already answered, but their not! I was well into the test before I realized it. Almost got me with that.

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And I thought I was the only one that had to take the driving test more than once! I got my learners permit at 15 by taking the written test, 100%! When I turned 16, I had been driving the family car, 1967 Ford Custom 500 4 door, manual steering, standard manual brakes. I took drivers ed in school with the permit, drove a 76 Cutlass with everything power, so my Mom decided I needed power steering and brakes to pass the road test. We took my Grandma's car, a 1968 Olds 88, a land yacht compared to the Ford! AL State Troopers do the road test, and I got this grumpy old bastard that was well beyond retirement age that day. Every thing went well until he told me to parallel park......in a spot a VW Bug would have trouble getting into. Did I say the old fart couldn't half see? NO WAY that boat was going to fit in that spot, bumped the curb several times before he said just go back. Oh the shame!

Second time I went in my Aunts 74 Torino 4 door. Same old Grumpy Trooper. Aced the parallel parking that time, thought I had done everything right.....flunked again! Didn't turn my wheels when I had parked on a hill. Damn!

Third time was the charm though. Old Grumpy had retired, got a young Trooper that time. We left the courthouse, parked on the hill, I remembered my screw up from last time and made sure I did it right, all the time he was checking his list, then he told me to drive to that building over there and park. It was an eye doctor, I hadn't noticed his glasses lens had fallen out! He left me in the car while he went in and got his glasses fixed, about 30 minutes. When we got back, my Mom was worried something had happened we were gone so long, almost an hour when the normal test was about 15 mins. He gave me my passing paper, explained to Mom where we went, and I went and got my license right then.

As to the CDL, I was grandfathered in because AL didn't have any special license then. The same license entitled you to ride a motorcycle, drive a car, or a semi truck. I did have to take the written CDL test, but aced it at 100%. I had already been driving semi's several years.

 

I failed the driving test the first time. I was in the driving school early sixties Acadian, went too fast through a special low-speed zone and made some other mistakes mostly because I was nervous as heck. My dad gave me a couple weeks driving lessons and I learned to back his 70 Econoline in a straight line using just the mirrors, learned to parallel park it. Did my test in New Westminster, BC which has steep hills. We were going downhill and the guy says turn left at the next corner. I signalled but didn't slow quite enough and we went around the corner on two wheels. All he said was I could have slowed a little more - ended up passing.

 

I got a motor driven cycle lic the day I was 14 . For my permit to drive with mom or day it was on the Monday after my 15 birthday that fell on a Sunday to get these you only needed to pass the written exam. Scored 100 the first time on the written test. I got my full lic the day I was 16. It was in a 57 Lincoln as this was the only car around that all the lights and signals worked on. The highway patrol tester asked how long I had been driving I told him I had been driving a little over 5 years. We lived in the rural country. It was a ritual for all the kids to lay out of school on their sixteen birthday to get a lic. The schools knew you would be absent on your 16 Bday.

 

Took my test in a 1949 cj3 jeep with a 221 sbf, 270 cam, 4bl, glass packs, 3 sp, heavy clutch, 7 lb flywheel and 5:38s in the rear end. With light flywheel it would rev like a sprint car when you blip the gas. At one point I had to stop on a hill and because of the heavy clutch put it in neutral. Forgot to put it back in gear. When I tried to start again I pegged the tach. I passed anyway.

My Dad took my Mom to get her first license in Las Vagas in the early 40s. The guy asked him if she was a good driver. My Dad said "I wouldn't ride with her". He passed her with no driving test.

 

took mine on a rainy day in a javelin, doing great till he made me back park..the back window was fogged up but it had two mirrors and ive been driving the family truck so I knew about mirrors.. got it parked great but the a hole said I failed for not turning around too look . I told him I used the mirrors.. he didn't care...I went around to the passanger side an pulled him out of the car..drove back told my dad what happened, he laughed an said guess you better not get him again.....didn't and passed

 

I started driving farm vehicles when I was in my early teens so by the time I was ready to get my license I had been driving for years. Took and passed the written test and went out with the DMV instructor in my fathers 57 Chevy 283 automatic and got my license with no problem. On a side note,a few years later I decided to get the MC endorsement on my license so I could ride the 2 wheelers. I filled out the application in the mid fall got my temporary permit a couple of weeks later and finally got my appointment for the test in mid November. The day of the test turned out to be cold and windy with a little snow in the air but being young and determined not to miss the test off I went. I made to the DMV office and went inside and told them that I was there to take my test for the motorcycle endorsement which customarily involved having the instructor set up some cones in the parking lot that you have to navigate around. When the instructor came out of the office he asked how I got there and I told him I rode my bike and it was in front of the building. He looked out of the window and saw the bike sitting in the snow and turned to me and said that if I got to the DMV office riding the bike on a day like today I didn't need to take any more tests and proceeded to process the paperwork for my license. These days I wont get on a motorcycle if the temp is less than 80

 

Nothing that exciting for me. Year was 2001, I had a 57 Bel Air 4 door sedan, 283/Turboglide, but it didn't have seatbelts so I couldn't take the road test in it. I took my Mom's '93 Grand Caravan instead, which was a breeze to drive since it had a very tight turning radius, and was easy to judge parallel parking since the rear window was the rear of the van. Passed easy, got my license, and drove the 57 probably 150 miles that day without leaving the county!

 

Itookmy driver's test 3 Times because the first time the cop refused to get into my 1958 Cadillac hearse! The next time I got some to get into the hearse but the car was to long for the course the parking test. The last time I used a friend's father but.

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All the guys that failed on parallel parking are probably going to hate me, I passed first time (but kinda cheated!). The DMV office I went to used a little used side street that ran between the back of a neighborhood and a field to set up their parallel parking test. No one ever messed with it so they left it set up all the time. I had been driving (cars) since I was 10, had a go cart even before that. So anyway, I just so happened to live across the street from the parallel parking spot. Unfortunately, my car at the time was Mom's hand me down 1972 Oldsmobile 98 more door! It was only a foot shorter than the gap between the flags to begin with, wasn't no way I was parallel parking it in there! I borrowed a Fiat X-19 for the test, memorized the exact points I needed to line up with to park it, and went to take the driving test. I think the DPS trooper was a little shocked when he saw the almost brand new tiny Italian sports car I brought to take my test in. He was a little put out that he had to remove his trooper hat to fit in it (I offered to pop the targa top so he would have more headroom, but he was having none of that! The actual test went fine except for0 one error, when we pulled out of the DMV, he told me to go left, but I was so nervous I went right. He said no problem, this way will work too... Oop's! It actually worked to my advantage because I thought he was going to fail me for it and so I relaxed for the rest of the test, thinking I was just praticing. When we got back, he handed me the slip and said "You passed!".

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What I remember was I didn't pass the first time. I had what I thought was a nice lady examiner. I think she failed me for signaling a turn too late. She was nice about it saying, "I failed you because you, "blah blah blah..."
The second time I got this old guy who I thought was grumpy and mean because of the way he looked. He didn't say much but he turned out to be easy going and passed me without too much effort.
Both times I used my mom's Plymouth compact size station wagon with a slant 6 and automatic. It was easy to drive and not too fast off the line.

 

when i got into truck driving in'78, i only needed a chauffeur's license. as i recall, the written test was the same as for a normal license, and i got 100. took the driving portion in a new camaro and didn't cut the wheels in after parallel parking, so 2 points were deducted. my examiner said, "nobody gets a perfect score!"