Folks Of Interest Who taught you to drive and what was the car?

My Dad taught me to drive but he insisted I learn in a car with a straight drive transmission,my aunt lived down the street and she loaned my dad her 1958 Chevy Delray,it had 3 on the tree and a 283.

I learn pretty quick and am grateful he wanted me to learn how to shift gears,he had a 56 Chevy sedan delivery but I never got to drive it.

I taught Brenda how to drive when we started dating and she learned how to drive in my 63 1/2 Falcon Sprint and she also was a quick learner. HRP

 

63 Ford Station Wagon, Mom had trouble backing it out of garage so I did it for her, then pulled it around front for her, then.....

 

I said it before but I learned to drive at 12 driving my then stepfather home from the taverns on Bainbridge island Wa and the tavern in Susquamish in the early 60's We built the Susqumish fire station and he hung out at the cafe/tavern there a lot.
Sitting right close to the water I could pick up a Detroit radio station clear as a bell on a lot of nights and would sit there drinking my pop and listening to the radio until he came out of the tavern.
I learned to drive a stick in the summer time driving my grandfather's 1 ton Chevy out in the fields here where I live now while he fed cattle out of the back. I got cussed at every time I wasn't smooth on the clutch.

 

When I was 7 my dad and the neighbor plopped me on the tractor seat, set the throttle, held down the clutch and put it in gear, then said when we tell you let that pedal up slowly, then, push it in when we tell you, and I did. They walked along side throwing hay bales onto the trailer it was towing while I operated the clutch. When we came to the end of the row they turned it for me and then off we went again! Also when I was 12 I hung around a Citgo station across the street from where we lived. It closed at 9 and sometimes the owner would say to me bring the shop truck in will you. It was a 1957 Chevy 1/2 ton pickup. Three on the tree. I did that quite often. One night his nephew who was also 12 was there and elbowed me aside to take over bringing in the truck. When he backed up he cut the steering to hard and cleaned out the 2 huge plate glass windows on the front of the station with the bumper of the truck! Serves him right...

 

1952 Nash Station Wagon. Maroon , six cylinder, three on the tree. I thought it was a real chic magnet back then.

 

sitting on my grand dads lap and steering when i was 5 or so years old, then later at 8or 9 i had go carts and lawn tractors, then larger farm tractors, then at 13 i traded a 58 fiberglass vette go-cart body for a 68 impala wagon that i drove in the filed behind my grandpa's house until all the "dirt tracking" broke the rear end loose from the frame...lol, then dirt bikes, then finally my first road car 68 Pontiac tempest with an overhead cam straight 6
so i guess my grand dad and my dad taught me... but mostly i learned as i went along....
Chappy

 

Dad, 3 speed on the tree, 68 Chevy pickup

 

Dad handed me the keys to an old, gutted, half-rotted-away, Volkswagen Bus, and said, "figure it out, just don't leave the property."

After I figured out moving it back and forth without detonating the transmission, Dad took me out on the streets in his '58 Chevy Truck.

 

Dad,3 speed on the tree,65 Ford Taunus.I think I was 13 years old.

 

72 mustang 351 ..... my dad was impressed/not impressed when he saw me!! At 9 or so

77 Lincoln was the first car dad let me drive around the block..... a bit older

79 diesel vw rabbit is the car I learned how to drive stick on st 13

When I got my learners permit I used to go “ buy bread every night before dinner”
Mom and dad never understood how the corner bakery was a 3 hour trip for me..... that was in a 80’s Lincoln town car. Yes I’m a wop and my family is a stereotype!!

 

Taught myself to drive on a garden tractor and go karts. Drove that stuff around for fun for a few years. The first vehicle I drove was a 1967 F250 all on my own at about 14 years old (it was a bit scary as I recall). I took my driving test in a Jeep CJ7.

 

I can't really remember not driving, when I was 5 or 6 I sat on Dad's lap steering our 55 Buick. Like others, I drove my uncles tractors and farm trucks in the hay fields when I was too little to load the bales. When I got big enough to reach the pedals and see over the steering wheel I bugged the hell out of Dad and Mom both to drive every time I got a chance. I was always the driver when me and my buddies were 13 or 14 and would "borrow" a parents car to take a midnight joy ride. I took my learners permit test on my 16th birthday, at the time(1967) you had to wait 2 weeks to take the drivers exam test. The guy that rode with me told me I must be a fast learner as I wheeled that big Buick like I had been driving for years. The freedom I felt when I was legal to drive on my own was what I had lived for and it is still, over 50 years later, a great joy to just get out and take a ride.

 

i was the oldest kid, so as far back as i can remember it was riding mowers, and tractors. when i jumped behind the wheel of a truck or car i was 12 or 13 and it was the shop truck granny gear stick or my mom's gremlin x 304 3 speed in the floor. it never ended after that.

 

Sat on dads lap and learned to drive his 68 Impala 396 wagon at 8 or 9 years old ,got my first car at 12 ,a 1966 Ford Cortina GT, Had that for a year or so then got my 57 chevy 150 which I still own.

 

I'm sure my folks let me drive before driver's training, but don't remember exactly. A buddy taught me to drive a stick in a 69 Chevy pickup. Same buddy taught me to drink beer!

 

Probably about 13-14.Dad had a 51 or 2 Chrysler fluid drive and moms 51 Pontiac.
The neighbors up the road had a dairy farm,so tractors of course.Simpler times.

 

My Dad sort of taught me to drive, but really all he did was to take me out in my Mom's 1965 Plymouth Valiant 200 v8 automatic one day. He stopped, got out and said, "Give it a try for a while." I was a natural since I REALLY learned on this car....

 

My Mom. In a 1948 Frazier about 1954.

 

Dad let me drive his '72 Maverick Grabber....
Took my test in '67 Biscayne with an inline 6 and a 3 on the tree..... That was fun... Passed with flying colors....

 

Like others, I was driving from a young age in pedal cars, lawn mower, go kart, tractors, farm trucks and all of those things. People who didn't have access to a farm as children missed those opportunities. I got my learners permit at 15 years 10 months for a drivers education class. Then got my license at 16.

 

I was about 14 when my step father showed me how to drive in his 1958 Chrysler 300D. Bought new by Bill Harrah as a executive vehicle. Wish I could have tried out its potential.

 

1st time "driving" ......guess you could say I was more accurately a passenger.
I was about four; my Dad and Grand-dad were out in a pasture checking on livestock.
Grand-dad's 36 Chevy Coupe.
He was always in the habit of putting it in gear when he shut it off and got out.
So while they were busy with the livestock, that little shiny button on the dash was so danged tempting,
I just had to push it.
I must've turned the ignition key on too, because now I was headed towards a creek.
Dad turned around and ran back; he was able to jump in and stop the ol' Coupe.

So, I guess from then on, my Dad thought I was able to drive.
It was combining season and he had me sitting in the old REO pickup.
My feet came up about a foot short of hitting any pedal.
So, he'd start the engine, put it in gear and then I'd slide over behind the wheel.
There was a hand throttle on the dash.
Then he'd start the combine and when the bin was full of oats, he'd wave at me to "drive" over.
I'd pull the throttle out and maneuver the REO close to the combine auger. Dad would jump in and steer it close so that the bin could be unloaded.

Started driving tractors at about 8. First time driving a CAR was in the family '53 Mercury at 10 years.
It was a sedan, but I always like that old car. Dark green. 3sp w OD.

 

I learned to drive in a 1957 Porsche 356 Speedster. Not many can make that claim, I bet

 

My dad taught me to drive in his 1953 Chevy pick up with 3 on the tree.


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Pretty much myself. I bought a 53 Chevy manual transmission car for $15.00 when I was 13 years old. Paper route money. I had to figure out real fast how to get it home. I got it home but it wasn't pretty. My Dad drove that car to work for 3 years before I could get my license.

 

My stepdad taught me in a Meyers Manz dune buggy!

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Pretty much self-taught.... which some said later was the problem with my driving, LOL. Started at 12 with a home-made go-cart that a neighbor gave me when his kid outgrew it (my parents were pissed... LOL), and then a '54 Ford 2-door with a six/stick at 14. The Ford was a gift from the dentist my mother worked for at the time. He gave it to me because he knew I was car-crazy. The car had been in Michigan, so was a total rustbucket but ran ok. We had some acreage and I had a small 'track' to run it on (a firebreak around a huge stump pile) so I learned how to 'dirt-track' early. On rare occasions I would sneak out at night and run on a private 'right of way' road near where we lived. Luckily for me, I never got caught doing that...

Once I became old enough for a learners permit, I just had to learn the 'rules' to pass the written test.

Driving always came 'naturally' to me. My father drove like a old farmer; he would routinely start out in second gear in his stick '55 Ford work car. When I 'inherited' the '55, it blew carbon smoke out the exhaust for the first week I drove it. My mother was the opposite; she had a heavy right foot. Never got a speeding ticket in all the years she drove either, which was a marvel to all. After I wrecked her 312/stick powered '56 Club Coupe (my first rollover...), it was replaced with a 'practical' '64 Dodge Dart with a slant six with a stick. That only lasted about a year, 'gutless' was her opinion of that car. Replaced with a new '67 289/4V Cougar, which she drove until the Doctor took her license. She flirted with trading it in the early '80s, but everything new was 'gutless' so she had the whole car gone through.

My driving style owes much more to my mother than my father... LOL...

 

I grew up on a farm so you learn early how to drive a lot of different things, my Dad taught me on a tractor first (age10), then graduated to a '56 Ford flatbed truck with a 2 speed rear. Thanks for bringing back some great memories. My Mom learned in a Model A on the old dirt track in Concord, NC.

 

Learned ? on a 1944 Case VC tractor......my dad hooked a log chain to a water tank on skids and walked alongside "coaching"......I killed the tractor.....re-started and dumped the clutch/broke the log chain......ended my first lesson !!

Second lesson......1949 Allis Chalmers WD-45 tractor pulling a wagon picking up stray bales......dad and neighbor on each side of wagon throwing bales on. I started down a very steep hill.....got scared.....pushed clutch in to use brakes.....no more engine braking helping since clutch was in.....I locked up brakes and slide to bottom of hill.....learned about the advantage of engine braking in low gear vs.useless tractor brakes.

First time on road......1953 Chev station wagon 3spd. Dad and I on way to his bowling night......me on way to school for drama tryout......dad pulled up in front of bowling alley ......said "I'm late drive yourelf to school"......I slid over into the driver's seat and DID IT !!

 

...my dad & the 48 I learned to drive in...