Were did you learn to drive?

[OrrieG]

Cyrus and Dac got me thinking about my drivers education. It started when I was about 10, I mowed my Grandmothers BIG yard every Saturday and as a reward got to drive one of the many cars my Dad and Granddad had around the place. Variety was from a mid 50's VW with cloth roof and semaphore turn signal, old jeeps, even a 54 Cady. I had a couple of pillows to get me close enough to the pedels and high enough to see above the steering. I then graduated to driving on the trips to the dump once we got off the main highway.

When I was about 13 I would drive on the fishing trips with my grandmother up in the Cascades. They were active gravel logging roads with very big trucks driving fast and taking up most of the road. When I turned 16 I took my drivers test in the family VW Van. First rig I owned was a 47 Ford pickup, the Thunderbolt Greaseslapper, old guys will know what that means! Also got to use my Dad's jeeps for back road fun.

I later learned that my Dad wanted me to know how to drive on the fishing trips in case my GM had a heart attack and I needed to drive her to town for medical care or just so I could get back to town if something happened. Luckily she only had one episode when I was with her and the nitro pills kicked in and all was well.

So what's your drivers training story?

[steve53]

I grew up on a farm in Oklahoma so I started around 9 hauling feed to the cows in the morning and driving the tractor to mow and such. I remember dad putting some feed sacks on the seat to be high enough to see and roping some wood blocks on the gas/brake to be able to drive and see at the same time. I was about 12 when dad started sending me to the feed store about 4 miles away on my own to pick up seed and feed. It was a really small town so they just loaded me up and put it on his tab and sent me back on my way. The three cops in town never pulled me over once haha. I got to drive the hay hauler as well until I was about 14 when he put my ass in the back to toss bales. Ever since, the saying "it's almost hot enough to haul hay" stuck to me like glue.

[Cyrus]

Well, I'm glad I helped inspire some thought! At least I've done something useful today! .

That's only the middle of my story, however. It all started on a riding lawn mower, and since my dad never caught me driving it like an idiot, he graduated me to the Farmall 400 tractor. Where we cut wood was about 10 miles from home, and while Road Gear in a 400 is fast for a 12 year old, it's not quick enough when it's 10 below!
After I drove Pops truck a while (after I fixed the e-brake problem), I was allowed the priviledge of driving the family sedan a couple times. 76 Buick Electra 455. That car had more pedal than I had guts at 15. Especially when Pop was within slapping distance.

Sure like to take that boat for a cruise now! Hehehe

[70gmcjimmy]

I had to start driving out on the streets and highways at 15 to get myself to school and work afterward. I had no farm or ranch experience with equipment and all even though this was and still is a heavily agricultural area.
In early 1972 my Mom and an older sister and I lived on the outskirts of town in a nice "triple wide" trailer house in a nice park. School was about a 20 minute walk or 10 minute bike ride. For a single Mom at that time she was doing quite well in a civil service job at Ellsworth AFB and in mid 1971 she bought a 1970 GMC Jimmy 4x4. She had never driven until 1963 at the age of 40 but Mom and Dad divorced so she had to learn how to drive! In June of 1972
a diaserous flash flood came through here that killed 238 people and left thousands temporarily homeless including us. Mom got us out of the fast rising water in the Jimmy but we had nothing left at home to return to. That's when my fortune actually improved at Mom's expense, as my sister then got a job at the base so her and Mom rode together to work in my sisters car a lot. Mom bought an acre of land and another trailer house out in the country. I got my permit in the Jimmy and in the fall I got to drive the Jimmy to school and work alot!
When I turned 16 I used the Jimmy to get my first drivers license as the Binder didn't have real great brakes. and to my suprise, when I got the Jimmy from her late in 2001, I found my first South Dakota drivers license manual still in the glovebox! I got several other "firsts" in the Jimmy, good and bad but I won't go into any of that. That was a great upbringing to cultivate an addiction to old trucks that still lives on!

Very cool thread---DAC

[mr48chev]

My grandfather first let me drive his Farmall C out in the front yard of the house I am sitting in now when I was about 11 and then I drove it in the hay field pulling a sled while we picked up hay bails. Hot dusty work.
When I was 12 I learned to drive my stepfather at the time's 54 Chev pickup so I could drive him home from the taverns on Bainbridge Island wa and In Susquamish, Wa. Not a good story but I leaned to drive pretty quickly.

[OrrieG]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

When I was 12 I learned to drive my stepfather at the time's 54 Chev pickup so I could drive him home from the taverns on Bainbridge Island wa and In Susquamish, Wa. Not a good story but I leaned to drive pretty quickly.

Sounds like the old Jeffy Jeff Walker song:

"He's a drifter, a driller of oil wells
He's an old school man of the world
Taught me how to drive his car when he was too drunk to
And he'd wink and give me money for the girls
And our lives were like, some old Western movie
Desperados waitin' for a train"

[northerngmc]

With my dad's 71 Chev 3/4 ton on my gramma's land..... hummmm maybe that is where it all started.......

[DPowers]

First started to drive when I was in the 4th grade. In the hayfield picking up bales in a 64 GMC w/V6. Had to have a 4 inch foam cushion behind me so I could reach the peddles. Got some tractor experience with Farmall 300 Utility, Super A and H models and an Allis Chalmers C. We also had a mid 50's IH dumptruck and a bulldozer. Good memories.

[thirdstreettito]

I have driven everything from tricycles to 9000 series JD tractors, VW bugs to Mack tractor trailers. I'm only 16... First time I drove, I was 8, lady handed me the keys and said "bring this to your dad" I thought she meant the S10... Every since then I drive everything. I can drive and have driven everything.