1st drive lesson

[Gunner46]

Ok, so I'm just laying back, watching Roku, contemplating the next 5 of 9 days I have to work, when a thought crept into my mind.....

Who, where, at what age, and what car did the 1st person TRY to teach you to drive?

ME: It was Dad. We were up on a VA. mountain single lane, during the winter. A little snow on the road, but mostly clear.and straight. It was a 3 on the tree blue Chevy Nova station wagon. I was 12. Next was a tractor.....

 

[Mudranger1]

My dad. In 1985 f150 straight 6 with a granny tranny. I was 12 and we were in N. Florida where we hunted. That old truck had 300k when it was hand down to my younger brother. who knows how many it had it on by the my 2nd brother got it. For the first 15 years of its life it had no radio lol. Lots of memories in that thing

 

[sluggo6850]

Mine was a volkswagon bug, and I was 12. quite the learning curve! The following summer I started working on a farm and had to learn all kinds of straight sticks. Good memories!

 

[kenton]

12 years old and my dad sent me to work a field. Had to drive a '89 Chevy Caprice Classic to get there. He didn't give me actual lessons until a couple years later.

 

[Dave N]

Late bloomers, all of ya'! I was 9, had to move a combine, tractors and wagons and a pickup truck from one farm to the other. I got the truck. Dad leaned in the window, said there's the clutch, brake, gas pedal, explained the four speed stick, and said "Follow me." It was dark. Did OK until we got home, then I forgot to use the clutch when I stopped.

 

[Gellar]

I learned to back a trailer when I was about 10. I couldn’t use the mirrors but had to look over my shoulder. My dad took both my brothers and I to an empty school parking lot and we all learned to back the boat trailer.

 

[golfer]

I think I was 6 or 7, wasn't much but I drove the 76 chevy with the trailer while dad and grandpa loaded and stacked squares in it. I think I only ever ran over 2. I was able to drive a stick by the time I was 9.

 

[Jappenz617]

Old Farmall Super H. I was probably 8-9. I remember my dad would stand on the back and help me push the clutch down. He taught me to run the tractors first then upgraded to the 1976 GMC service truck to travel between farms moving equipment.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

7 or 8 yrs up on the Az, Strip in an Old Ford Falcon Station Wagon.
3 on the tree and couldn't reach the clutch petal so Dad taught me to listen
to the RPM's and shift when it sounded right.Had me barreling down dirtroads
hiittng every Tumbleweed that blew across our path,until a rock that was
stuck in the root bulb of a Tumbleweed broke the front windshield.Driving lesson
over.

 

[kansasdad]

Uncle Dutch had me granny gear farm implements around the yard when I was 12. Kansas kids back in the day got their restricted DL at 14. I had already mastered driving with automatic transmissions, and my Uncle who lived in D.C. wanted me to drive his Volvo stick shift (exact replica of Lt. Columbo's Volvo). He was pretty hacked off that I hadn't mis-shifted or ground the gears once while out for a beltway highway drive in rush hour that he had me parallel park on the steepest neighborhood side street and then pull out again. I finally stalled out, he got a good laugh, and we went home for the day.

 

[IDFireLass]

I was 9 or so. Dad put me in a '47 willy's jeep. We were picking up hay. He said when I whistle go to 2nd. He whistled and I hit the clutch and jammed it into reverse let the clutch out and it lurched backwards(no gas peddle) he yelled I turned the key off. I still have that '47 willy's and hope to get it running here this next summer.
Next vehicle was a Plymouth fury II it was auto so very simple then came the little ford cattle truck which I used to haul cows, horses and hay.
Wish life was that simple again.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Did the Plymouth have the "Click Shift" where you pushed buttons
on the dash board for the Automatic Transmission?Only saw one like
it in my life and it was on a Fury.

 

[Pucky Freak]

15 years old with my uncle driving up to deer camp. I think he might have dozed off at some point pretty harmless it was 2 lane highway. I was doing fine until we went through Hibbing and I turned into incoming traffic on the split lane highway. The road was empty but he had to calmly talk me through making my first u.turn. needless to say he was wide awake the rest of the trip.

 

[Fullquiver]

Started driving with Allis Chalmers WD 45 at 10 and drove it with the hand clutch... Just picking up hay to start by the end of the first season was baling with the New Holland square baler..

Then at 12 Dad just put me in the old Power Wagon. It seems as though driving was a normal part of farm life. I was driving the combine by 14 years of age.

Before I had a driver's license I used to sneak the old Power Wagon off the back of the farm over to pick up the neighbor so we could go walleye fishing on the local river impoundment. It was 6 miles of dirt road. I would park on my Grampas place who owned property right up to the river. We would fish till dark then drive home in the dark.. When dad figured out what was going on with that man was I in trouble.. lol.

 

[blueridge]

Growing up on a farm I learned to drive a tractor and hay wagon before I could really reach the pedals. When you're the littlest, that's your place. Driving the 2-ton dump with hay wagon took a lot longer to master. Stick and trying to find the perfect balance of not stalling and outrunning the throwers.

My favorite memories were when I was 12 or 13 taking an old chevy pickup from the corral to the barn whenever we were working cattle and needed/forgot something. I had watched way too many Smokey and the Bandit movies and thought I was in a TransAm.

 

[hank4elk]

Dad's 54' Buick. The Green Giant we called it. 3 on the tree. Was probably 12. Had a 1/4 mi side road we lived on with Semi turn around at the end. Good safe place to learn.
1st truck was 52' GMC 3/4t flatbed, 3 speed stick.

 

[F250]

When I was 9, I was driving tractors picking up hay. When I was 12, I was pulling hay wagons over the road with an old International pickup .

 

[tarheel]

7 or 8 on an old gray Fordson tractor. I didn't have enough strength to shove down the clutch so I had to swing my leg over the tranny and stand up on the clutch pedal with both feet to depress it. Moved up to an Allis-Chalmers "C" for a year and then to a "CA" after that. By then I was driving the '52 Chevy 5 window in the fields and between farms or down in the woods hauling firewood. I can still hear that old 235 c.i. fire up now.

 

[kmott]

beats me ?????????? 9 or 10.

by 12 I was driving/ operating everything on the farm.

 

[hank4elk]

7 or 8 on an old gray Fordson tractor. I didn't have enough strength to shove down the clutch so I had to swing my leg over the tranny and stand up on the clutch pedal with both feet to depress it. Moved up to an Allis-Chalmers "C" for a year and then to a "CA" after that. By then I was driving the '52 Chevy 5 window in the fields and between farms or down in the woods hauling firewood. I can still hear that old 235 c.i. fire up now.

I had the 52' Jimmy til 1986 & traded it & a 51' Chevy PU for a 37' Dodge 1T & a 67'Falcon Ranchero hotrod. Both the Jimmy & Chevy were 5 window models.235's.