What do you remember about taking driver's education? / LJWorld.com

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Asked at Massachusetts Street on June 27, 2007

“They had a brake on the passenger side, and anytime I did anything at all out of the ordinary, they would slam on the brakes. The first time they did it, I thought I was going to die.”

— Sarah Seaman, chemical dependency technician, Leawood

“I remember this guy in my class was driving down a country road, and a tractor pulling some kind of farm implement tore into the side of the car. It looked like it had been cut open with a can opener. It wasn’t really his fault though.”

— Bob Alexander, maintenance specialist, Topeka

“I’d never driven before I took it. We went driving in downtown Wichita, and I ran two red lights and kept squealing the tires. It was really bad.”

— Diane Ho, nanny, Wichita

“I remember that it seemed pretty easy. I remember doing all the basic stuff. I think parallel parking was the hardest part, and driving on the highway for the first time was kind of scary.”

— Pat Sullivan, Kansas University senior, Kansas City, Kan.

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Newell_Post 6 years, 9 months ago

I'm old enough that, at that time, power brakes were still fairly new and most cars didn't have them. (You young whippersnappers today don't even realize that ALL cars now have power brakes whether you want them or not.) I had been driving old cars and trucks at my grandparent's farm since I was 12. So, when we came to the first stop sign I confidently stomped on the brakes just like you had to do in the old 49 Ford. The kids riding in the back seat all wound up in the front. (No seat belts in the back seat either!)

sgtwolverine 6 years, 9 months ago

By the way, to revisit yesterday's notice, my stop in Lawrence may have to take place Friday evening (06 July) rather than Sunday. I'm not sure yet; I just wanted to put that out there. I am hoping to confirm the Wichita trip tonight or tomorrow.

And since I've never been to Lawrence, I am definitely open to suggestions for good meeting places.

Ceallach 6 years, 9 months ago

My dad yelling at me. An often overlooked form of teenage abuse -- a Teamster father teaching you to drive!

spacehog 6 years, 9 months ago

I took driver's ed in 1979 so I don't remember that much except the instructor was a perve with smoker's breath. One guy in my class always forgot to counter-steer when he turned a corner so he kept ending up in someone's yard. My mom took me out in the country when I was 12 and let me drive our Chevy Monza, the WORST stick-shift car ever. After that traumatic experience, driver's ed was pretty easy.

monkfellow 6 years, 9 months ago

I had private driving lessons, as our school didn't have the communal type. I remember that the football coach had to do the course, and his enthusiasm just jumped out at you:) also, I think the film was made c. 1951

acg 6 years, 9 months ago

Kujays that stutter was probably because of years of teaching kids how to drive. I think if that were my job I'd develop some sort of stutter or nevous tic, too. :)

packrat 6 years, 9 months ago

I also remember that my simulator was jammed into reverse and perpetually at 80 mph. The instructor just told me to do my best and not worry about it.

I passed the test but the state required an eye exam before issuing the license. I flunked the eye test so bad that the person asked if I could even see the blackboard. I had no idea that I needed glasses. I thought everyone's vision was like mine.

kujays4 6 years, 9 months ago

When I took drivers ed, I drove a Pacer and the instructor stuttered! "st-st-stop" was a hoot, but hey, I passed.

Sigmund 6 years, 9 months ago

There is a difference between turbocharged and supercharged.

JJE007 6 years, 9 months ago

I remember not taking driver's ed. I guess that's why I've had one moving violation and one accident in a few decades of driving. Dang. I could have been perfect if I'd been taught proper like. As it turned our my dad just gave me three short gravel road lessons in a '64 Dodge 440 (Chrysler 50th Anniversary Edition) Station Wagon with push-button transmission. I loved hating that beast. I think I passed my driving test because I honked at a kid that jaywalked in front of me but treated a school crosswalk properly. I COULD NOT DRIVE! It scared me that they gave me a license. My fear of others with a similar lack of skills and a fender bender at 16 may have helped me to learn to drive defensively. I can't recommend this primitive driver education technique...or learning to swim by being dropped into the channel of a river! JEEZ, Dad.

prospector 6 years, 9 months ago

Did anyone else have driver's ed that included a "simulator"? It was in a trailer behind the school and had 10 'drivers' seats with a Chevy circa 1963 steering wheel and dash. A movie was shown on a screen in front and you had to react to the scenario. We found out it had a virtual top end of 110 MPH. It is more fun to really do it.

Crossfire 6 years, 9 months ago

I don't know which day was weirder, the day we got a six of Near Beer so we could practice sipping a brew while cruising or getting stopped for speeding. Our car had a small block, dual exhaust and would top end a 115 mph.

CindiCat 6 years, 9 months ago

Well, there WERE cars back in my day even though my kids think otherwise!!

Seriously, I took driver's ed DURING the school year and we drove on country roads. No driving in any big city. There was NO extra cost for this class.

We were glad that didn't have to pay for our 4 kids to take driver's ed when they were in high school. Whew!

Wished I would have learned to drive a "stick"....still don't know how to do that. I did learn how to change a tire. I passed the class and my test and that was all that mattered.

jonas 6 years, 9 months ago

I remember they told us to always come to a complete stop at stop signs.

The last time I ever did, too.

Sharon Roullins 6 years, 9 months ago

My instructor kept complaining about me driving to close to a bridge post everytime I drove under this bridge. It was two lanes but very narrow. He made me so upset one day he told me to pull over. I stopped next to this pile of trash and he asked me why did I do that? I told him I thought it would make him feel at home. That was really mean of me. As the years went by, I ran into him again and did some typing for him. He was studying to be a minister and I am sorry to say that he has passed on now. R.I.P. Mr. Johnson.

promitida 6 years, 9 months ago

I earned the nickname "Curby," its kind of self explanatory.

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 6 years, 9 months ago

A few of us also partook in "unofficial driver's ed". The university had a gigantic driving range on the edge of town. It had this cool skid pad that was sunk a inch or so and could be "flooded" from a hydrant. We used to pick the lock and set up auto cross courses. I had a fire hydrant wrench and we had bunches of fun in the skid pad area. It was there that we received our driver's eduducation in what is now called "drifting"

There is just something about breaking traction into a 4 wheel drift, then hooking it up to negotiate a 90 degree turn.

PrincessConsuelaBananaHammock 6 years, 9 months ago

I put the driver's ed car in a ditch on a gravel road while trying to learn how to do 3 point turns. Then, to make matters worse, being the princess I am I had NO idea how the whole process of getting the car out of the ditch was supposed to work. My instructor and a good friend of mine from my driving group get out and are going to push the car back up out of the ditch. After several min. of pushing the car without success, my friend happens to notice that I had the car in park! When the car was out of the ditch and the yelling stopped, I cried for what felt like ever and swore I would never drive again.
But later that week I passed my driving test with flying colors and have not been in a ditch since!

Edwin 6 years, 9 months ago

Mr. Lee had a golf ball on a tee under glass with suction cups he sat on the dash. If you knocked it off you were verbally abused, and chastised in front of the others in the car. (Bragging) the only time I was behind the wheel and it went off the tee was when Mr. Lee stomped the brake on his side of the car. I got chastised anyway... but I did NOT knock the ball off myself! No one liked that golf ball, Mr. Lee was a good guy. Drivers education gave many of us a chance to drive a "New" car, something some of us seldom get to do now.

Sadly, Mr. Lee stopped having birthdays some 20 years ago. He was a positive influence on me and many people I know. Mr. Lee... I hope the Journal World is circulated in heaven... You are a good man! :)

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 6 years, 9 months ago

I didn't want to waste any of my high school credit hours so I could graduate a year early. I took "drivers ed" through the university at night when I was 14. My instructors were actual students doing their practicums. My driving "coach" was a baseball player, and we used to cruise around town in the "vette" (Chevette). At the same time I was racking up hours driving with my parents so I could get my "farm / school" license. One Sunday it was raining and my father took me driving. He had just got back from Germany, we returned home about 9 hours later. My mother asked where we went for so long, and that she was almost ready to call the highway patrol. He replied with a yawn "Wisconsin". I got my "farm / school" license the next week after finishing the drivers ed course.

sunflower_sue 6 years, 9 months ago

That, due to budget cuts, driver's ed was no longer offered...so I never got to take it. I do remember that I took my driver's test in a 1976 Ford LTD. Good grief almighty, that thing was huge!

Azure_Attitude 6 years, 9 months ago

My step-dad taught driving at a school in Chicago. They let him drive the car during the off hours and it was quite the trip to be in that car with the break pedal on the passenger side tooling around Chicagoland. When I was 12 I asked him if I could take the written test, which he thought was hilarious. Especially since I did better than a good portions of his students.

When we moved here I didn't have the benefit of having an "official" driving instructor to avoid all the testing at the DMV - being a former instructor didn't carry any weight with them - but I believe I am a better driver for having Stosh as a driving instructor. He's quite the dude.

It should be law that people learn how to drive with a manual transmission.

pelliott 6 years, 9 months ago

I got an A in parallel parking and a fellow driver whose foot had to be pulled off the gas pedal by the instruction, who stayed calm.

acg 6 years, 9 months ago

I didn't take driver's ed thru school. We were out of the state when they offered it and my folks didn't make me want to have to wait, so they enrolled me in a driving school that was on Iowa behind food 4 less called Midwest Driving (?). Anyhoo, my "lessons" consisted of the being dropped off there every Saturday for a month. I would drive my instructor over to the Carol Lee doughnut shop and he would BS with old men for two hours and then I would drive him back. At the end of the month they gave me a certificate to take to the DMV. At the DMV, they gave me my license with no test or anything so basically I had no clue how to drive/park/reverse etc. and I had a license. First day of driving, I side swiped a mailbox, knocked the driver's side mirror off of my mom's car and curb checked about 20 times all over the city. Ahhh, good times!

wordsofwisdom 6 years, 9 months ago

Back in summer of 1987......Driving on "The Range" and smashing cones......especially when going in reverse!! and the highway drive.

John Spencer 6 years, 9 months ago

Two things come to mind, when I was driving on Lawrence streets for the first time, the instructor punched me in the arm when I didn't "cover the brake pedal" when approaching an intersection. Also there was a student that freaked out while driving around the cones in the parking lot of LHS and floored the car and started spinning around the parking lot for what seemed like 15 minutes. It was probably 15 seconds, but she finally jumped a curb and ran into the building where the wheels started smoking as they continued to spin like crazy..

mom_of_three 6 years, 9 months ago

In my school, driver's ed classes were offered during the school year, but the actual driving was done during the summer. Wish it was that way now.
We had to learn to drive a stickshift, and an automatic. Boy, I hated that manual transmission. Almost got ran over by a semi when I popped the clutch at a stop sign and ended up in the middle of an intersection. But I passed, and was able to get my license at 16. Since I had driver's ed, I didn't have to drive with anyone at DMV.

Linda Endicott 6 years, 9 months ago

Never took driver's ed. Back then it was expensive, and we couldn't afford it!

My first car was an old Opal wagon with no power steering or power brakes. When I took my driving test, they didn't make me parallel park, either, Harley. Maybe that's why.

I sure move out of the way as quickly as possible now when I see those "student driver" signs on cars, though. I avoid them like the plague!

My sister almost got hit by a student driver in the Wal-Mart parking lot recently.

Hey! Maybe they should have a course somewhere where they have the kids practice first, before they actually put them in real traffic.

purplesage 6 years, 9 months ago

Two things: winning the parallel parking "competition". We had to park the car between 6 and 18 inches from the curb. A couple put it right in there - like 2 or 3 inches. I was out there at 17.5 - but Price is Right kind of rules gave me the victory.

And then, there was the final exam. We drove from a ghost town to the top of a mountain on a road that would make a fighter pilot carsick.

trinity 6 years, 9 months ago

i already knew how to drive before driver's ed, so i was set! :) the instructor was a veteran, lol; he'd read his paper, drink coffee, and chew that infernal toothpick whilst we cruised pretty much wherever we wanted to go. to really mess with him, whenever he'd say turn right here we'd try to confuse the issue; right, correct? or left, right? stuff like that.

best part of it was i had driver's ed driving like from 11:30-12:30 that summer; just enough time to put in the driver's ed, go home&get ready to go to the pool-piloting an enormous land yacht, a '66 olds 98 that we'd snuck out of the yard. ;) and avoiding the other driver's ed cars all afternoon, lmaooooo...now THAT is a challenge in ottawa circa 1974!

beatrice 6 years, 9 months ago

"Red Asphalt."

sgtwolverine 6 years, 9 months ago

Never took it. I decided to wait until I was 18 so I could avoid Michigan's graduated licensing system.

The_Original_Bob 6 years, 9 months ago

Turn wheels into the skid.

ohjayhawk 6 years, 9 months ago

I remember getting on the interstate for the first time (just before the speed limit increase from 55 to 65) and the instructor saying "Yeah, pretty soon you'll be able to go 65 on the interstate... 'bout time."

packrat 6 years, 9 months ago

A very pretty Stephanie. She of blue eyes and long brown hair.

blue73harley 6 years, 9 months ago

Never took it. My 16th birthday was on a Sunday. My dad took me to take the test on Monday. I passed driving a 3speed manual, long bed pickup with a camper shell and no power steering. I think the officer felt sorry for me because he did not make me try to parallel park the beast. I spent the rest of the day cruising around in my '48 Plymouth coupe.

Kathy Getto 6 years, 9 months ago

That was the same harsh guy I had for an instructor - kept yelling at me for hitting the trash can in an alley when I was learning how to back up! Also - the similators where you were supposed to learn how to drive a stick. They don't have those anymore.