Learning to Drive!
By Morley Hunt
@Morleyhunt (21744)
Canada
January 14, 2016 6:24am CST
How old were you when you learned to drive? Earned your drivers license? Drove yourself for the first time.
Anyone of these questions could rate a discussion of their own.
My driving instruction misadventures are probably the cause of at least a few of my gray hairs.
At the age af 17, my older brother (19) decided he would teach me to drive. He had a brand new Volkswagen Bug. It had a standard transmission. It was early/mid evening so head lights were required. To anyone who knows the area, it was Decew Road in St.Catharines.
The sene was set. I got behind the wheel. Let out the clutch....not bad, the road turns, there is a car coming, where is the dimmer switch, I need to shift gears, the road has a sharp drop, another sharp turn, another approaching car.
We got to the bottom of the hill. I pulled over, and let my brother drive home.
It was about six years later, I had two weeks of intense driving lessons, with a proper instructor, and I had my driving test. Two weeks before the anticipated arrival of my first child.
The night I earned my license, I soloed, by driving to a friends house, about 30 minutes away, for a visit.
20 people like this
25 responses
@LovingMyBabies (85288)
• Valdosta, Georgia
14 Jan 16
I have not gotten my license yet or learned how to drive. I am scared of driving to be honest. Maybe one day I will learn but I am not ready yet.
4 people like this
@LovingMyBabies (85288)
• Valdosta, Georgia
14 Jan 16
@Morleyhunt Oh my gosh-failing brakes is extremely scary! I am mostly afraid of other drivers and my own judgment if something were to happen. I'm not 100% confident in a bad situation that I would do the right thing. I am worried that panic would set in first.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
14 Jan 16
I was afraid too, but necessity lead me to drive. I have never regretted it. I've also had my recurring nightmare come to pass (failing brakes) and it wasn't a panic situation. I'll try to recreate my post from Bubblews.
1 person likes this
@garymarsh6 (23405)
• United Kingdom
14 Jan 16
I was the first in the family to learn to drive after my father of course. He would not teach me so I had driving lessons which were £1.75 ($2.52) at the time. Now it is around £25 ($36) a lesson. I tried to teach my wife to drive although she kept crunching the clutch. I made her get out of the car and told her I would never let her touch a car of mine as long as I live. It would have been the quickest way to get to the divorce court had I continued.
2 people like this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
14 Jan 16
That was about how my one driving lesson with my husband ended. He phone is instructor and booked my first appointment. Two intense weeks later I had my license.
1 person likes this
@garymarsh6 (23405)
• United Kingdom
14 Jan 16
@Morleyhunt Thats the way to do it. You would have to be married to a saint for them to teach you! Boy it is not good for the heart!
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
15 Jan 16
@garymarsh6 I had the dubious privilege of sitting beside most of my children as they were getting their experience (after lessons, before the full license). After the first four, I told my husband it was his turn, he could take the time with our youngest. He only took her out a few times.
1 person likes this
@silvermist (19702)
• India
14 Jan 16
@Morleyhunt I studied driving and got my license after i turned 18.Though I used to drive usually my brother would be along.Only after I turned 20 did I start driving alone.
2 people like this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
14 Jan 16
I rarely drove alone. Three kids went most places I did.
1 person likes this
@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
14 Jan 16
I was 11 when I learned to drive a motorcycle @Morleyhunt (dad's idea) and then at 13 drive a car. I had my temporary license at 14 (you can do that in Iowa) and the permanent one at 16. My Dad was a motorcycle enthusiast and drove stock cars and being his oldest child (a girl), meant doing the do.
1 person likes this
@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
15 Jan 16
@Morleyhunt It does make it easier not to rely on any one or any thing else that's for sure.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
15 Jan 16
Bicycles were my mode of transportation until I got married. Then my husband drove me or I took a bus or taxi. Getting my license opened the world to me.
1 person likes this
@Morethanamom (1948)
• Canada
14 Jan 16
I don't have many stories from learning to drive, but for learning stick shift I do. My first car was a stick shift and I purchased without learning. I kept asking to borrow my parents van because I didn't know how to drive my own car. I did eventually learn, and I miss driving stick.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
15 Jan 16
I remember your first car. It was also the car that my son learned to drive standard.
1 person likes this
@Morethanamom (1948)
• Canada
15 Jan 16
@Morleyhunt That car was pretty good to me. I still have the snow brush that I bought to match.
1 person likes this
@chandrejackson (95)
• Clarksville, Tennessee
14 Jan 16
I was 10 the first time I took my mom keys and started driving. My mom had an old raggedy car that would randomly turn off, and it did that day in the middle of an intersection. Scared the life out of me! That's what I forget for stealing a car in the first place. My driving lesson was me asking my dad to take me to work when I was 16 and him giving me the keys and getting into the passenger seat and going to sleep. I couldn't get my driver's license until my older sister got hers. Courtesy of being in a family of eight children- everybody had their turns doing things. I finally got my driver's license when I was 18 and went away to college, but I had been driving for years without one.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
15 Jan 16
There are places where people seem to be able to get away with driving without a license, me I would have been afraid to drive, even in a parking lot.
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
14 Jan 16
I learned to drive when I was 19, I think. My boss at the time wanted me to be able to drive the firm's van, so he paid for driving lessons.
My very first experience of driving a car was much earlier. My uncle had a large limousine with leather seats and a walnut dashboard and all and once, when I was about 8, he took me to a quiet road, sat me on his knee and allowed me to steer (while he did the clutch and the brake and the gearstick). That was fun and quite scary, too, for an 8 year old!
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
14 Jan 16
I remember my older sister sitting on my fathers lap driving (steering) the tractor on the farm.
1 person likes this
@infatuatedbby (94914)
• United States
14 Jan 16
I got my drivers permit at 15 1/2 and my license at 16. 
My first time behind the wheel was with a drivers instructor. Just letting go of the gas pedal felt super fast to me, lol! Then I got used to. I drove up to 45 miles per hour the first time.
My first time behind the wheel was with a drivers instructor. Just letting go of the gas pedal felt super fast to me, lol! Then I got used to. I drove up to 45 miles per hour the first time.1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
15 Jan 16
My family did not encourage the girls to get their drivers license. Of the three not one of us got our license at 16.
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (51012)
• Canada
14 Jan 16
With all of the sharp turns on hills in St Catharines I won't drive in that city and I am an experienced driver! That must have been quite an adrenaline pumped ride/drive.
I learned to drive from young drivers when I turned 16, nobody wanted to teach me because I had no desire to learn and it is a nail biting experience for the teacher.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
14 Jan 16
I have driven in many places I would never have anticipated when I passed my exam 36 years ago.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
14 Jan 16
My husband tried, but it didn't go well. He organized (and paid for) the instructor who had taught him to give me lessons.
1 person likes this
@jaboUK (64354)
• United Kingdom
14 Jan 16
My father taught me - he was very patient. I was 20, but had been riding a motorbike since I was 17 so I had road sense.
That's funny that you passed your test while so advanced in your pregnancy. It's a wonder you fitted behind the wheel!
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
14 Jan 16
I think the examiner was afraid I would pop that baby out before the lesson was over, even though I assured him my babies took their time arriving. She waited another four weeks before making her debut.
2 people like this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
14 Jan 16
My husband was a great encourager when I learned to drive. It was winter, he cleared the snow off the car, warmed it up for me...watched the three small children, newborn, 1-1/2 and 3.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
14 Jan 16
At 23 I certainly wasn't one of the youngest students my instructor gave lessons to.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (340223)
• Rockingham, Australia
14 Jan 16
We could get our licence at 17 but I was 18 before I got mine. The rules and regulations are much stricter now. There is a provisional licence then you're required to keep a log book and must do a certain amount of hours in the rain and at night. I don't know that the number of accidents has become less though.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
14 Jan 16
The rules here have also become much stricter...now if they would only enforce the laws.
1 person likes this
@dodo19 (47317)
• Beaconsfield, Quebec
15 Jan 16
I did take the classes and got my learner's when I was 16, 17. I did take the test but failed. Although I kept practicing, I didn't do the test again. When I got to university my license expired and didn't feel the need to renew, as I could walk everywhere. But now, it's been 7 or 8 years, and I got my learner's last summer. I just feel that it's time, and with three kids, having a license would be useful.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45494)
• United States
14 Jan 16
The first time I drove (illegally) I was about 14. I got my license at 17 like everyone else in my state. I hated driving then and I haven't driven in 15 years...I don't miss it.
1 person likes this
@CookieMonster46 (13454)
• United States
15 Jan 16
I was 16, my dad taught me how to drive, after I had my license I was driving all over. With practice, I got better.
1 person likes this
@poehere (15123)
• French Polynesia
15 Jan 16
This one is funny. At the age of 13 my grandpa taught me to drive a tractor and the old truck for the ranch. I use to drive down the dirt roads to the market for my grandma and pick up supplies for her. This same summer he taught me to drive stock cars he built around the race track.
When I was 15 I was living in California with my grandmother who doesn't drive. My dad had bought a car for my mom and it was stored here. She used it on vacations. At the age of 15 I was allowed to get a driver's licence. I forget what they called this special licence. I know it had a lot of restrictions on it. I could basically drive the car for emergencies for my grandma, I could go back and forth to school and I couldn't drive at night unless my grandma had a problem. At 16 they lifted some of the restrictions on my licence but I still could not drive after 10 at night unless my grandma was with me.
I guess I learned to drive at the age of 13.
1 person likes this
@dibz123 (136)
• Ireland
14 Jan 16
Well i started learning to drive at 17 and took lots of lessons with an absolute rude instructor who would just say to me you cant drive properly so you cant go for a test yet i had passed my theory at that point and wasted a year on it then i carried on with him even the second year and was almost closer to my theory running out had 4 months left.
I got married then and turned 19 then hubby said leave that instructor and join someone he knows who can make me pass so i did and this guy said i can drive very well but just need more confidence but i can book a test i took a few but failed due lack of confidence apparently but i think it was simply because i was stressed my theory is running and thats what happend finnally my theory ran out
I was so upset but decided im gna take a year out from driving lessons and do my theory and wrap college stuff. So after a year i passed my theory in july 2015 and driving test my first time in October 2015 so the good thing was i didn't give up and motivated myself even more this time and luckily i passed both test in 3 months at the age of 21
1 person likes this
@acelawrites (19272)
• Philippines
15 Jan 16
So good you know how to drive. It gives freedom. It's one of my frustrations, I failed to learn how to drive. I enrolled in a driving school, but did not pursue due to work pressures.
1 person likes this
