Remembering your first car
By Nancy Zink
@ramapo17 (30441)
Melbourne, Florida
February 15, 2016 10:29pm CST
For some people here, learning to drive and getting your first car will seem like yesterday, or maybe it really was yesterday. For others here, like myself, it seems like forever ago. It really was forever ago.
I got my drivers license when I was 17, that will be 57 years ago this summer. Where the heck did that time go?
We didn't have driving school or driving lessons in school, my dad was the one that taught me how to drive. He had a van for his business and a big old Oldsmobile. We had so many fights as I had a heavy foot. He did go through 2 clutches on his van but we did get though it.
The day came when I found a car that I wanted and of course he had to check it out from nose to tail and he had his mechanic friend do that. I also had to learn how to change a tire, in case I got a flat, plus I had to learn to use the jumper cables in case I had a dead battery. I think if he had his way he would have had me building a car.
I grew up in New Jersey and to this day, people do not pump their own gas. I learned to do that when I was in my 40's when I moved to Pennsylvania.
Do you remember when you learned how to drive?
3 people like this
4 responses
@fishtiger58 (29820)
• Momence, Illinois
16 Feb 16
I took drivers ed in high school and got my license when I was 17. I bought my first car brand new off the showroom floor. It was a 1978 Chevy Monza and cost 4200 bucks. My payments were 109 bucks a month. Amazing I can remember that.
2 people like this
@fishtiger58 (29820)
• Momence, Illinois
16 Feb 16
@ramapo17 Same for me, I can remember my phone number from when I was a little kid, but what I had for dinner tonight no idea lol.
1 person likes this
@ramapo17 (30441)
• Melbourne, Florida
16 Feb 16
@fishtiger58 Wouldn't we all like to have that deal now
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
16 Feb 16
I learned in 1961 and 1962 at 16/17. My dad taught me and yes I had to learn about tires, and jumper cables too. l didn't drive much because I had an older brother who did that. In 1963 I went to college, far far away from mom and dad. Never had a car of my own until married.My husbands won a 1949 Hudson in a card game and it was mine. It was like driving a bathtub, it was heavy and huge.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
17 Feb 16
@ramapo17 it was an old car but it became mine in 1967. I got a lot of whistles and waves while driving that car.
1 person likes this
@ramapo17 (30441)
• Melbourne, Florida
16 Feb 16
@PaintsOnSlate I forgot about how big those cars were. They were tanks but a lot safer when getting in any kind of accidents.
1 person likes this
@ramapo17 (30441)
• Melbourne, Florida
17 Feb 16
@PainsOnSlate I remember the Hudson. Wow, you are going back some.
1 person likes this
@danny1971 (1747)
• Church Hill, Tennessee
16 Feb 16
I learned in the early 90s, and learned on a cutless oldsmobile ciera. It was my mother's car, and she taught me how to drive. When she got me my first car, it was a 87 ford escort. It was a blue color, and a 4dr. I really liked that car. and it was a good running little car.
1 person likes this
@antonbunot (11093)
• Calgary, Alberta
18 Feb 16
I got my license when I was 21 . . that was 41 years ago! And where the hell that time go, too?!
1 person likes this
@ramapo17 (30441)
• Melbourne, Florida
28 Feb 16
@antonbunot I ask myself that same question everyday. Sometimes I am amazed at what I have accomplished but other times I think back and would like to have accomplished or tried more. I am going to be 74 in July but still act like a kid sometimes. I drive my kids crazy but my grandsons love it.
