My first solo drive was in one of these. It was Grandma's car and some how I convinced my Uncle that I was capable of driving, and I was, at age 5. It was in Massapequa Park, Long Island in 1964 and I drove about 7 blocks total. Scared the hell out of my Aunt and Uncle cuz I had a lead foot but we made it home without incident. They laughed their butts off during the whole ride. I had to look between the steering wheel and the dash like some little old lady to see out the windshield. Got pulled over the first time at age 12 in Queens NYC driving a big old Galaxie 500. The cops called our parents but nobody was home so they impounded the car and let us walk. It was my friends car but he was too short to drive it. I was the tallest in the crowd so guess who got to drive? Those were the good old days.
I learned how to drive a manual at about 7 in my Dad's brown Mazda B2000, and got to cruise around the farm gopher hunting solo after I got it down. At 12 they gave me two IH tandem axle grain trucks with 534" gas engines to run on the farm during harvest.....They'd fill one, I'd run into the elevator and empty the load, meanwhile they were making rounds in the combines filling the other truck. I'd get back to the field, switch trucks, and repeat. Learned how to rpm match pretty well with the 5 speed lo/mid/hi transmissions. You only used the clutch to take off, after that you were rpm matching on up and down shifts.....missed the first week of school a few times because it was harvest, but it was a farm town so it was understood. You'd also see the cops while taking a load of grain down Main Street, and they knew you were 12 or 13 or whatever driving something without a CDL let alone a driver's license, but they'd just wave and on you'd go. Sometimes I miss the small towns.
My grandpa taught me how to shift a manual at about age 5. He had a little red Ford ranger. I'd sit in the middle of the bench seat and row the gears while he worked the clutch. Didn't even need to say a word, I'd just know when to upshift/downshift. My old man would let me drive around town at 14-15, just side streets and such and only when he was with me. Now at 15 when I got my Buick, it was on. My folks ok'd me to drive to my buddies house a block away. Of course that meant picking up all my friends there and driving all over God's creation with not a license among us!
I was 13 and stealing my cousins 1970 LTD almost everyday while he was at work ,work was 3 blocks away for him . But I only drove up and down the alleys in a 1 mile radius here in Chicago ...lasted for about 2 months till he noticed unusual fuel usage and the seat position being changed ...keys were suddenly hidden ,yep was like an addiction
Lawsons Roll on big "O "!!! Was it just a Northeast Ohio thing or was Lawsons a national chain? Nothing like Lawsons chip dip. Tom
Damn you were a lucky kid, the only truck I got to "drive" was my yellow Tonka dump truck I'd push that thing around the block, it was cool
My dad ran a Asphalt Plant and at age 11 during summer vacation I had to go to work with him and my job was to water the roads to keep the dust down in a 1949 International with a 5000 gal tank on the back. I never got her past 2nd gear for the next 3 yrs............it was 1974, I worked from 5 am to 6 pm 5 days a week for $5 bucks and a cold Schlitz per day....I was rich and that beer was cold and good !!!
..my story, prolly NOT much diff'nt than most of yours... I was 15 in 1969. Dad took me to a wrecked Insurance auto auction in Hamtramck, a burb of Detroit. I crawled all over a wrecked 67 Vette, a big block NOVA, I believe was a Baldwin car, a 67 Impala vert, a few others but my Dad had another idea. He spotted a little red vert sports car, lowly 6 cyl, manual trans, black leather interior and gorgeous shiny chrome wire wheels. He and I bid EVERY PENNY TO MY NAME, $1126.50. Three months later, MY FIRST CAR arrived in our driveway. A pile of twisted red metal, front mashed in, rear bentup...and yet, gorgeoous chrome wire wheels. It took my Dad and I a year to restore the car...He taught me how to use tools, hammers, dollies, and filler. I got it done in time to drive it in our High School Prom Court, carrying the Homecoming Queen! It was just a lil ole foreign red convertible roadster sports car with gorgeous chrome wire wheels. Gee. . .wish I still had that car. . . no, I mean,..I REALLY WISH I still had that car:
I learned to to drive Ford 8N tractor when I was 6 years old. I learned to drive 1947 Ford one ton pickup, 4 on the floor , and even had a radio, when I was 10 years old. Living on a farm u had to learn. picture is the same colour as ours.
