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Flashback Friday #1

Mocha With Linda has started her very own meme. This is how she describes it:

This new meme’s purpose is to have us take a look back and share about a specific time or event in our lives. It will be fun to see how similar – or different – our experiences have been!.

I think I am going to like this meme a lot.  Grab the button and the link and come play along. Linda’s theme this week is:

How and when did you learn to drive? Do you have any particular memories associated with getting your driver license? How old were you when you got your first car and what was it? Who paid for it?


Once upon a time in the history of the State of Idaho, with their parent’s consent, 14 year-old kids could get their driver’s licenses. I took Driver’s Ed my freshman year in high school and, on my 14th birthday, I went downtown to the police station in Bonners Ferry, Idaho and tested for my first license. The lady gave me the test and said if I missed more than 3 questions, I would fail.

The police chief was a friend of my parents. I saw the man at least once and sometimes twice a week in a social setting. When he saw me taking the driving test he came and stood behind me. After I marked my 7th answer, I heard him clear his throat. I reread the question, thought for a bit, and made a different selection. The same scene repeated somewhere near the middle of the test, then again just a couple of questions later. I finished the remainder of the test in silence and took it to the counter to be scored.

The lady at the counter told me I had earned 100%, then she took my photo and handed me a little green piece of paper. Back then one had to wait for the driver’s license to be processed and mailed to them.

A couple of days later as the police chief was having coffee with my parents, I went to thank him for his assistance on the test. He said, “I am sure I don’t know what you are talking about, but had I cleared my throat a fourth time, you wouldn’t have your driver’s license.”

~*~

As foir my first car and who paid for it, you can read about that by clicking here: My First Car Was a Motorcycle.

Thanks, Linda.  This was fun!

50 Comments

    1. Melli — I feel sad when people say they’ve forgotten their life mile stones – -and then I wonder what I have forgotten.

  13. .
    This looks like the funnest meme yet! You did really good with it. Soon we will get to know all your old secrets. I am too busy this week to do it but soon I might.
    The older you get the more in your past you will have to write. Myself, I’ve done everything there is for a fellow to do and not be in jail or sued.

    I think a lot of us old people got their license when they were fourteen. I am glad you did. Mine was only good for going to and from school. At sixteen I got the real thing.
    That was back before someone invented driver’s ed. 🙂
    ..

    1. Jim — I am no spring chick anymore. AARP sent me a birthday card last year. This is a fun meme. Come and join us. Linda says this will be a regular Friday feature.

    1. Akelamalu — daylight driving only — but you are right, there is much reason to fear for your life when kids drive.

    1. Sara — my parents said, “Nice. Now buy your own car.” Or do you mean what did they say to Don? I don’t remember, but they had all been friends forever, so I doubt they were surprised.

  20. What a fun post! Nothing like a small town, I did not grow up in one, but spent most of my adult life in one and raised my daughter in one. Nothing like them. I read your first car post… how funny. I bet your dad was fit to be tied. lolol

    until next time… nel
    .-= Nel´s last blog ..Flashback Friday #1… =-.

  21. you tell the best stories from the past!
    here one is not allowed to drive inependently until the age of 18. and the only legal way of learning to drive is in driving schools.
    when i passed my driving test (at the age of 21 – i had to pay for it myself so it was only possible when i got a job) i said i’d drive anything (not that there were many options – we lived in ‘socialism’ after all) but a Renault 4. guess what my first car was? 😉
    .-= polona´s last blog ..waiting for spring =-.

    1. LOL! That’s the way it works! My first car was a station wagon. Every time I hit a bump the back window would roll down and the back seat would fold. It was my camping car and I loved it.

  22. My uncle lives in the sticks and the kids in his area are allowed to drive to the bus stop at age 14 (although some keep driving all the way into town to school). The only things I remember about my driving test were 1) the one question I failed: motorcycles have to keep their lights on 100% of the time –please tell me WHY I had to know this at 16 to drive a car?!? and 2) I will never be a good parallel parker. (I have since added driving backwards to that list, but at 16, those 2 stood out!)
    .-= kcinnova´s last blog ..Friday memes =-.

    1. Karen — divers licenses used to be good for ANY vehicle, sowhen they certified you to drive the car, they also certified you to drive a motorcycle and a big rig. Then some body realized A.) more specialized knowledge and more thorough testing was necessary, and B.) more money could be charged if one needed multiple licenses.

  23. That’s a good driver’s license story! Fourteen, wow. I don’t know if I’d want *my* fourteen year old driving?!

    I could have used such a friend when I took the test LOL I was just sharing my story with my daughter — I can still remember the exact question that failed me, almost thirty years later. Just don’t ask me what I had for breakfast today…
    .-= Susan at Stony River´s last blog ..Friday Flash 55: About Time =-.

    1. Susan — I had homemade lentil soup for breakfast today. I don’t remember any of the driving test questions Don “hurrumped” me into revising.

    1. Nicole — I came from a big family. I was used to being watched. I don’t recall it bothering me then, but I am certain it would now.

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