passatdoc
Well-known member
Thinking back on it, doing Driver Training at the university was a great decision. Transportation was an issue, because it was a half hour away from home. But it was only once a week for eight weeks (last two weeks optional). Not surprisingly, most of the kids in the program were from a nearby high school, I was the only one who came from a longer distance to take the course.
The two key features were:
1. learning to drive in the dark. It was March-April, Daylight Time didn't start until late April, and the course didn't start until 7 pm, so all but the last two (manual transmission) sessions started in the dark or at dusk, and were two hours long. I was allowed to take the written test for a Learner's Permit after having started the behind-the-wheel course, and driving in daylight away from the DMV with my new permit, and Dad in the front seat, was so ridiculously easy, it was a joke (until then, all my time behind the wheel had been in the dark).
2. learning to drive an oversized Electra 225 made any smaller car, including our family station wagon, seem simple to handle.
The other niceties were having a young teacher who was in training to be a Driver's Ed teacher, and the concentrated class time: one hour behind the wheel each week. The other kid in my car missed one week (illness) and the instructor and I simply drove for two full hours just to get more training (we used the entire 7-9 pm time slot). I also remember toward the end that our instructor would let us turn on the radio while driving!! Yeah baby.
The icing on the cake was learning the manual transmission in the optional two extra sessions (which I opted to take). Yay. The other kid in my car, who missed two hours due to being ill one week, signed on for the extra two sessions, which allowed him to make up the hour he was missing. Very course courses included manual transmission training, and I assume most who drive manuals learned from relatives or friends after licensure.
The certificate of completion was issued to me after completing the six required hours, even though I was continuing for two more weeks for the manual lessons, and by then I had accumulated the required number of hours practicing with my parents (might have been 20-25 hours in those days, now it's 50 hours). Today, a teen in California would have a six month waiting period between issuance of the learner's permit and eligibility to take the licensing test.
But in those days, you were eligible to take the driving test as long as you had completed Driver Training (check) and the required 20-25 hours practice time with parents (check). There was no minimum wait time of six months in permit status before taking/passing the behind-the-wheel exam, as long as one was 16 years old, so I took and passed the exam while still in the final two weeks of Driver Training (but having passed the core six hour course).
The two key features were:
1. learning to drive in the dark. It was March-April, Daylight Time didn't start until late April, and the course didn't start until 7 pm, so all but the last two (manual transmission) sessions started in the dark or at dusk, and were two hours long. I was allowed to take the written test for a Learner's Permit after having started the behind-the-wheel course, and driving in daylight away from the DMV with my new permit, and Dad in the front seat, was so ridiculously easy, it was a joke (until then, all my time behind the wheel had been in the dark).
2. learning to drive an oversized Electra 225 made any smaller car, including our family station wagon, seem simple to handle.
The other niceties were having a young teacher who was in training to be a Driver's Ed teacher, and the concentrated class time: one hour behind the wheel each week. The other kid in my car missed one week (illness) and the instructor and I simply drove for two full hours just to get more training (we used the entire 7-9 pm time slot). I also remember toward the end that our instructor would let us turn on the radio while driving!! Yeah baby.
The icing on the cake was learning the manual transmission in the optional two extra sessions (which I opted to take). Yay. The other kid in my car, who missed two hours due to being ill one week, signed on for the extra two sessions, which allowed him to make up the hour he was missing. Very course courses included manual transmission training, and I assume most who drive manuals learned from relatives or friends after licensure.
The certificate of completion was issued to me after completing the six required hours, even though I was continuing for two more weeks for the manual lessons, and by then I had accumulated the required number of hours practicing with my parents (might have been 20-25 hours in those days, now it's 50 hours). Today, a teen in California would have a six month waiting period between issuance of the learner's permit and eligibility to take the licensing test.
But in those days, you were eligible to take the driving test as long as you had completed Driver Training (check) and the required 20-25 hours practice time with parents (check). There was no minimum wait time of six months in permit status before taking/passing the behind-the-wheel exam, as long as one was 16 years old, so I took and passed the exam while still in the final two weeks of Driver Training (but having passed the core six hour course).
