For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for May 28, 2021

Every bozo has to know so they can avoid getting their car smashed by you…

That hit is the reason you have to learn on a junk car and the top sign has to be there.

Taught my son to drive before behind the wheel instructions began and he passed. No junker, no fender benders. Big empty parking lot on the weekends.

hang in there, Michael

My school had a driver education vehicle with dual brake system. The teacher sat on the passenger side with brakes under the glove compartment. The teacher hit it when necessary. Happened to me once. I was puzzled why we stopped and realized my teacher hit the brakes on her side. I wasn’t paying attention to the stop sign. Oooops. Humiliation helped me pay better attention to my environment. I was so overwhelmed with many things to watch for. Oh, the memory lane!

Right, no need for the sign. Your lousy, reckless driving will tell them all they need to know.

He doesn’t need a sign. He need a bumper car to learn in.

I had my driver’s license before I took driver’s ed (for the insurance break.) I basically learned to drive by mowing the yard with our lawn tractor.

He answers his own question!

If he learned his lesson he will get another chance in 6 weeks.

Mike’s comments about the driving instruction car are screaming out “I am a rich kid and I am too good for this car.” I remember when I took driving instruction in high school, I was excited that the car was the same make and model as the one my mom had.

Remember when Son Goku and Piccolo went to driving school?

I’m glad the hotshot screwed up.

By the time I took driver’s ed, I had been driving for almost 10 years, and I was 17

I learned to drive in my Dad’s 1980 F-150. Saturday mornings on the way to our wood-cutting spot, he’d pull over as soon as we got on the dirt road and I’d take over. The tricky part was the logging trail: It was kind of a mud-bog sometimes and his truck was a 2-wheel drive with a manual transmission. I learned quick.By the time I took drivers ed, I had a little experience under my belt.

Wasn’t a student driver, but I was third at the light, it turned green. The first in line hit the gas in reverse, don’t know why. I stuck around as a witness. They may have being pulling a scam to say the second car hit them.

FAIL.

THAT’S why, Michael!!

Good job Mike

It only took me a month till I got stopped for a ticket. My dad went to court with me (instead of just paying the ticket) The judge was impressed that my father came along, so he gave me a pass. That was 55 years ago. Lesson learned.

♪♫ Watch out for that Trrrreeeeeee! ♪♫

The confirmed convictions of youth now intersect with the harsh light of life.

“Parking by feel, Mr. Patterson? My driving teacher (Dad) would say something like that.

He also liked to say, “Driving by Braille”, and give others some road.

Usually he would say that when he was driving and pointing out others on the road, he was patient with us.

See, this is why you’re not ready for the fast lane. However, for those who get excited about this sort of thing, this is why we have bumpers. Yeah, for bumping.

Because you’re lame.

Ours had a kill switch hidden under the dash so that in extreme cases, the instructor could kill the engine. If he had to use the switch, you automatically flunked.

D is Drive, R is Reverse, P is Park and the windows are for checking out girls.

My instructor had to use the brake once too, as I missed a stop sign. But I took corners too fast for his liking too. During my test – The Test to determine whether I earned my license – he told me to slow down around corners. When I didn’t, he put his coffee on a flat piece of the dashboard and told me that if his coffee spilled on the next corner, he’d flunk me. Well, he gave me more instructions about pulling to the curb here, signaling and u-turning here, and I forgot about his coffee.He tells me to turn left and around the corner we go swooping. His coffee went sliding down the short length of that dashboard and my heart leapt into my throat. But it did not spill and I passed with a 98!

I bought my first car when I was 15. It spent it’s first year of my ownership in the school auto shop, where I fixed it up (it was a 1962 Ford Fairlane 500). I learned to drive in my parents new Pinto (I know, haha). I took my drivers test in my Fairlane, and passed with flying colors.

Because you’re an idiot, Michael.

The first time my middle son drove in his High School driver’s ed class, he turned left at a light and ran over the median, breaking the front axle of the car. They had to wait for a tow truck and a replacement car for at least an hour. The school sent a note home to let us know about the incident and assure us that our son was unhurt and not in trouble. But, he learned a good lesson and when the time came to get his license, he passed both the written and driving test on the first try. A lot of kids in our town take those tests multiple times before they pass. As far as the wrecked car went, my husband and I donated one of our cars to the school when we purchased a new one the next year.

Not exactly on the ball there, are you, Mike?

I learned to drive on a stick shift, 50 yrs ago they were common. Now they are known as “Anti-theft” devices.

We have a truck driving school here in town. You see a semi truck pulling a trailer driving around with a huge student driver sign on all four sides of it. I give it a wide berth when I come up on it in traffic.

That’s why Mike.

That “bump” says it all, Kid!

When I first got my license (not it was not before the horseless carriage) I was so proud of it that I laminated it. Then I got a ticket for not stopping at a stop sign (that I did not see). The judge got mad because he could not write anything on the back so he cut it up and I had to go and get a new license.

His instructor looks like a Zombie in panel 3.

She has teenage grumpiness and angst down to a T. I remember clearly in my 20’s changing my attitude from “my parents were such jerks” to “wow, was I a pain in the ass. Why didn’t they take me to the forest and leave me there?”

Drive safe Micheal. Don’t run into things like fire hydrads trees you name it. Dad and mum gonna be real Mad!!!

After having taught an ex-wife and later, my daughter how to drive, I have always felt there was a special place in heaven for driving instructors.

I raced before I got my license.

1951 in Allentown PA driving teacher was my father. No such thing as school d riving class. We had a ‘47 Buick Road Monster, & an Austin A-40 small English car, both standard shift. Took my Driver’s test at 16 in the Austin A-40. I looked about 12 or 13. When Finally allowed to drive the Buick I used 2 thick phone books to see over dash board. Cop stopped me near Allentown Highschool because he thought I was too young to be driving, & was amazed when he saw my drive’s license.

And besides, Gordon already taught him how to drive!

Yup, Mike, you are nowhere near ready for prime time.

I moved to a farming community when I was 15. I was the ONLY one who didn’t already know how to drive. My driving instructor didn’t know how to teach someone who didn’t actually know how to drive. He did a lot of yelling, then just gave up and didn’t let me drive again.

Most public schools stopped DE.

In my early teens (early 1970s) a kid could get a, auto drivers license at 15, which I did, in my home state. I had also been driving pickups and other vehicles on the farm since I was 11 or so. I also had a small CC motorcycle license since age 14.I then moved to a state where kids couldn’t even get a learner’s permit until 16 + had to take drivers ed just to get that.So I had to quit driving for the 4-5 months until my b-day and took drivers ed with a class of kids that had never even touched a steering wheel or clutch pedal. But I did nearly fail the simulator section of the class because the things had no feedback and bore 0 resemblance to driving an actual vehicle.

My grandfather taught me how to drive a stick shift when I was 12 (54 Chevy) and then my mom actually taught me how to drive in traffic, park, etc, all on a 1950 Plymouth (no power steering or brakes and 3 speed shift on the column. Driver’s Ed warn’t offered in schools in my area in the 50s. Fortunately, my dad bought a beautiful 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 automatic when I was in the eleventh grade, not too long before I turned 16. So on my birthday (four days after Christmas) we went to the courthouse and I took the written test, which I passed just fine, and then we went back after lunch and I did the driving test, which I also passed. This was long before seat belts so when the policeman who did the driving tests told me to stop, I stopped!! Quickly!! He didn’t count off, thought, because he did say to stop in a tone that meant right away. I’ve driven numerous shift cars and trucks since then, the last being a 1999 Chevy S10, which I drove for 15 years. I was tired of shifting gears by then so have switched to an automatic

LOL, Mr. Know-it-all

I like the pain stars from the bump, like the car is actually in pain from having Michael drive it.

You skills will embarrass you more than the car will.

I wonder how they test (now) for parallel parking with these new cars that parallel park themselves?

I learned in an Olds Vista Cruiser wagon. The instructor told us we were driving a “$7000 car”. We were all pretty good drivers so he would oft times nap while we drove. We also went on errands. Picking up dry cleaning, groceries and one time a dining room table they had fixed. That wagon was BIG.

Yes! that’s how I learned as well. A car with two sets of brake pedals LOL!