The Thrill of a Driver’s License

Do you remember learning to drive and that first driver’s license?

Most of us received our “how to read a calendar” training in the months prior to driver’s education, our first driving test, and that first drive all by ourselves. Alone – with an AM radio blaring – with the freedom to sing to ourselves as loudly as we wanted and go pick up a friend or two. Oh sure, it was the family’s second car but – by golly – we were going to have our own car – some day…

I suppose I was lucky. My mother’s hairdresser gave me her worn-out 1960 Valiant sedan, which sat in the garage for nearly a year before I could drive it. I had this car all to myself. My education in automotive technology began with that car and its humble little slant six. I’d sit in the Valiant, turn on the tube AM radio, and wait for the sound.

Yeah, a car radio with tubes – seriously.

I’d listen to Elton John, The Eagles, Gilbert O’Sullivan, The Beatles, and a host of others. We laughed when Eric Carmen and The Raspberries sang “Go All The Way…” and we’d speculate if they actually did it. The Starland Vocal Band with “Afternoon Delight…” was another sexual revolution pop hit that got our motors running.

My first car – a 1960 Valiant given to me by my mother’s hairdresser in 1972. I would become a licensed driver that September. The Valiant was my freedom at 16 – however, it was in no way a girl catcher though I would have appreciated the girlfriend. It was hauled off to the junkyard the following year when the transmission failed on a cold winter morning headed to school.

At my high school, there were the chosen few – those whose parents put them into new cars to the envy of us all. There were those with new muscle cars – one guy with a ’67 Shelby and another with a Chevelle SS. There were others if I think about it long enough. I wasn’t one of those nor were any of my friends. We were the poor and huddled masses who drove old clunkers or the family car.

How very uncool.

The cool kids drove muscle cars like this Plymouth Roadrunner when I was in high school.

What I find remarkable today is young people with no desire to have a driver’s license – their own little declaration of independence. They’d rather use Uber or Lyft than grab the wheel and go it alone. We are late-in-life parents with a 16-year-old son. Ironically, he couldn’t wait to get his license and get behind the wheel. He drives a 2022 Kia Sportage, which is the perfect ride for him and a whole lot nicer (and safer!) than anything I had at 16.

When we were young, we went cruising, hung out, and visited with our friends in person. We didn’t have cell phones and personal computers. Where I grew up there was the Hilltop Plaza parking lot and Foxhill Park in my native Bowie, Maryland. We’d hang at Hilltop, examine each other’s cars, cruise over to Foxhill Park or Freestate Mall, chat for a while, tell war stories, and head back to Hilltop for pizza. We’d do that until 11 or so and head home before the parents came looking for us.

Kids today hang out online, watch YouTube together, and game until all hours of the night. I’ve found young people hang out like we did a lifetime ago – only in a different way in our ever-connected world. And me, I like face-to-face time where doable, and not some sort of electronic device.

Breathing the same air while visiting in the same air space has become a lost art.