Do you Remember Getting your first drivers license?

[Carps]

Aussie kids have to wait untill they are eighteen to get a driver's license and when I was young there was no such thing as a learner's permit, except for a motorcycle.  That was obtained at 17, and probably explains why I had a motorcycle from that age.  

As for learning, if you were 17 and could con someone who was off their probabtionary license (that'd make them at least 21 and not really wanting to be wasting time with a kid) into sitting in the front passenger seat, you could drive anywhere so long as your car had a big hellow square stuck on each end with a black L in the middle of it.   :oops:

FWIW, at 18 we also get voting and drinking priveliges.  At 21 all we got a big party.  

OK back to the story.  Being of adult size long before most kids my age,  regular driving started much earlier for me.  Like about the same age as most Murrican kids.   So when the time came to head down to the local police station for my licence it was an interesting day.

Started with the sarge asking what I was doing there.

"Came to get my license."
"I thought you had a license?"
"Nup, only turned 18 yesterday"
So if you don't have a licence who was it I followed back from Stawell yesterday driving your uncle's car?"
"Must have been my brother."
"None of your older brothers live in town any more."
"HMMM good point, maybe it was someone who looked like me."
"Yeah sure. Here fill this out."
"Done, what now."
"I know you can drive, so bugger off and you'll get your licence in the mail in a few days."

That original license was a large paper one, with no photo on it, coz that technologyhadn't been invented yet.  And thanks to that, had I ever been pulled up, it would have definitely been my brother driving.

Had he ever been pulled up, he may have had some explaining to do.  Like as to why he was not carrying his license.  

And of course if you had a license, you could get into pubs and other licensed premises, but that's a whole other story.  

[Rrumbler]

I only have a vague memory of when I got mine, but it was sort of an anti-climax for me, as I had been driving tractors and trucks for several years, albeit in the gravel quarry, back country roads, or ranch fields; the best part was, that I was legal to go on the roads - one time, when I was about 14 or 15, I "borrowed" my Gramps' pickup when he had gone out of town for the day, and went into town cruising, but was so scared I was going to get caught, that I didn't enjoy it too much.  

Now, I do remember when my boys each got theirs: they both took their tests in one of my work trucks, a '79 Chevy Suburban 4x4 that was lifted four inches and had 35 inch tires, and shop made bumpers, with a winch in front, and a big hitch arrangement in the rear.  When they took the examiner out to the truck, both examiners had some reservations, but they went on and got it done.  The examiner for my youngest son was a petite lady, and her shoulder just barely reached above the floor level; my boy went and opened the tailgate, pulled out a storage box, went and put the box down for a step, opened the door and offered her his hand.  I think he would have passed, without even leaving the parking lot.  And "ol' dad" was sitting over on the sidelines, grinning like a "cheshire cat".   :mrgreen:

[UGLY OLDS]

Getting my license was kind of anti-climatic also--( I was driving a tow truck when I was 15 , so it was no big deal..)  My son getting his was kinda special though....He took his drivers test in '87 in a restored '66 Fairlane XL hardtop that I had given him on his 15th birthday...From then 'til he turned 16 we went through the car & when completed it was an excellent driver... All stock..Good looking car..Nothing "Hot Rodded or modified" ...The examiner inspected the car for light's..horn..safety items as they do all cars being used for driving tests...Came time for the road test & my son refused to start the car until the examiner fastened his seat belt....For some reason the examiner was not pleased with that.......never did find out why...