The Torch Gets Passed

[vaderv]

I'm probably gonna bore some of you yet others will remember this time in your lives and smile I hope.
My oldest son has started taking drivers ed! Damn where did the time go. Well anyhow after a couple hours in a drivers ed Focus we got a temporary permit so he can drive with me or my wife in the car. I know some will say I'm crazy but I let him drive The MARAUDER. He's doin great, he has even avoided a couple morons attempting to break my car!
I'll tell ya something, my owning this cars has given my a certain measure of pride, (I am sure you all feel it too) but its nothing compared to the sense of pride I felt today when my son with my wife in the Marauder to go to his drivers ed class.
I really got the sense of the torch being passed so to speak and the smile on his face was worth more than any car I'll ever see let alone own.
I'm sorry if this post bored ya to death. I hope some will remember when dad or mom let ya take the "good" car and smile with me...

[martyo]

When I was a kid, we had no cars. In fact, I had to walk to and from school and it was uphill both ways!!

[Bigdogjim]

Great story.

[jgc61sr2002]

vaderv - Can relate to that. John :up:

[Smokie]

Not bored at all, what you described is a pleasure that cannot be bought. I have three sons so I know where you are coming from... teach him well. :D :D :D

[vaderv]

martyo wuhahahha even my 80year old dad had a car to drive when he was 15 or so!!!! U must be really old ; )

[SergntMac]

I'm not bored, not at all, thank you vaderv.

I am spinning in memory here...Your post causes me to reach back in time. I haven't a son (nor a daughter) myself, but I do remember being a son, and being in the situation you describe to us here.

I got my driver's license (by law, way back then) at 14. I did that without any Driver's Ed (didn't exist yet), or my Dad's permission.

All I needed to take the test was an automobile of any legal description and approval, and someone, anyone, with a valid license to get me to (and maybe back from) the SOS testing facility.

The car was a 1963 2Dr. Pontiac Bonneville, a behemoth of power, in performance and comfort. Wayne Olson was the 19 year old licensed driver.

End result, I had my legal license two years before my Dad knew I had it, and I had been driving many types and styles of automobiles by the time he found out. Looking back now, I know I did this wrong. I upset a symbiotic balance of sorts. I let my wanting to break out and get my own license, be an adult and all that, go against the grain of my Dad's wanting to help me, guide me, towards and across this threshold.

It's more than just a license to drive, and I see that now. It's a matter of process. Processing the change between father and son. Processing the step towards adulthood, and a step back from being a parent. Passing a sword so to speak. I got what I wanted, but my Dad did not.

He never said a word about this to me, or to anyone. Suddenly, I was a licensed driver, and not long after that, an owner of a beautiful (POS in his view) '64 Pontiac GTO.

The very first time my Dad came to acknowledge that this right of passage had passed between us (and passed away too) was his telephone call with instruction to "Pick me up at the office at 5 PM sharp. Be there, and drive the red car, Shellhouse needs a spanking."

The "red" car was my GTO, his Impala was green. Shellhouse was one of his office pr*cks, someone he needed to teach a lesson to. I got his message, I brought the red car to his office and later scared the living s**t out of "Mr. Shellhouse" on his free ride home.

All this was a long time ago, 1968, so you dont't have to guess or suspect.

Everything between Dad and me worked better after that, I was someone different to him and he was someone diferent to me. I stopped being his son, he stopped being my Dad. We became partners, in his race car.

Still...I wished I had let him teach me. I later (belatedly) learned that he knew so much about cars, driving, and so on. I cheated him, and I cannot let myself forget that I have.

Sorry I waxed nostalgic on y'all, but this is one of those threads that causes spurs to punch into memory's belly. "And a way we go"...eh?

[LincMercLover]

:cry:

[Slowpoke]

my mom taught me to drive - her basic rule was [and still is] "if there is a lot of space between you and the car in front of you, you are not going fast enough"

she taught me to do doughnuts in the snow, theorizing that i had better know how to skid and slidw. she pushed me to hit the throttle to avoid idiot drivers.

[Patrick]

;) I luved it thanks!!!!

When I saw thee MM I fell in luv. It reminded me of of my godfather (Patrick Harmon) who was a Chicago Police officer in the 70's. I unsed to sit on the front stoop and wait for him to come down 48th street. I would then run back to the alley and wait for the big black unmarked ford LTD. We would pull into the garage and he would use the sirren and lights. GOD WHAT A THRILL!!!!!! I was just a kid but I looked forward to it!

I have a personall plate that I will put on MM in honor of him! I belive he would luv MM as much as I do!!!!!! He has been gone awhile but I belive he is looking down thinking, I wish I had one.

Sorry to ramble but thanks for letting me think of him (not in a sad way) Just a bad night at work And needed this. Thank You!!!!!

[RCSignals]

Not bored at all. Like Mac, we do do not have children, but i remember well my getting my license when I was 16. I started driver ed when I was 15 because my 16th birthday fell before the actual "in car" portion.

Getting one's driver's license has to be one of the last "formal" 'rights of passage' for a father and son (or daughter) to participate in.

[bchapman]

I'll never forget the day I was allowed to take my father's Olds Toronado to go pick up my sister in New Brunswick, NJ. This was a huge, dark green, beautiful car - the most luxurious car I had ever seen. I was excited and honored. On the way home, the car in front of me stopped suddenly and I tapped the rear of it. I swear to this day, at that moment I saw my life flash before my eyes.

[golfnut]

My first car was an 81 Mustang that my Dad fixed up to look, and I repeat, look similar to a Saleen. It was dependable, for the most part, but wasnt very fast. I was proud of it, and told him so many times. When I was 16, I was "going" with a senior when prom rolled around. I had planned on taking the stang, then that night my next door neighbors let me borrow the hotrod. It was a 72 Corvette Stingray convertable that was mint. I will never forget my Dad's words when I was pulling out the drive: que the sweet music and sureal setting: "boy, you wreck this car and your life ends at 16!" AHHH the good old days.

[jerrym3]

My dad taught me how to drive when I was 15 years old in 1958. I learned on his 1951 Plymouth station wagon, three speed on the column.

He would let me drive on the highways in New Hampshire (on our summer vacation in the White Mountain area) and take a tremendous amount of heat from Mom yelling that I was too young.

My first car was a 1953 Ford four door, flathead V8, column shift, three speed. Compression was so bad that if you parked the car on a hill and left it in first, with the hand brake off, the car would roll downhill.

But it was the only car I ever sold for more than I paid for it: sold it for $275; bought it for $250.

[Long Live #3]

The only thing my dad would let me drvie was the T-bird, and maybe the Astro.

[dok]

I grew up on a farm in Iowa. I was driving tractors when I was 8 and driving trucks in the field when I was 10. Dad started letting me drive the car by myself when I was 12. At 13, I was allowed to drive into town alone to get parts for the farm machinery. Course my town only had a population of 190.

I got my first car when I was 14. It was a beat up 1950 Merc. It cost $100. I spent my after school hours sanding it down by hand. Had it painted jet black. Customized it, added fender skirts and put black and white seat covers in it. It was similar to the famous merc that James Dean drove. Kept the car for 3 years and sold it for $250.

[jgc61sr2002]

Poke - Your Mom is super cool. Barbara - I still have my fathers Oldsmobile , a 1973 Toronado with 27,000 original miles. John

[RCSignals]

Originally posted by jgc61sr2002
I still have my fathers Oldsmobile , a 1973 Toronado with 27,000 original miles. John

not your Father's Oldsmobile! ;)

(sorry, I couldn't help it)

[screamdennis]

i learned to drive in a 54 mercury , 2door with a 3 on the tree. got my permit at 14 and then my lic at 16 . i remeber this well got my liciese on a friday and drove around , then went home , got up saturday morning and decided to wash the car , was driving to the local car wash when the local cop spotted me driving by myself ,guess he figured he had me no adult driver with me .
so i played ring around the block for awhile untill he caught up with me and i showed him the magic coupon that really pi$$ed him off ,didnt like me for some reason . first car was 1964 mercury comet cyclone neat car . thanks havent told that story in along time

[screamdennis]

oops: forgot about the kids ,have 4 boys and 1 girl . my youngest boy is 17 and just dying to take the mm out by himself , but this will not happen sorry to say love him dearly but it will be a cold in you know where if that happens . trust my daughter with it not the wife likes to park between cars.

[jrzygrl]

Ok, I learned to drive the day I Illegally drove myself to the DMV to get my license in my boyfriend's (now husband) 1972 Cadillac Coup DeVille. I was 20 and never drove or had drivers Ed. Had to get home from work that night, He started night shift job with his new truck, the Caddy became my ride.

[bchapman]

Originally posted by jgc61sr2002
I still have my fathers Oldsmobile , a 1973 Toronado with 27,000 original miles. John

That's great! They don't make 'em like they used to... until the Marauder came out, that is.

[jgc61sr2002]

Originally posted by RCSignals
not your Father's Oldsmobile! ;)

(sorry, I couldn't help it) Yes it is.:D