The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
How old were you when you got your driver’s license, and did you pass your test on the first try?
Also, looking back, do you think you were really ready to drive when you got your license?
Talk about it….
42 and I’ve had high blood pressure ever since. And yes, passed on the 1st try.
Yes, 1st try in 1982.
100% written test.
97% on road test.
At that time I felt I was ready. Looking back I was not ready.
If we had todays traffic in 1982, myself or someone else would have been killed.
I was 15 which was 50 years ago. I passed on my first try.
I was 16. Like many failed the driving part the first time because someone yielded the right-of-way during the test and I did not use it. And of course parallel parking which can be a high art form. What depressed me more was the lower score on written test mainly because I hadn’t studied the manual that much. The only thing I missed when getting a California license was in how many days when selling a car do you need to report it to the DMV. That’s something I would have looked up anyway in that event and laws like that are subject to change.
Growing up in a rural area I had plenty of opportunity to practice driving before I was 16. And as a professional musician when I got my license my parents were happy to no longer need to drop me off and pick me up after a gig.
I was 17 and I didn’t pass the first time. I went to the DMV in Martinez (no longer there) and didn’t realize Barrellesa was a one way street. So I went into the far right lane and turned left from there. I passed the second time. Yes I thought I was ready to drive, but my mom wasn’t. She made me so nervous when I drove her anywhere because she was always telling me how to drive. She never learned to drive.
16. Yes
Day after my 16th Birthday. Got 100% on the driving test.
I was seventeen when I got my permit and eighteen when I got my drivers license and passed the test on the first try. However, at that age I was a carefree kid and bought a ’51 Ford 3 speed stick when I was seventeen and taught myself to drive a permit. So I had enough driving experience to pass the driving test and we also had Drivers Ed in school so it was no problem passing the written test too.
I was 16.
Passed written test on first try.
I also passed the road test. But 10 points were taken off because my mouth was dry, so I took one hand off the steering wheel to grab a stick of gum out of my shirt pocket. Oops. Hands were supposed to be at 10 and 2.
Parallel parking was a breeze.
As far as auto driving, got Learner’s Permit at age 14. Drivers License at 16. Took driver’s ed as a high school class. Passed tests first time.
I also have a Motorcycle Endorsement on my Drivers License. Obtained that in 1997 (first try) after taking the Motorcycle Safety Class through the CA Highway Patrol, then held at Concord High School. I passed the tests in that class (you have to be able to demonstrate motorcycle driving ability, including safety issues such as safely coming to an abrupt stop). Passing that exempted me from motorcycle driving requirement at DMV. Allstate reimbursed me for the class cost.
I had ridden mini bikes and smallish dirt bikes in my teens, but no motorcycles since. I would not have been safely ready to ride a motorcycle without first taking the CHP Motorcycle Safety Class. I continue to recall and implement its training to this day.
Mary Fouts – Was your Motorcycle Safety Class taught by Lloyd Novinger?
Hey!
I did the Motorcycle Safety Class taught by Lloyd Novinger and had a blast! But I never got the guts to drive on the roads.
Kirkwood – Yes, Lloyd was my instructor. He was an absolute Master of Motorcycles. As I recall, another man or 2 helped Lloyd with the outside riding instruction.
My husband Jim also took the course from Lloyd in 1995-ish. Jim was the person who told me I should take it, as he had learned so much in the course, particularly with safety issues. I was 1 of 3 women in my class. We all passed first time.
Yep – Lloyd was a quite a character, he loved motorcycles and loved policing. I remember the sign on the rear of his patrol motor “I ketchem” (sic).
Was 16 and passed the test with flying colors, first try. Nothing to it
I was 16 (in 1969) and passed the test the first time around. Then I bought my first car, a British import – a Rootes Group of England “Singer Gazelle”. A cousin to the Hillman Minx. I loved that little 4-on-the-floor!
Passed driver’s test at 16 but not the first time, I had picked up a bad habit from my dad of not coming to a full stop at a stop sign. I jumped into second and that ended the test.
I had Drivers Ed. in H.S. and passed that despite spinning out the dual control car on the Salvio Hill. The instructor, Norman Kestner, was white as a sheet.
Ever watch PD on TV ?, nobody has one , including me. Road Trip !
Within days of 16th bd…Daly City dmv (easier than Fell St)…using ,my friend’s E150 van…1st try. Motorcycle test shortly after…same location…using my DT250.
I got my 1st DL at 15, at that time you could get a DL to drive a 90cc or less motorcycle, this was Kodiak, AK many years ago (1969)
At 16, passed barely with a 70 out of the Hayward DMV. Like many others, I am glad I did not have to drive in today’s traffic. It really does take a year or so until new drivers understand the physics of driving. I am really aware of how dangerous traffic conditions are, now that I have my own teen driver.
16, first try passed, yes I was ready to drive.
16 and it took me two tries. I failed to stop at a yield on a country intersection with no other traffic for at least a mile.
Passed the 1st time, 1962 when I was 16 in Ohio. Parallel parked perfectly 1st try, and we were allowed 3 tries. We actually drive quite a bit, not like their short tests now. Since then I have had driver licenses in 5 states and always passed the written test easily.
16, yes, got 100%
December 10 1953 written and driver first try. One ticket in 66 years of driving
I was 16 years old, I passed the driving test my second attempt in my mom’s 1962 manual VW Bug. The first time the examiner told me to exit the El Cerrito DMV parking lot onto Kearney St, which was a narrow one way road, in dire need of repaving and without any striping at that time. He told me to take the first left, when I did he directed me back to the parking lot and failed me for not moving all the way to the left side of the road to make the turn from the “left lane”. It had not appeared to me that there even WERE two lanes. It was a sort of a trick question. I had to wait six months to retake and pass the test. I was ready.
17, didn’t have the grades at 16.
Passed on 1st try at Walnut Creek DMV when it was on Pine Street.
Can still parallel park in one smooth swoop.
14 Aced both the driving and written test, still have the gold embossed DL. Have aced the test every time since then in 4 different states. Just took the written in California a few weeks ago, they sure have dumbed it down.
Passed the test first time at 16, driving of all things, a Chevrolet Kingswood Wagon, which was the Family car. I was and still am a bit o an Old Lady Driver, since I did get my one and only little speeding ticket at the age of 17.
Some times I feel it’s not safe on the roads, because of the crazies out there.
Got my full license at 18 when I passed my driver’s test on the first try.
However, I got my motorcycle permit at 15 1/2 and never needed a license to drive a car cause I never drove one until I graduated from high school (since a motorcycle is a single rider vehicle and you can’t legally drive it with someone else until you pass the driver’s test, you have to drive it alone.)
So by the time I took my test I’d been driving on the streets for over three years already and was more than capable to drive.
I have since taught three other adults (not my children; they’re only 5&3) to drive and they have all passed their tests in the first try as well.
On my 16th birthday.
Before I drove, the examiner checked the car and there was a taillight out, so we had to go get a new lightbulb first, but as far as the actual test, I passed on the 1st try.
The only thing I got marked off for was waiting too long at a stop sign to make a left turn onto a busy street…the cars were coming pretty fast and I decided it was best to be cautious.
I was ready: I had been driving a tractor, as well as a car on our farm since I had been about 10.
There were 2 foolish things I did, but learned from, because of lack of experience. A) My first night driving home alone, I pulled over on a dark country road when I saw a car sitting on it, to ask the driver if he needed help (just some kids making out, I learned). B) Once, I thought it would be fun to splash one tire in a mud puddle on the dirt shoulder of the road, not realizing that when the tires are on different surfaces, they tend to spin at a different rate, resulting in the car tending to spin. Fortunately, I guess God had angels looking out for me in both circumstances, and I didn’t repeat those mistakes. Other than those two times, I was a very responsible driver.
16 yes Glendale, CA
18, passed it the first time with a few points off for failing to check for bicycles before turning right. Simple cruise around a suburban neighborhood in Capitola. Most intersections didn’t even have stop signs, not another car on the street when parallel parking. Aced the written test.
You made me laugh!
16. The written test was easy enough. Barely passed the driving part. Like others, I was caught off guard by a weird situation. He took me through a construction zone in WC. The stop sign was 50 feet or so before the obvious intersection marked by cones. I ran the stop sign and almost failed.
I must have learned my lesson because I come to a full stop at every sign, ever since.
I do not have my driver’s license to drive I only have my driver’s license to drive people crazy
I got my drivers license in August 1967. I had arrived as an au pair from Denmark in January 1967. My second au pair family wanted me to drive so l could pick up the kids or take them to the beach. As far as l remember l passed the first time. Getting a driver license in Denmark was very costly, you had to take lessons from a licensed teacher, and you had to know a lot about a car, not just traffic rules. Besides the expense most young people at time in Denmark didn’t drive. We biked took the train or bus.
On my 16th birthday, 1978. Passed on the first try. Walnut Creek DMV.
The driving age is 17 in NJ. I was required to demonstrate parallel parking between 2 barriers. I took the test in my Father’s VW so no problem. We lived near NYC. Parallel parking was an essential skill.
The motorcycle test required that I stop on an incline, turn the bike off and start it up again.
Don’t you need training and a license to drive on a race track?
I talked my mother into taking me to the DMV the morning of my 16th birthday. There were no appointments back then. I passed and was a licensed driver within hours of when it was first legal to become one. I drove my sister around, which is likely why Mom was so agreeable about taking me!
16 from Walnut Creek DMV passed on the first time
First try on my 16th birthday. If I’d known that would trigger the renewal a year earlier I would have waited until the next day.
I think I failed the first try on the road test. I was 16 at the DMV in Walnut Creek. At that time we had Drivers Education in highschool and they would take us out to learn how to drive. I enjoy driving very much. I have a great safety driving record and pay the lowest rates possible through AAA. Driving is a privilege and not a right. I wish people would use their turn signals. It is so maddening to try and figure out what the driver is slowing down for then you see they make their turn. Ridicules.
took the written test when i was 15.5, scored 100%, didn’t actually get my license until I was 18 when I was home on leave from Navy Boot Camp (never had a birthday in Boot Camp, the Company Commanders will work you so much harder on that day). The laws had just changed to where you had to have behind the wheel driver training to get your license at 16 and the school district had just stopped including that for no extra charge at school. My parents couldn’t afford to pay for it so I didn’t get it.
16 and probably failed the first time. I don’t remember. I think I was good to go from the start. Classes were in the winter at night so I learned to drive after dark. Only had one moving violation in all my years … but that was a head on collision! Thankfully no one was injured.
16 first try