Getting my license and having my own car when I was 17 was my key to freedom. No more waiting for the public bus to get to school and back home again or depending on anyone else for a ride.
I remember gas was somewhere between $.28-$.33 a gallon. I was making $1.65 an hour at my job.
Finding a decent car was a challenge. I had to pay for it myself, there were no hand me downs. Most of the time, when you found a decently priced car and called on it, it was already gone. My first car was a Black Chevy Impala – we called it “the heavy chevy”. The engine was bad….. how could people take advantage of a 17 year old kid…..my dad got another engine from a junk yard and in a few months it was on the road. The radio didn’t work…. I remember sitting in the parking lot of a Channel Store (anyone remember them ?) after purchasing an 8-track tape player with a build in FM radio, checking the lower dash and finding a screw that allowed me to hook it up right there and then. My next car, I think I may have been 19-20, an Oldsmobile (anyone remember them ?) had a windshield leak and the passenger side floor would fill up with water. (you could have told me when you sold me the car ). When I needed my third car, I was pretty broke….my dad found me a RAMBLER…..a 3-speed on the column with manual breaks and no power steering. This was all I could afford. It turned out to be a great, dependable little car and I sold it 3 years later for more than what I paid. Cars were much simpler then.
Today, cars are so complicated….. run by computers. You didn’t have power windows, you had to lean over to roll down the passenger window …..power locks – (what were they?) .and remote start……forget it…….get your winter coat and boots on and go start the car up so the windows will be defrosted by the time you are ready to go. The handling of the new cars, with all the power-assisted “whatever” make driving so much easier…and more dangerous for inexperienced drivers.
Now when we look to getting a car, our choices are even more varied. Gas or Electric. We grew up with only Gas engines. I always thought my next car would be electric. They have a battery. Gas engines have batteries too, but have you ever looked to see how much a replacement battery would cost for an electric car? I struggle with the cost of replacing a battery in my laptop. After finding out they cost “thousands of dollars”, I reconsidered, I normally keep my cars for 10 years…..NOPE ….not for me…..
When you turned 17, you got your license. None of the hour restrictions when you could drive or who or how many people you could have in the car. Driver training was part of the high school curriculum, now you have to pay an independent company to teach you to drive, they even take you for your test with their car. Good thing because our household didn’t have a vehicle with the brake in the center console when our daughter was due to get her license.
As I was walking the dog yesterday morning, a guy was jogging with his, maybe five year old, daughter driving along in her electric “Barbie” car. In our day it was mini-bikes and go carts…… trying to get around the block and back in the back yard before the police came for “driving” unregistered vehicles on the road …. Not to mention we were unlicensed too ….we must have been between 9-14.
As this little girl was stopping and going, weaving from one side of the road to the other, it struck me…..Just what kind of driver training did she take and what kind of license did she have to operate this “electric vehicle” on the road way. I was too far away to see if the vehicle was properly registered and inspected, much less if she was wearing a seat belt.
I wondered…….what is this young child going to do when her electric battery needs replacing ? ? ?
DADDY….MY CAR WON’T START ! ! ! !
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