slo’s SUNDAY 4/22 poll - Driving to High School

[tvguy]

Just my Senior year. I got a car right before my Senior year. However, I drove my mom's Buick to school, and she drove my Pinto to work. School was 2.5 miles from home, my mom's work was 5 miles away so we used less gas that way. And my mom worked Downtown and the Pinto was much easier to navigate Downtown than the Buick. So much so that she only kept the Buick 2 years, trading it in on her own Pinto.

There were a couple of reasons I got a car in High School First, the 1975 cars only used unleaded gasoline, so by getting a new 1974 car, I could use any type of gasoline. Remember, this is just a year after lines at gas stations. Second, a car was an important part of my college prep. Getting to SAT and ACT tests, and I ALWAYS had a car full riding with me because some parents couldn't be bothered to drive their kids to the testing sites. Also getting to College Visits and working, and being in California, you just HAVE to have a car.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I picked other.

Long story, short. Or maybe the reverse. I went to Catholic HS in the suburbs. All my buddies from the neighborhood went to public HS in the city. I took bus fresh and soph years. 16 in junior, bought a used car, '56 Ford. I did all my hanging out with neighbor buddies. At my school, you could not cut classes, closed campus. Once you were in the school, you were in for the day. At their school, not closed campus, you could (though against the rules) cut classes.

I wanted to be more with my buddies, not the 'nerdy' (as I thought back then) kids from my school. So, in the morning, I often would head out but go to the public school in the city to the local slop shop there and wait for my buddies to come and go during the day. And the girls who they had met at school from the city. That was my 'clique' then, my neighborhood buddies and the city girls. We wound up hanging out always in the evenings and weekends at one of the girls' nearby parks.

Anyway, I cut a good number of class days in my junior and senior years. I was warned multiple times by the priests that I was on shaky ground. Finally, with maybe 4 or 5 months left in my senior year, with my essentially daring them to do something, they pulled the trigger and booted me. I finished my last part of senior year at a public HS, and not the one I hung out at. In our area, the public HS that you went to rotated between 2 HS's every 2 years. That year was not the year to attend my 'hang out' school. Honestly, I was a HUGE PITA in my later teens, earlier 20's. I was a headache to many, mostly my folks. I did not even attend my own graduation. And to think in my fresh/soph/early junior years, my HS counselor was encouraging me to look into attending an Ivy League school out east after I graduated. He always told me about George Washington University. How things changed.

Moving forward from those days, about 25 years or so, I made a promise to myself, regardless how difficult it would be for them, and us, that neither Vince nor Natalie would have a car of their own in HS. I felt, and know, my HS downfall was having way too much freedom with my own car. And I also know that besides having the car, I also had to be that PITA. I don't think Vince or Natalie would have been, but those years of mine made such a huge, lasting impression on me and my life.

So, if you read this, yes, I had a car for my last year and a half of HS.


ETA--Adding that today and really all past years, I do identify with my long term school, not the short term one. Marie and I attended my 50th reunion 10 years ago and had a great time. There is reconciliation in life.

 

[robinb]

Nope. I lived in Chicago so I took the bus to school. Plus, I didn't have a car and there was no parking around the school anyway.

My DD was a different story. We live in a small/medium city and my DD drove to school because she had swim team practice at 6:00 am (school team and then club) every day. I was relived of the duty of driving her to practice and I could finally sleep in. There was no assigned student parking at her HS, but there was plenty of neighborhood parking for her.

 

[NAB]

I got my beginner at 16 but never got my licence . I was to nervous driving huge cars at the time. I had plenty of people to drive me places but school I walked so no problem.

Finally got my license when I turned 25. I needed them to get to work. My dad paid for driver training were at 16 they tried to teach me. I bet if I had it when 16 I would have got my license. Simple thing as telling me to look far ahead instead of the end of a long nose a car might have helped…lol

Both my kids could drive at 16 , only my son drove to school because he had to get to a job after school. Daughter didn’t mind the bus.

 

[bjscheel]

I said Yes- Other. I drove when it was not convenient to carpool with my mom. Most days we rode together and I would wait at the town library for her to get off work. But if she had an odd schedule or I had something that didn't work with hers, I could drive. It was 12 miles.

Same for my girls, most days they could ride with me but if not, they drove. Fortunately DD20 got her license one week after DD23 left for college.

 

[Skippy918]

No. I grew up in NYC and didn’t get my license till after I graduated. The tiny parking lot was for teachers and staff. If you wanted to drive to school you had to circle the block to find a spot. I would normally get dropped off and then take the bus home.
We live less than a mile from the kids’s future high school, so they can walk or bike.

 

[ronandannette]

I got my beginner at 16 but never got my licence . I was to nervous driving huge cars at the time. I had plenty of people to drive me places but school I walked so no problem.

Finally got my license when I turned 25. I needed them to get to work. My dad paid for driver training were at 16 they tried to teach me. I bet if I had it when 16 I would have got my license. Simple thing as telling me to look far ahead instead of the end of a long nose a car might have helped…lol

Both my kids could drive at 16 , only my son drove to school because he had to get to a job after school. Daughter didn’t mind the bus.

Same. I didn't get my driver's license until I was 20.

 

[loves to dive]

No, we moved to middle east for my senior year and back then women couldn't drive so I hadn't learned yet. When I came back to the states to finish my senior year, I still hadn't learned. I didn't actually start driving until I was 21.

 

[AuntieMe3]

No, I didn't have my license in HS. I didn't get it until after I turned 18 and was already graduated. I rode the bus. Sometimes I got rides from friends but the bus was my main mode of transportation back then.

 

[PollyannaMom]

No car for me either. Dad dropped me off on his way to work in the morning, and I walked home after school.

 

[prairie_girl]

No- my high school was close enough that a group of us would walk every day. I lived the furthest away so I’d pick up one friend and then we’d walk to another friends house and we’d pick her up, and then we’d walk to another friends house and pick her up.

 

[amcnj]

Never drove or got a ride to school. There was no student parking in the school lots, but some kids did drive and parked on nearby streets.

We didn’t have school buses, and my walk was only a mile.

 

[disneychrista]

I had my own car, that I paid for, that I drove to school & work the middle of Junior year.

 

[georgina]

No, I went to private Catholic high school about 3 miles away. We had a neighborhood car pool (parents driving) and I took a city bus home from a nearby shopping mall.

I didn't have a car, but used the family car sometimes to drive to work or on weekends with friends (lovely gold gran torino station wagon!) Being the youngest of a large family I think my parents were worn out and definitely more lenient with me than my older sisters. Of course it helped that my mom started working and got her own car, and my dad took public transportation to work.

We bought a third (used) car for our kids to drive. DS wasn't interested and didn't get his license until he was 20. Both DD's drove on days they had after school activities, with sports that was often every day, and meant I didn't have to go pick them up after.

 

[leebee]

In 1973 my mom paid $100 for a used 1964 Buick Special that was all mine, except it came with the agreement that I'd drive my younger sister to her activities and do the grocery shopping. No big deal, my mom hated driving and I LOVED it, so it was worth doing the errands to have my own car. A friend and I swapped off driving to school for all of junior and senior years.

 

[E&Cmom]

I took the school bus.

Didn't have a car or a licence at the time.

 

[MillauFr]

Had to walk about a mile to the school
Not fun in inclement weather

I wonder if people thinking paying $5 + a gallon for gas is worse than walking in bad weather?

 

[SandyinMonterey]

Yes, had my own car. Took turns driving to school with a friend.

 

[Praying Colonel]

It was a long way to go to get approval from my parents to drive on my own, then I had to save the $ to buy my first car.* So by the time I had a car to drive to school, it was November of my senior year.

Until then, I'd ride the bus to school and walk home. Our school was only a 15 minute walk from our house, but it was at the top of a steep hill. So I'd ride the bus uphill, walk downhill.




*--It was a 1978 Chevy Vega--a lovely vehicle, and by "lovely," I mean "awful." They have almost the exact same vehicle, down to the paint color, on Spaceship Earth. It's like a combination of nostalgia and PTSD whenever I see it.

 

[Walt's Dream]

I usually walked until my senior year when I stayed late for theatre rehearsals. Then I got to drive the family yellow station wagon with back rear-facing seat! I remember hitting the speed bumps with one hand on the wheel.