Kids today ... License to Drive

What about the director position at a WV college?

 

There was an opening at the one of the WVIAC schools. Not sure now, but I will keep my eyes open.

 

Yes. NYS licenses did not have your photo on them at that time (1971) and it was very easy to use an older person's license as a fake ID. Many places required you to have a Sheriff's Card (laminated photo ID, issued by your county's sheriff's office) to buy alcohol and to get into bars. If you had your Sheriff's Card (I still do, someplace) you were golden in any county in NYS.

 

My mother got a 'provisional' license at age 14 in Florida, because her father was disabled (and I think WWII had something to do with it too).

 

I was counting the days until my 16th birthday for at least five years, maybe longer. I wanted nothing more than to be behind the wheel of a car.

My two oldest children are 19 and 15. The older one had no interest in driving until she was well into being 17, when it became obvious that was the only way she was going to be able to get out of her nearly 2-hour bus ride to a magnet school. The younger one loves cars, but he hasn't shown any inclination to set aside time to go take his tests.

One of the big arguments young people make against getting a driver's license is the insane cost of insurance. In 1985, when I was 17, my car insurance was roughly $40 a month -- or, 11.94 hours of my minimum-wage job. When my daughter was 17, her car insurance (on a shitbox 1996 Dodge Neon) was nearly $200 a month -- or, 25.8 hours of her minimum wage job. And that was being on her parent's policy WITH a good student discount. I shudder to think of what they'll charge for my testosterone-addled son.

Insurance is such a wonderful racket. I wish I had thought of it first.

 

We had state ID cards that were different from the driver's license. The state ID card was a picture ID that was laminated. The driver's license was just a cheap, thin, cardboard "card" with your information, but no picture.

 

Shoeless Joe Jackson's South Carolina drivers license from 1949:

 

I took driver's ed (class learning) and driver training (road practice) through my high school at the usual times, but waited a year, by choice, to get my license when I turned 17.

(I think this is one significant factor in this recent trend of kids waiting a bit get a license. Most schools no longer offer these classes as a matter of course anymore, and kids/families are on their own to sign up and pay for them. It's not just part of school life the way it used to be, so it doesn't always happen as quickly/easily now).

I chose to wait -- and got questioned about/looked askance about it a couple of times -- because it allowed me to save up money for a car, so it was all part of an actual plan for me. I had a part-time job in a retail store near home -- and I either rode a bike to school, or bummed rides with friends. So it wasn't too much of a necessity for a while, and as long as I could put up with some other kids being incredulous that I didn't care to get my license the second I turned 16, it worked out well. (I remember even my driver-training instructor was amazed).

It gave me time mature and helped me save quite a bit of money so that I bought my own first car almost entirely on my own.

I'd support a law that required kids wait until they're 17, and maybe even 18, before getting a license. I think that year can make a big difference in maturity and have some practical and safety benefits as well.