Wolcott Remembrance – Learning to Drive

Most high schools these days have dropped their Driver’s Ed programs due to liability concerns. But back in 1964 when I turned 16 Wolcott High School still offered it. First, we had the classroom portion – learning all the traffic regulations, knowing all the various signs, etc. Because I was a good student and had a strong memory, that part was pretty easy. But the next part was the on-the-road part and that was a bit more difficult.

I’ve never been a terribly coordinated person, so having to use both hands and both feet for various things while keeping track of the various dials and indicators as well being aware of what was going on in front of you, behind you, and on both sides of you all at the same time was quite challenging. The school-owned car was equipped with an automatic transmission – an extra-cost feature at the time, but one that most people were willing to pay, so at least I didn’t have to manage the clutch as well (more of that below). So the only thing for my left foot to do was use the floor-mounted headlight dimmer switch – I laugh when I see one of those in a Facebook quiz asking people what it is. But I still had multiple things to do with each hand and both a gas pedal and brake pedal for my right foot.

The first few times we only had to drive around the parking lot, pull up to the curb along the building (without scraping the tires against it), back into a parking spot (with no cars on either side to damage if we were less than adept), and finally master the dreaded parallel parking with a few judiciously placed traffic cones. After the instructor felt we were good enough, we were finally ready for the ultimate test – going out on the public roads where there would be other cars.

The road test was done with three students in the vehicle along with the instructor. Each student got to take the wheel for a half-hour of driving – going wherever the instructor told you. He would not give other instructions unless you forgot, so you had to remember to use the proper signals when turning, stay sufficiently back from the vehicle in front of you, stay centered in the proper lane, remain under the speed limit, etc. Violations of these were usually just a quiet reminder. And having two other students in the car meant that you also got to learn from the mistakes of others when you weren’t in the driver’s seat. But it also meant a bit of peer pressure knowing that the occupants of the back seat got to see all your mistakes!

The entire time on the road passed uneventfully, with the exception of one incident that sticks in mind to this day. We had driven through Cheshire and were heading north through Meriden and up toward Berlin. I’m not sure the name of the road, but it was a moderate-sized, two-lane road. Part of the road was over a series of small rolling hills – a little like driving on a roller coaster. Because of the terrain, that entire section of the road had no passing markings as you could not see over the crest of the next hill and there was not sufficient space between hills for a safe pass. I was driving up the first or second hill when a car came up behind us, going well over the speed limit (I was a few miles under it) and it proceeded to pass us going up that blind hill. I just kept to my lane and the instructor remarked to all of us, “don’t let me ever catch you doing that!” The three of us all nodded our heads and added it to our memory banks of an example of unsafe driving. Meanwhile the speeding car had disappeared over the next hill and out of sight.

Two or three hills later, we came upon that same car. He had attempted to pass another car just like he had passed us. But as he crested the hill, just about to overtake the slower car that was impeding his travels, he spotted another vehicle coming up the other side! In order to avoid what would have been a deadly head-on collision, he quickly pulled back into the right-hand lane. But as he was going much quicker that the car he was about to pass, he smashed into the rear of that car. But at least that collision was only at a speed difference of perhaps 20-25 mph instead of a head-on collision of 60+ mph. As we passed the two cars, by then both pulled off to the side of the road, the thing that still sticks into my mind over 50 years later is the sight of the rear window of the front car sitting on the road completely intact. The collision had enough force to pop that rear window out of its seals and it managed to land on the road without breaking. The instructor really didn’t need to say anything else to impress on our minds what we had witnessed, but he said anyway, “See what happens when you do what I told you not to do!” A better lesson could not have been staged.

Unfortunately for me, completing the Driver’s Ed class at WHS was not the end of my driver’s training. My mother would not let me take my driver’s test at the DMV over on Thomaston Ave. until I had met HER requirements. This included being able to drive the family VW Beetle which had a manual transmission. The Beetle was a fairly nice car to drive, so I was able to learn how to use the stick shift without too much difficulty. The shift pattern was simple, so the only real issue was making use of my previously ignored left foot to manage the appropriate coordination with letting up on the gas with my right foot while pulling/pushing the shift lever into the next gear. “Piece of cake,” I thought. But then I learned my mother’s next requirement – stopping on a hill and getting going again without any rolling backwards.

This was in the days before the nice “hill holder” clutches that have since become standard. So starting on a hill meant very close coordination between using the clutch to put the car in gear while very quickly releasing the foot brake with your right foot and immediately pushing on the gas pedal with that same foot. It was like learning to dance (which I was also not very good at). I struggled for several weeks to get it right. In those days I was taking flute lessons from an instructor who lived in Cheshire on Timber Lane. The road back was via Mountain Road which comes out on the Waterbury-Cheshire Road right where Route 68 and 70 come together. Mountain Road intersects in a manner where you are sitting on an uphill waiting for the light to change. That uphill position was the bane of my existence for several weeks. Each Saturday I would get “one more chance” to get it right, i.e. ZERO rolling backward before I got the Beetle moving up the hill and turning left into the intersection as the light changed.

With only one chance a week to try again, it seemed like forever before I got my mother’s approval to go and get my driver’s license. The actual test at the DMV was trivial after having endured my mother’s oversight – just back out of a parking space, turn right out of the parking lot and drive a couple of blocks up Thomaston Ave., go around the block and back to the start. No hills, no parallel parking, no sweat!

But my mother’s training actually got put to good use a few years later. I worked for two summers, earning money to pay for college, at Service Tire on the corner of Meriden Road and Store Ave. in Waterbury. One of my jobs the first year was driving the business “trash truck” to the Waterbury dump. This truck should have been in the trash itself! We loaded it up all week with the rubber dust from tire recapping. On Saturday morning, I would take one of the dealer plates from another truck in the yard and borrow a set of jumper cables to get it started (the battery was dead). With no battery that meant that the turn signals and brake light didn’t work, so I had to use the appropriate hand signals out the window to inform other drivers what I was going to do. The clutch was also totally shot, so shifting meaning double clutching, i.e. pushing in the clutch, shifting into neutral, letting up on the clutch so the various gears could get moderately synced up, then pushing in the clutch again in order to shift into another gear. With sufficient practice, you could do it reasonably smoothly without any gear grinding! At the dump I would shovel all the trash out of the back, taking care not to let the engine stall as with a dead battery you would have trouble getting it started again.

As a result of my driver’s training, I have now had 50+ years of accident-free driving. Only three minor speeding tickets and one parking ticket in that entire time. Thanks to WHS, and kudos to my mother for giving me a good start. And I never, ever pass anyone on a blind hill!