Here is an amusing old video from a Driver's Education Class in 1954…

General Discussion
1

Here is an amusing old video from a Driver’s Education Class in 1954…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ7mbmNMks8

The Driver’s Ed Car is a 1949 Ford, Custom Club Coupe, known as the “Shoebox Ford.” The first major change in Automobile design after WWII…

Although the title of the video has “1954” in the video name, I did not see any vehicles newer than 1950…

At 1:30 in the video, they recommend, “driving at a Safe Driving Speed which might be under the Legal Limit…” Oh Boy, will this open up a lot “I told you so…”

I love the Hand Signals in lieu of using directionals… On my driver’s written exam (1966) there was a question on using a hand signal…

Whenever they depict situations with other cars, it is almost always the same 1949 Ford Fordor Sedan…

At 5:30 “it is the mark of courtesy and good sportsmanship to stop and allow pedestrians to cross in front of the car.”

At 8:00, wonderful memories flooded back as it showed a S.S. Kresge Company Department Store… They were call “Five and Dime Stores” because so many items only cost a Nickel or a Dime… My very first “W-2” job was as a stock boy at F.W. Woolworths, which helped to pay the insurance on my first car…

At 9:30, I think the Fire Engine has “City of Philadelphia” written on the Truck… And that meshes with Pennsylvania having Yellow license plates then, Kresge’s Department Stores, and Electric Street cars in 1950 or so… with its proximity to MPO Productions in NYC.

But in any case, I hope you enjoy a “Drive Down Memory Lane…”

2

Ha ha. My neighbor had one of those cars. We went over to see the welder that he had installed in it. Cranked it up to tighten the belt to run the welder. Seemed to work fine. Flat head v8 if I remember right.

I took my drivers test in a snow storm. I wasn’t going to wait a day longer. After parallel parking, I had to get out and clear the snow off the rear window so I could see. I hit a 94 but don’t know if he docked me for that or not.

3

When I took my driver’s test in 1966, the New York State DMV had a very strict rule that all the Driving Test Examiners followed, You do not tell the applicant if the passed or not… Apparently, too many times when a person failed, they took it out on the Examiner. So they could not tell a person they passed because if they did not tell you that you passed, it meant you failed… So, they do not tell anyone anything… You found out in the mail a couple of days later.

4

We just went inside and he provided the scoring. If you passed, you could drive immediately. Then you would get the actual license in the mail.

5

When I went for my driving test, it was during the era when driver training still included how to use hand signals, even though turn signals had been standard equipment on cars for ~10 years. I asked the driving examiner if I should use turn signals or the Plymouth’s turn signals, and he said… “use your own judgement”. So, I used both the car’s turn signals and hand signals to indicate when I was turning.

After a couple of minutes, he announced that I had one infraction, and that one more would cause me to fail the driving test. When I asked him to explain that one infraction, he said, “You didn’t use a hand signal when you came to a stop”.
:smack:

So, even though the car had functioning brake lights, he “nicked” me for failing to use a hand signal when stopping. Luckily, I didn’t fail on any other points, and I passed the test.

6

Long before the IIHS began their crash testing research, Cornell University was testing seat belts and energy absorbing materials for the car’s interior, in order to reduce injuries and fatalities. This 1954 educational film runs about 25 minutes:

7

Maybe they bought their own cars for driver’s education. When I took driver’s education in the late 60s, the cars were loaners from local car dealers. My daughters took driver’s education in the late 00’s and the county taught the classroom portion but the families had to take the driving portion from a private company. Same state as me, different county and 40 years later.

8

Only about 60 out of 147 public school districts in Tennessee offer in-car drivers ed, it is more in the smaller rural areas, I do not remember my county, since the 80’s anyway, ever having an in-car drivers ed… There are of course paid private driving schools…

9

That was the policy when I took my exam in 1968. But after I did the parallel park and just before we got out of the car, the instructor quietly said “nice job, son”.

10

IMHO hand signals should be taught when a kid masters a two wheel bicycle. We even had bicycle safety films, and visits from LEOs in grade school to explain traffic rules.

One minor thing, in 1949 Ford ( Studebaker through 1955) made both coupes and two door sedans. The car in the film is a two door sedan, notice the rear side windows. Here are two Ford Coupes.

IMG_3431
IMG_34311920×1084 400 KB

IMG_3430
IMG_3430823×587 111 KB

This bright red with WW tires is a 2 Dr sedan.

IMG_3432
IMG_34321577×730 322 KB

11

How many cases of whiskey can you fit in that 2 door coupe’s trunk? :grinning_face:

12

I took driver’s training in high school in the fallof 1957. The car was a 1957 6 cylinder manual transmission Chevrolet. My dad had taught me to drive a manual transmission and said that unless you are on a hill or pulling a trailer, shift from 1st gear to 3rd gear and skip 2nd if you aren’t lugging down the engine. The driver’s education instructor threated to fail me if I didn’t use 2nd gear.

I took the test in our family car which was a 1954 Buick with a manual transmission. The licensing examiner was so impressed with the fact that the Buick had a manual transmission which was rare even then that all he talked about was the car and I didn’t have to do much. Four years later, my brother took his driver’s license test in the same car. By that time, the Buuick had a noisy rear axle. The examiner had been a mechanic. He had my brother pull over while he got in the back seat and had my brother drive while the license examiner tried to determine if the noise was a wheel bearing or the differential. The examiner was correct. The problem was the ring and pinion gears. My brother did pass his driver’s license test.

13

I’ll ask Bob Mitchum when I see him​:grinning_face:

Raise your hand if you get the reference.

14

My dad did lug the engines, my brother followed my dad’s practice. He bought an Austin Healey 3000, I don’t think he ever got to 3000RPM before shifting.

15

Thunder road? In the end though it was a 57 ford although they blew the shoe box up. I wont go into the norway story.

16

Not as many as you could fit in the trunk of a Chrysler Business Coupe!

image
image263×191 14.3 KB

17

In the movie his younger brother (played by his son) makes a run with the shoebox ford, I know it doesn’t end well, but been a long time.

18

That part is fuzzy. I’ve got the dvd but been a while. Something to do with the girl friend. We had a 57 ford so that was a main interest of mine. I’d hear my dad leave for work about 5 am an invariably spin the wheel a little in gravel. Just too much engine or not a gentle touch on the gas pedal. I loved that car.

19

Or maybe Junior Johnson. His NASCAR career followed his moonshining career. I’m sure there was some overlap.

20

After Mitchum was killed, the kid enrolled in engineering school. Never said whether college,vo tec, and training for what. Just that the kid had aptitude.