Every kid in my public high school class who was 15 years old took in-classroom training from our shop teacher, Mr. Kinzler. I considered him a typical shop teacher – cut off a piece of a finger while using power tools and had a dry sense of humor (easily mistaken for being a mean man). Those of us whose birthdays fell on a day during the summer break were scheduled to take our in-car driver training after the school year was over in late May.
By passing the written and driving test, a high school student in Wisconsin 16 years of age could get a probationary license that came with it restrictions on when you could drive and how many passengers you can have in the car with you. Once you turned 18, you could then get a regular Wisconsin drivers license.
The car used for training was a 4-door car carrying three students and our instructor, Mr. Marg. He sat in the front passenger seat with his own steering wheel and brake pedal. I don’t know where he was from and I never saw him again after the training.
The three of us all wanted to be the first to drive during the day. That was because the first always got the longest time behind the while. The last person might get cheated if we ran out of time out and had to get back to where we started. We mostly drove around the town of Luck, but were thrilled when he let us drive onto country roads and Highway 35. Mr. Marj only messed with one of us trainees by slamming on the brakes on his side of the car. Luckily it wasn’t me.
On June 29, 1977, I took my driving test in my parent’s Plymouth Fury. We usually had two cars in the household and the Fury was what I was allowed to drive. I don’t remember the details of the test, but I passed. I could them use the Fury to get to my night job as a busboy at a steak house near St. Croix Falls. It wasn’t long before I bought my own beater car so I could stop taking the bus and drive myself to school.
Today where I live, many kids drive themselves to school. The parking lots are huge! All those kids on the road lead to a lot of congestion before and after school hours. Most of the local schools charge the students for a parking space. There was an article in the paper just the other day that was about kid wanting to ‘personalize’ their space by spray painting designs and graffitti! The parking lot next to Luck Public High School in the 1970s was free, could hold about 30 cars, and it was first-come, first-served!