A kid’s grade school years are some of their most formative. As a kid, you learn to socialize, maybe build a friend network, and figure out who you might become as a person. As a teenager, you might experiment with new experiences, have feelings you’ve never felt before, and perhaps not realize how good you have it while you’re not currently paying bills or having adult responsibilities. Part of grade school involves sometimes being driven to school by your parents or guardians. What were you driven to school in?
My family has always had an interesting relationship with cars. One of the earliest vehicles I remember was the W123 Mercedes-Benz that my mom named ‘Jane.’ I couldn’t have been any older than 5 years old or so when that car was written off. That was in roughly 1997 or so.
My parents also had a pretty big fascination with minivans. My mom would try to have the latest vans, which would lead her to buy a new 1999 Ford Windstar, a 2003 Chrysler Voyager, and then a 2003 Oldsmobile Silhouette. Dad often had older vans, including a 1993 Plymouth Voyager and a 1995 Chevy-Van 20.
Some of my earliest school trip memories involve riding in the second row of that brown ’93 Voyager. My dad would have WLS 890 AM blaring, and in between loud pops of static, I listened to talking heads make commentary on politics. I still remember how much WLS marketed Rush Limbaugh back then. I also remember the smell of my dad’s cheap cigarettes, the softness of the burgundy cloth seats, and the gentle whine of the van’s transmission as it began its departure from this mortal plane.
I was too young to understand the political banter at the time. Instead, I found the voices, broken by bursts of static, to be soothing. That van was more welcoming than any school bus.
As I got older, the vans went away, and were replaced by vehicles like a cherry red 2003 Chevy Blazer, a 2000 Ford Ranger, a 1990s Nissan Hardbody, and a gold on tan 1995 or so Saturn SC1. My dad always drove these older, more beaten vehicles, and the Saturn was no exception. It had only basic amenities, and its interior was worn from a working man who put in hard overtime every single day and relieved stress through packs of cigarettes.
I loved the little coupe. Its exhaust was rusted out, so the car sounded “sporty” to my kid ears. It was a manual, too, so I got to watch dad throw the stick back and forth. I was also in love with the Saturn’s design, from its gigantic instrument cluster to the body, which made me think of a spaceship. In 2010, when I was 16 going on 17, my dad tossed me the keys and gave me a crash course in driving a manual.
Sadly, as much as I wanted the Saturn to be my first car, the vehicle met its end when my dad lost control at an intersection and slid over a curb at high speed. The impact was so hard that the vehicle’s unibody split.
In my later school years, I’d run late for the bus, and my mom would have me drive myself to school in her GMC Envoy XL while she sat in the passenger seat. Then, I’d roll up to the school’s door, toss her the keys, and then sprint in.
A part of me does wonder what would have happened to me as a car enthusiast had I not lived much of my grade school years out of the backs of so many cars. What if, like most of my classmates, I always rode the school bus?
Here’s where I turn things over to you. What cars were you driven to school in as a kid or teenager?
Top graphic image: Saturn
When I lived with my mom, early elementary school transportation was a 1969 Rambler station wagon.
When with dad, it was a big yellow bus (7 miles to town, but due to small farm town politics/older kids’ chore duties we were among the first picked up and last dropped off, so we spent well over an hour on that bus each day, mostly on gravel roads).
By middle school & high school, we lived three or less blocks from the relevant school building and mostly walked.
It would have been a 1980 Plymouth Horizon coupe if I got a ride. But both my parents worked and school was so close, pedal power is all I ever had.
would’ve been a ’83 Camry, followed by a ’90 Accord. But I rode the bus to grade school. So really, some 1980s Ford “Pignose” bus, Diesel, manual transmission, bus #232. I just learned these were “Ford B Series” busses.
Too bad about Jane the W123 being written off when you were such a youngster. As someone who DDs a W123 station wagon I heartily approve of your mom’s choice.
One of my earliest automotive memories is my family’s 1960 Ford Fairlane sedan which was actually a rebadged Edsel; I remember the upholstery being really scratchy and how one could tell the initial ‘E’ (for Edsel) in the upholstery on the seatbacks had been converted to a ‘F’ (for either Ford or Fairlane) by simply having the thread in the bottom bar of the ‘E’ picked out, lol.
My parents traded that Edsel-lane (ha) in for a 1967 Buick station wagon with the cool skylight roof. It was in a green color so dark that years later my older siblings swore that it was black despite my memories of it being green and it was not until we were cleaning out our parents’ estate that we found some small body parts in the garage from the Buick that were indeed a very dark green which settled the question about its color (& vindicated me, lol.)
A year later my dad bought a brand-new manual 1969 Volvo 145 station wagon in royal blue with matching blue upholstery which was oddly just as scratchy as the old Fairlane’s upholstery.
Those two station wagons served as my primary conveyance to the schools that I attended through third grade (they were all the way across town so it was rather a bit of a commute.) I actually enjoyed the pleasantly rumbly ride of the Volvo 145 but it was rather tempered, especially during hot weather (no AC, gah), by my dad being a heavy smoker and also his driving style which was always either abrupt stops or abrupt acceleration, barf…
One day in the last month of third grade my mom showed up in an absolutely massive brand-new 1973 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser station wagon, also with the cool skylight roof, in a light blue color with a white roof; it had fancy-o power windows! I had fun opening and closing repeatedly the power windows while we were waiting to leave the school lot; in fact I did so by using my foot to operate the power window switch so I could wave my hands at my classmates to show off the fancy feature, without having to laboriously operate the manual window cranks, but, alas, nobody noticed so nobody was impressed. (There’s actually a similar scene in the film Flash of Genius about the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper where he tries to impress some people sitting in cars across the street in the rain by holding up his hands while the wipers turn on and operate all by themselves but, alas, nobody noticed, either, so nobody was impressed. All too relatable.)
When starting fourth grade I transferred to a school just half a mile away so I always just walked; likewise with junior high school which was just 1.1 miles away, according to the odometer on the aforementioned Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, I also always just walked.
(High school was rather far away for walking so I rode the school bus; but by then the Custom Cruiser had been traded in for a slightly used 1979 Chrysler Newport in red with a white vinyl top and which was singularly *terrible* which then was traded in for a brand new and perfectly cromulent 1982 Chrysler Le Baron in light metallic blue with a matching vinyl top. The Le Baron was the butt of many a joke in the family; for example, whenever we played the board game Masterpiece we always made our dad pick the Baron as his character where we would call him Le Baron much to our collective merriment.)
The Volvo 145 and the Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser were actually rather influential factors in my interest in things automotive (which was kickstarted by attending a first-run screening of the film The Love Bug which I remember vividly even though it was several months before my 5th birthday.
We had the Masterpiece game too. I was amazed at how many of those paintings are in the Art Institute (Chicago).
It was usually the 89 Bonneville LE, the 77 Continental Mark 5, or in the last couple or years before high school, the 50-shades-of-green 97 Expedition XLT my parents had.
Back in India, it was mostly the bus, but once in a blue moon, I would get picked up by my dad’s Tata Nano or my grandpa’s Suzuki Baleno (Esteem for the yanks)
Now in Canada, I get picked up by dad’s C230 or mom’s Model 3
Better Call Grandpa
fun fact: they kept producing the Baleno in india until 2006, my grandpa’s car was a part of that final batch
The Nano looks fantastical. Jamsetji’s fever dream.
Mom’s new yellow & white Ford Skyliner retractable hard top for a couple of years and that was replaced by a red Oldsmobile 88 Holiday coupe. My older brother and Father did a mild custom job on the Olds – lowered, Moon disks, Lake pipes & custom grill.
Yes, I am old. Both were brand new. Good times.
Edit: Olds was new 1959 with the mile long trunk & pagoda style fins 🙂
A green 97 TJ Sahara if it was dad.
A red 99 GMC Yukon XL if it was mom.
If it was a very special occasion (aka perfect weather, mom was sick, dad had to drive) 88 E28 M5
I rode the bus 99% of the time, and if I missed the bus I got in trouble, and then got a ride in my mom’s 1980 Olds Regency with the bluest velour in the history of automotive interiors. But one time, my dad‘s 1981 528i was at the dealer, and he got a bright orange 2002 TII as a loaner car, and I got a ride in that, and I remember really liking it. I guess that explains a lot about why I’m making a comment on an auto blog now.
1966 Chevelle 4 door sedan died of rust while I was a toddler, 1974 and 79 GMC pickups, so basic the only options were a step bumper and an AM radio, the 79 was the first new vehicle I remember exactly one year before I started kindergarten, and a 1986 Plymouth Horizon that ended up as the first car I ever drove as a permit holder.
But mostly I walked in elementary and middle school and rode the bus to high school. Well, sometimes-to-usually.
Elementary and middle school was either a 1981 diesel Cadillac (my dad was obsessed with diesels) or a 1977 maroon Cadillac Coupe DeVille that had been subjected to some really bad body work after my dad was rear ended at a drive through. In my junior year of high school, faced with having two cars, neither of which was reliable, my mom bought a 1987 Toyota Corolla FX16 5 speed from a used car lot. Now that car was cool, even if it had a rebuilt title. Finally in 1989, my senior year of high school, my mom got my dad to part with his money pit of an oil burning diesel for a new Nissan Maxima. All these years later, I claim that is the best car they ever owned. They even let me drive it on occasion.
The elementary school was a half-mile from our house, so I walked or rode my bicycle (I have the scars to prove my bicycle adventures!) My dad would occasionally drop me off in our ’65 Chevy Biscayne wagon, basic model with 3 on the tree. My mother never got a driver’s license.
For junior high, we had the bus. My dad worked in the next town over, so he’d drop off or pick me up the days that I had my orchestral tuba (the case was too large for the bus). In those days he had a ’70 Dodge Coronet station wagon.
When I was in high school, I went to a local private school, so the local school district provided the oldest bus in the fleet, an early 50s International Harvester known as the “farting” bus; mismatched backpressure caused it to make a blatting noise every time the driver shifted. It was also rusting out so there were places you did not want to sit when it rained!
We inherited a ’64 Corvair when I was part of the way through HS. My dad worked further away then so he used that for better mileage, and I’d occasionally get to drive the wagon to school. I also had a friend that had a beater ’64 Nova that was so much better than the bus!
I love this question.
My parents bought this when I was in preschool, and I rode in the cubby behind the back seat. Years later, my Dad got a new car and they gave me the VW… which I then drove in college.
Most of the time, I either walked or took the schoolbus.
But I did occasionally get driven to grade school in a 1979 Pontiac Bonneville or a 1989 Mustang LX. It was the late 1990s.
1973 Mercury Comet (maverick) faded gold paint. Dropped off in morning, but walked home after school. Middle school we rode to school on bus, but we walked home after school rain or shine because it was much faster since we were at end of route….we took a lot of short cuts through fields/woods/cemetery. It was several miles. High school was bus until I bought a 77 Ford Maverick (blue w/ V8!), then I was the transportation for my friends.
School was a bus affair for me, but in my grade school years my parents were driving Saturns exclusively, and would until the brand was killed. The third one my family owned, my dad’s 2001 SW2, became my first car, and my Ion Quad Coupe was the sixth and final Saturn my family would own.
I walked to school. However sometimes I would get rides from neighbors along the way with their kids who went to the same school.
And those cars included an early 1970s Pontiac Ventura, an early 1980s Olds Delta 88, a mid 1970s Ford Gran Torino or a late 1970s or early 1980s Pontiac Parisienne.
My Mom’s family trucksters, in order:
1970 Mustang Fastback with the 351 Cleveland V8.Chevy Luv.Chevy Vega1982 Camaro Belinetta1984 Camaro Z28Dad’s:
1963 Elva Courier Mk. IV, with the funky 3 cam Lotus 4 cyl..1982 BMW 530i1986 BMW 633csi1987 Corvette Roadster with the 4+3.1991 GMC Jimmy (last of the squarebody).
We had some interesting cars.
I have to wonder if my kids will be able to name my cars when they’re my age.
Wow there is a big difference between those lists.
Regarding your mom’s vehicles… I’m looking at the list and am thinking “one of these things is not like the others”… what was the reason she got a pickup truck that one time?
And why would she go from a pickup truck to a Vega?
I wonder where the tipping point in time is when these mythical “daily rides to school” started happening…I, too, walked or took the bus. I do remember being driven to preschool, which had no bus service; that was in my dad’s Celebrity Eurosport wagon. My mom usually did pick-up in her Cavalier.
We did go (by car) to a sitter’s house after school for a few of my early elementary years; by second grade, I was already getting too tall for the third row of her Colt Vista. From the elementary school, we’d go to either the junior high or high school to pick up her terrifyingly teenage daughter, who always got the front seat and would always switch the radio from K-Earth to KROQ, and then when we got to their house, teen daughter would watch Oprah at high volume in the living room and yell at all of the guests about how stupid they were.
I also have excellent memories of occasionally getting picked up after school by my grandmother, who would take us in her Sedan DeVille to Thrifty to get cylindrical scoops of ice cream.
The parents in my neighborhood drive their kids to the bus stop a few houses down the street. I think it started when the constant safety panic and parental perfection judgement started. Parents now feel the need to be snowplow (lawnmower) parents to because childhood is now a competition.
Most of middle school in the 70s-early 80s I walked, it wasn’t all that far. Especially if I took the scary shortcut through the woods at the bottom of my street instead of walking all the way around.
Then ended up on a yellow bus when I switched schools because of the distance. Our school like 91% were bussed in. But during those times, my dad had a 77 Datsun 710 and 74 Opel Manta Rallye, so there may have been a random day?
Oh, and grandpa had a 60s/70s Ford truck of some sort, he helped with Dr appointments I think.
I wasn’t driven to grade school.
I walked to school.
Unless it was after a Dr’s appt.
Or I was in trouble with the Principal
Sometimes I walked in snow that was more than waist deep – so I’d have to walk on top of the snowdrifts from the plows – which put me on the level of the neighbor’s 2nd floor windows.
Oh – You mean what cars did our parents own when we were kids?
I was brought home in a new aqua 1965 Chevy II wagon.
Dad later bought a white over red 1967 Opel Kadett Sport Coupe
They were traded in 1969 for a blue w a white top Galaxie 500 hardtop coupe
Which was itself traded in 1972 for a special-order blue and white 1972 Mercury Monterey Custom pillared hardtop sedan
Then Dad bought a yellow and brown 1973 Ford F100 Custom – which was replaced in 1978 with a white over red Ford Courier XLT
Then the Mercury was replaced with a new sand beige over brown Volvo DL 4 door in 1983 shortly after I graduated HS.
DRIVEN to school? Why?
So, we only had one car. Dad always had a 4×4 1/2 ton Chevy truck for his construction company, so when I describe my dad making these decisions, it really was him deciding what car my mom was driving. At first it was a dark blue with matching interior ’84 Oldsmobile Delta 88 coupe. When Dad wanted something sportier, he traded it for an ’88 Olds Toronado Trofeo, which was also dark blue, with a matching dark blue interior. Then he went really bonkers and traded that in on an ’89 Toronado Trofeo with four additional options. Guess what the color scheme was?
We kept that a long time, and it ultimately became my first car. After my dad made me buy it from him. Yes, I paid cash money the hand me down Oldsmobile. He didn’t even cut me a deal.
59 Buick, 63 Plymouth ,66 dodge wagon that I remember my father put wood under the bench seat cuz the floor was rusted out .
One day while he was driving that junker the floor gave way and he was literally scraping the pavement with the bottom of the seat till we got stopped.
Most of the time walked till I got my first hand me down bike .
In the winter we walked .
> I remember my father put wood under the bench seat cuz the floor was rusted out
Is your name Delmar?
Circa 1963 there is a photograph of me, a boy called Christopher, two identical twin girls, and my then very young sister and anothe boy being decanted from a car at nursery school.The Car? An Isetta bubble car!
OH boy…
I was conveyed to grade school in all manner of questionable ways. The most memorable has to be riding 3-up on a 1983-ish Honda GoldWing. I was crammed between my stepdad and mom. For SAFETY!!!
There was also a Pinto in THAT shade of green, and a 1984 Ford F150 XL.
After that, it was my bike until it was stolen. Then my skateboard, until it was stolen. I ended up walking until high school.