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
Like many responders, I usually rode the bus (Blue Bird on an IH chassis), but for the first few yearsof elementary school my mother would drive me to the bus stop (0.7 mile farm road from the house to the paved county road, second stop in the morning, second to last in the afternoon, 45 minute ride). Sometimes I’d miss the bus and of course there were doctor’s and dentist’s appointments. The family car was a Peugeot 504, but sometimes Mom would do the bus run in a Scout of indeterminate vintage. Once or twice my grandmother drove me in her 1967 Chrysler Newport, which had power windows and was therefore the height of luxury. We also had a Mini for a while when I was in junior high school–always a surprise how well we fit into that thing…
Usually, I’d have to walk, uphill both ways at -40 in the snow but on the rare occasions when I got a ride it was in a 1970 BMW 2002ti. It was my mother’s car and she was infamous in the neighborhood for how fast she used to drive.
We normally walked to primary school, but when it was really tipping down Mum would take us in a 1947 Austin 12.
The New Zealand car market in the 1970’s was rather strange.
I can remember various 80s gm station wagons. I think 70s GM and Chrysler station wagons before that. Then not really grade school but 90s Ford station wagons. Also around that a Daihatsu my dad got as bet with his friends who could get the best cheapest new car I think it was a $5k limit in 1990? He got the Daihatsu, another got a fiesta, one got a yugo, and I think another got a Hyundai or kia.
My next door neighbor’s dad had a DeLorean. After Back to the Future came out we begged him to drive us to school in it and he did once or twice. That gullwing door popped up and three smiling grade schoolers tumbled out of the passenger seat.
Driven? To grade school?
I rode a big yellow Blue Bird that picked me up at the end of the street with all the other kids on the block.
In junior high I walked, since the school was practically in our back yard, and in high school, I rode the bus or walked until a friend’s older brother agreed to drive us, a stoner named Chad who alternated between a blue Mustang II Ghia and a pale yellow ’68 Charger, depending on which one was running that day.
Then I got my own car for junior and senior year, a rusted-out VW Scirocco.
I vaguely remember an AMC Gremlin and a Dodge Ramcharger but by the time I was in grade school the vehicles I was being dropped off in were a maroon on tan ‘78 Oldsmobile Holiday 88 coupe and maybe ‘84 or ‘85 S-10 Blazer 2 door in black with a red interior. A few years later a ‘90 Pontiac Grand Am in bright red with a grey interior and a ‘92 Pontiac Transport also red on grey through middle and high school. Learned to drive on the little red Grand Am, immediately post high school graduation ended up acquiring a ‘91 Oldsmobile Toronado Trefeo coupe in red over black as my first car that was mine
Our family went through a bunch of cars during my elementary school years. Outside the Honda and Sable, every other car was purchased used.
1974 Ford LTD Country Squire – blue/blue with a shredded vinyl roof and honking 460 V8, nicknamed the Blue Whale
1975 Honda Civic CVCC – nicknamed Green Pickle (it was very green)
1978 Ford LTD Country Sedan – red, eventually donated its 400 V8 to the ’74
1981 Toyota Starlet – inherited from my grandfather, started life silver but repainted light gray for some reason
1987 Ford Taurus LX wagon – blue/blue, had the longest, made it to 360k miles
1991 Ford Taurus GL wagon – red/red, not as cool as the ’87
1996 Mercury Sable G-Series – somewhat rare “G-Series” base trim that only existed for half a model year on Sables
Either a very sketchy 1997 Mitsubishi Montero, a second generation Dodge Ram or a mid 90’s Chevy S-10. The S-10 was the first thing I remember riding in where, as you drove faster, the radio volume would get louder to compensate for road noise. Blew my mind at the time.
Wagons. I miss the family wagons!
1987 Mercedes W124 Wagon (dark green)
1994 Volvo 850 Turbo Wagon (red)
And yes, my brother and I always fought to get in the “wayback” seat.
My folks have made some amazing(ly bad) choices in cars.
I was brought home from the hospital in a Chrysler Cordoba.
They exchanged for a Chevy Cavalier.
After that was a Nissan Stanza
Then they came to their senses and had an Accord and a Camry.
They my mom caught the car bug when I got my license:
Eclipse
Turbo Beetle
Honda S2000
Another Honda S2000
And then a string of new Mini Coopers.
Alright, let’s get to it:
Over the years we had a motley assortment of vehicles and what I was dropped off in really depended on who was driving.
Dad –
1991 Ford Tempo GL (blue on blue on blue)
1978 Jeep CJ7 (red/gold, side pipes, 304 V8)
1998 Chevy Astro SLS (white with gold and barn doors)
Mom –
1988 Ford Aerostar (brown and an automatic)
1992 Lincoln Town Car Cartier Edition (was later mine)
1994 Mitsubishi Eclipse (manual, no A/C, no power steering, was originally sold in HI, was later mine)
My siblings continued with the Astro and then my Mom got a 2016 Ford Fusion Titanium with the Ecoboost that she still has today (just with a new engine). I definitely had a good run there for a while. Hilarity was seeing all three of us kids piled into the Eclipse for the drop off run to the elementary, middle, and high school.
As far as I remember, my parents had a 1989 NIssan Sentra when I was in kindergarden, then replaced by a 1995 Nissan Sentra during elementary school, to be then replaced with a 1999 Nissan Altima, back then when they were considered luxury at least in Mexico
They added a 2001 Nissan Sentra when my oldest brother started to drive, but when I started to drive I convince them to replace it with a Seat Ibiza, that was my college car. Their next big car purchase was when Mazda released the Mazda 6 back in 2009 in collaboration with Ford, what an amazing car.
After college I was on my own, my very first car purchased with my own money was a 1999 Nissan Sentra, a shitbox practically since this was during 2012 and I didnt have a lot of money back then. Now here I am stuck with 10 cars lol
Depending on the year, it would have been a Mazda hatchback (I *think* it was a fifth gen GLC), the 1986 Plymouth Voyager I’ve mentioned in the past, or a 1987 Volvo 245 DL. The little Datsun 720 King Cab with the camper shell might have been in the mix too for preschool, but I think that was replaced by the Volvo before I reached actual grade school.
The first few years it was in a 1993 Volvo 850, identical to the one you see in Mrs. Doubtfire. From 2001 to 2008 it was a 2001 V70 wagon, and from 2008 to 2009 (when I got my license) it was a 2008 Mercedes GL450. I took the bus most of the time though, until I started driving. All of those cars were my mom’s since she was the one who would take us to school and pick us up.
Early days it was one of two Mazda hatchback. The first orange, the second sort of a red-orange.
Later it was the Dodge Aries K wagon in pink I would eventually wreck.
1983 Buick lesaber, or 1987 chevy cavalier wagon. Pre school was 1978 Toyota corolla 2 door.
We always hoped our aunt would have to pick us up in her 300zx if one of our parents couldn’t get there from work.
Mostly we walked every day until my younger siblings were in grade school and us older 2 were in middle and high school. They got rides more often than not. Our school was about a mile away so the walk wasn’t too bad.
OMG…how many ppl will say some variant of a Dodge Aries K? Anyone born in the 70’s probably, which means they will have memories of early-80’s cars. We had a wagon. My neighbor (older, an early car enthusiast) called it the “paper mache” car.
Mom had an 88 Aries K wagon. Pink(they’d likely call it rose gold today) over a burgundy interior. I wrecked it in 1998.
Thank you for your car’s sacrifice.
I rode my bike or the bus most of the time. But my mom had a bright red dodge caravan (boxy generation, not jellybean) and then a 90s Honda civic for the few times I missed the bus.
Always rode the bus. But in Sweden’s equivalent of the kindergarten, there wasn’t always a bus available – and then me and the handful of classmates on the same route would be picked up in a Mercedes-Benz V123, a 240D on the long wheelbase. I still remember the excitement on those days and how much I loved sitting in the jump seats.
LTD,Bobcat,Fairmont,Celebrity,Subaru GL,Grand Am.We live in the sticks so if we missed the bus it was my mom or Grandma driving us.
I mostly walked to school as a kid (walking district – no buses). On occasion I would get dropped off when the weather was particularly brutal (my Mom, on her way to work, often well before the school was actually open, so I only opted for this when desperate). This was typically done with whatever the “beater of the year” was, as my Mom worked locally, so she got the craptacular car (my Dad typically commuted long distances). So it was either the Subaru Legacy wagon (’88), a Volvo 240 sedan (’83 and actually probably the best car my mom ever owned) and finally in the 00’s my Mom started schlepping us around in the Hyundai Elantra GT (’02)… luxury! If I got a ride home, it was from a friend’s parent.
My kids live in the same walking district but let’s get real, you’re not actually allowed to let your kids walk to school anymore. And it’s sad that people seem to blame kids and parents for being the issue here; in reality prior generations designed both infrastructure and society to make kids existing in public spaces basically impossible.
This, I grew up mostly in the ’80s. The local pool and library were 1-2 miles away. Full sidewalks, crosswalks, low speed limits. We only had one car growing up, so we always walked or biked. Once I was probably about 10 I had free reign to go as I pleased.
I grew up in the 90s/00s, and by the time I was 8 I was all over town. We live in a small city with sidewalks, and it’s relatively flat, which makes it great for a kid with a bike. We had access to whatever parks/friends houses/etc we wanted. We walked and biked to and from school mostly. Honestly, looking back, it was awesome. Most suburbs aren’t anything like this.
We still have this, but in theory only. My daughter is 7, is supremely intelligent, and absolutely could walk to and from school on her own (as I did back in ’95). But we’d be considered absolute lunatics to do so by basically anyone and everyone.
A recent story sticks with me, of parents in NC that were charged with involuntary manslaughter for letting their kid, 7, walk to and from the grocery store (escorted by their 10 year old no less). The premise being that it would be negligent to allow a child cross one of this country’s unlimited insanely wide and anti-pedestrian roads. Which of course, surround basically every single thing worth going to.
For all the olds here lamenting that children don’t do anything anymore, consider that old people made it impossible for them to do so.
Same, the neighborhood my daughter grew up in has a YMCA a half mile from our house. You would be taking your life in your hands to try and walk there.
Dad dropped me off, I walked home. My elementary school ride was an ’80 Fairmont.
Except that miserable month in 1983 when he drove a diesel Cutlass his boss was trying to sell…
Well times and shit change for sure. We walked 5 miles uphill each way in the Colorado, and Mpls winters.
Yesterday I sat in traffic as 900 idiots blocked the road at the local elementary school to pick up their snot nosed little turds…
America. No wonder most kids are either overweight or fucking obese like the giant Orange Turd…
YMMV
An assortment of Chrysler minivans. That’s…pretty much it other than a big yellow bus.