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
Mostly I walked. When I did get a ride for various reasons such as pouring rain or snow, it was in the following:
K through grade 2, 1953 Chevy BelAir with 3 on the tree, stovebolt “Blue Flame” 6.
Grade 3 through 8, as above or 1959 Mercury Monterey with Merc-O-Matic, 312 Y block Ford engine.
Grade 9 through 12, 1963 Chevy Impala with 2 speed Powerglide auto, 283 2 bbl V8, or 1961 Austin Healey 3000 Mk II 4 speed with electric overdrive, 2.9 litre 6 with triple SU carbs… I learned to drive stick on that.
Reading the above makes me realise how conservative my parents were/are when it comes to buying cars. My entire school period involved two cars – same make, model and trim spec but from different generations – the second of which mum and dad still drive two decades later.
In my early primary school days I would have been driven in a red 1994 Toyota Camry Vienta with the 3.0 L V6. Dad bought it second-hand from a work colleague. I don’t remember much about this car, though it was later handed down to my sister and when I was learning to drive I backed into it after dad told me I could probably go back a bit further. Oops. Minor damage to the numberplate, my sister didn’t notice.
In my later primary school years and all through high school, if I wasn’t catching the bus or train I was being driven in a blue 1999 Toyota Camry Vienta with the 3.0 L V6. Dad also bought this car second-hand off the same work colleague who sold him the first one. At least the colour was different. Mum and dad have kept this car as their daily driver to this day – 20+ years – and have only just ordered a brand new replacement for it (a Kia EV3 – big change!).
In contrast to the previous-gen red Camry I know this car like the back of my hand. It’s the first car I ever drove on the road, and for years I “borrowed” it after selling my Commodore and not bothering to replace it. Dull to drive with an awful turning circle, but, with super-thick grandpa-spec lambswool seat covers fitted, extremely comfortable. It’s also suprisingly sprightly with the V6. And the car still drives perfectly, of course, at 300,000km. I’m going to miss that car when my parents finally offload it.
Kindergarten (1951}, 1949 Buick Roadmaster and a 1940 Ford Coupe. We moved and I finished 1st grade with a 1953 Ford and a 1940 Nash. Despite starting off riding to school in two straight 8s and two Ford flathead V8s, I have never owned an eight cylinder vehicle.
Back then, most kids in public schools rode the bus or walked. The latest model car I ever rode to school in was a 1962 Ford Galaxie 500, in 1963.
Driven? I walked (often with my neighbor bud). By 4th grade, rode my bike when there wasn’t snow. This was rural, and I don’t think anyone was driven by parents, unless maybe mom drove the school bus. You had to be more than 2 miles from the school for the bus, it was only 1 1/2 mile for me. Of course, these were the years before helicopter parents, but by 2nd grade my parents both had jobs in town, 12 miles away.
Yellow Plymouth Satellite with black vinyl seats the temperature of the sun. I think it must have been a ’66 or a ’67?
I walked. Unlike the tired joke, uphill there and downhill onthe way home
That’s nothing. When I was a kid, it was uphill both ways, in 30 feet of snow year round.
Around my preteens and into learning how to drive, the two family vehicles were a 2005 Focus station wagon, and a 2010 Flex. Both were cromulent to drive, although the Flex certainly had some mechanical quirks…including the new engine it needed a few thousand miles before the warranty expired.
As a kid, though, for groceries and weekends and such, we had a 1999 eight-passenger Ford E-150 (two bench seats).
Surely it had no impact on making me who I am today.
When we lived out in the country, no choice, catch the school bus that would stop at the end of our quarter mile drive. Later, when we lived in town, we walked to both grade school and junior high, about a half mile for grade school, a couple blocks for junior high, whatever the weather. High school was across town, so after riding the school bus for sophomore year, I drove myself and later on also my younger sister, typically in our 1966 Pontiac LeMans or the 1972 VW Bus. Neither were anywhere near new at the time, we’d hang onto cars until they’d start to fall apart. Back in the day, Midwest high schools had large parking lots. Heck, back then you could get a “farm license” to drive yourself (alone) at 14 years old, to and from home and school/school events only, if you lived out in the country.
I don’t know most of the years but Included them if I did:
Mom’s cars: Ford Maverick (Sans Grabber Package), Ford Fairmont, 1988 Mazda 626.
Dad’s cars: VW Beetle, VW Fox, VW Jetta, 1995 VWJetta.
That Mazda lasted 14 years and drove me from 4th grade to senior year in high school when I finally got my own car. That thing was her pride and joy. Her first new car that wasn’t a hand me down from her parents. My sister got hit while borrowing it and insurance totaled the thing. It wasn’t even that damaged!
The earliest car was my dad’s white 1965 Plymouth Fury III, then my mom’s 1972 AMC Hornet Sportabout wagon, and then my dad’s blue 1970 Ford Torino.
Living in Brookfield, I also listened to WLS 890 during that time, but it was a rock music format then, with Larry Lujack in the mornings and John “Records” Landecker in the evenings!
Quick note: I usually walked, but remember getting rides occasionally….
When it wasn’t the bus, it was a 1978 Coupe DeVille in red, with a white top and white leather interior. My mom had some style!
Blue Bird Conventional with an International 3800 chassis, or a Thomas Saf-T-Liner with the same International chassis. those things were rad. If I missed the bus I had to walk, though later since my mom taught at my high school sometimes I’d go with her in a 1999 VW Beetle.
I took the bus, but we had a 1966 Mercedes 250S and a BMW 2000 when I was in elementary school, although the Mercedes threw a rod and was replaced by a Volvo 164E. The only one I drove was the Volvo, since the BMW was sold while I was in middle school. Its replacement was a 1977 Honda Accord so I have extensive seat time in a very significant car.
We went to a parochial school one town over and were keenly aware that the trip took about ten minutes in my mom’s ‘78 Lincoln MKV because we were usually running late and every minute mattered in the race to avoid tardy slips.
When I was in the third grade or so, she got a job at a Ford dealer and once picked us up at school in an Aerostar. I was amazed. It was like getting upgraded to first class on a plane: no arguing about who had to fold the seatback down and sit in the back, an upright chair with great views, and… a headphone jack and radio controls in the back?!? I was thrilled, but trading the Givenchy-labeled swank of the Mark for a boxy mom-mobile was too hard a sell.
In my high school years, after a Suburban took over the duties of hauling around what had become a family of six, my dad got tired of driving my brother and I to work at the orchards and the Mark was dragged out of the garage and assigned to me. I succumbed to its cushiony call to slumber one night years later and snapped a large utility pole clean off at bumper height with it. I probably wouldn’t have survived that in an Aerostar.
The one I really remember was the 1983 Volvo 240 DL. There were others before, but the Volvo we put well over 200,000 miles on.
Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. It was an SL with the 3.3L Buick V6, basically an International without the badging and bench seats instead of the console shifter.
Eventually it was traded in for a Chevy Lumina.
I didn’t. I rode the bus.
I did however get driven back home in a Mazda B2200 quite often after being suspended from school. I will forever remember that truck as the one I painted blue on the inside after getting a Slurpee at a 7-Eleven that went into me, then back out of me with much higher velocity. A Slurpee which my dad got after picking me up from school after I smashed another second grader’s head in with a plastic replica of Clifford The Big Red Dog.
Generally walked, like all kids of my era. However, if driven for some odd reason, a 1963 Olds Holiday Coupe. Maroon with a white top and probably a white interior. A Rocket V8 (391 ci ?.) Being from a middle class family in the Midwest, no A/C. Probably did have PS and PB. Standard or always optioned on Oldsmobiles of the day.
Yeah rode the bus for most of it until midway into 5th grade I changed schools (my undiagnosed ADHD and my teacher did not get along). My Dad took me in his Miata most mornings the rest of the year. He had just replaced his turbo manual LeBaron with it.
Yeah, I walked 1/2 mile to school, in the suburbs. No hills, though. No backpacks, either. My duffel bag was heavy. Wonder if it contributed to my asymmetrical back problems.
I’m old – This all starts in 1960!
First grade – Big Yellow School Bus – then we moved closer to a new school.
Second thru 6th – my mother’s 1960 Ford Falcon, once she knew I could find my own way, a Schwinn two wheeler, or my own two feet.
7th, 8th, 9th, 10th grade (new school) – my father would drive me in his 1966 Pontiac Catalina on his way to work, bus home.
11th, 12th grade – My 1966 Pontiac Catalina!
Driven to school? When I was a kid, I walked uphill to school, both ways! In 3 foot snow drifts! And it was hot out too!
Also, get off my lawn.
My grandmother, and her two sisters, grew up in rural Wisconsin in the 1920s, and walked two miles to school. They lived at the top of a good sized hill, and the school was on the top of another hill, with a good sized valley between. So they truly did walk uphill both ways, rain, shine or snow!
Their Model T could only make it up the hill if all passengers got out, so they had to walk then, as well!
Would have started with a 1990 Subaru Legacy, then a 1994 Ford Taurus wagon, then a 2000 Toyota Sienna
I rode the bus in grade school and middle school, walked in high school. In those days, I don’t think parents drove their kids to school like they do now. When I was in grade school, we lived 20 miles from school. I don’t remember ever missing the bus, but if I did, I’m sure I wouldn’t have been driven in. In middle school, we lived maybe 5 miles from the school. I missed the bus home once because I had detention. My step-dad was really pissed that he had to come pick me up. That didn’t happen again. After he and my mom split, I sometimes rode my bicycle to school. My mom didn’t get a driver’s license until he was long gone. She drove a series of <$500 shitboxes. One would break and another would show up courtesy of my uncle or my grandparents, or whoever was feeling generous that month.
Plymouth Duster. Chevy Chevette. Mercury Cougar XR-7. Toyota Corolla. Toyota Celica.