She is older than some but more active than most. Her centennial is a date she is sure to reach… soon. She exercises regularly by walking when the weather permits and has influenced other to take up the challenge. But perhaps her most outstanding characteristic is her memory. Seemingly she can recall nearly any important past moment in extreme detail such as learning to drive.
The family lived in the Baker’s Mill section of Dillon County on a small farm once owned by a Mr. Joe Andrews, a fair, honest land owner who lived in Little Rock. She remembered the date quite easily since this was when the family bought their very first car, a new, black 1936 two door Plymouth sedan. One special feature was an unexpected luxury, a radio. At the time she had reached her 16th birthday. There was one big problem about having a car; no one in the family could drive except a family member who was no longer living at home. But she had assured her father that once the car was parked in the drive way, he could count on her to learn to drive the Plymouth. She was a fast learner in most things except when it came to 10th grade algebra. Keep in mind she had only ridden in a car during brief intervals, and it was a totally new learning experience, for example, she did not even know how to crank the motor.
But at 16, she was excited to be able to sit in the driver’s seat; that was ample motivation for a teen ager to learn to master the necessary skills. After operating the car around the family home, she felt confident enough to get out on the nearby main, dirt road.
Her major problem, other than the ignition, was how to change the gears and at the same time use the clutch of the car. It required some coordination but after several false starts, she felt was on her way to adulthood, actually driving a car. She remembered driving slowly on the seldom used road and stopping occasionally to get some practice in changing the gears.
After about three weeks, she and her family felt safe enough for her to drive them to town for shopping. She hoped that some of her friends would see her as she proudly motored down Main Street.
But she had another problem she had not really thought about. She did not have a driver’s license and felt she might be stopped by the police. No, she had no driver’s training, no handbook to study but she had plenty of spunk and confidence.
She learned that the license examiner was in town when the family arrived so she drove up to the station on Main Street she said, where he was located, parked and went in as the policeman watched her every move. Remember she had no license at the time.
She walked in, announced that she had come to get a driver‘s license and that was about all there was to it, she said. He filled out the application; she paid the fifty cents’ fee and suddenly became a South Carolina licensed driver. There was no road test, no eye exam and no written test.
In 1936, it was apparently very easy to get a driver’s license, . . . if you had the fifty cents.
Bill Lee, PO Box 128, Hamer, SC 29547
