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Our story (which isn't much of a story, frankly) is set in late 1980s Pennsylvania. Between money concerns, not really needing to drive, and being kind of a wuss, young Borborygmi got his driver's license on the late side... he was either 19 or 20. He remembers that the approaching need to have a license to prove he was 21 was a motivator...
I passed the "written" and driving portions on the first try.
I got a couple wrong on the written portion; I was annoyed with myself for that because I was cocky enough back then to think I could ace most any standardized test. It was still good enough to pass, apparently. I think one question that I got wrong dealt with when you were required to use headlights and drew a distinction between from dusk to dawn and from sunset to sunrise. The "written" portion was actually answering multiple-choice questions by pressing buttons on a large wood-paneled contraption, possibly designed by Dr. Seuss. When you got a question wrong it would make a lot of clunky noises as panels shifted around to reveal the right answer. Although I got a couple wrong, it was an easy test overall; I was surprised how much clunking there was from the nearby examinees and how many failed to make it to the driving portion that day.
The driving portion was a bit of a joke. There was a special course set up; you didn't have to drive in actual traffic. You just had to drive around a bit, use turn signals, stop at stop signs. You had to pull up to a curb as if parking, and you had to make a K-turn. That was about it. My tester was cool. At the beginning, his schtick was to go over a list of things that would cause you to fail: "If you do such-and-such, the test is over. If you do such-and-such, the test is over." He finished with, "If you run over anybody, the test is over" in the same serious tone he'd been using, then gave a slight grin. The only thing I sorta did wrong was that I stopped before making a particular left turn; no one was coming the other way, so there was no need.
The rumors were that, like with 3acres' place, there supposedly was one tester who liked to fail everyone testing the first time; either I didn't get him or he was a myth. The other chatter about the test that I remember among my cohorts was that you had to be sure to remember to use your turn signal at the end, when the tester has you pull into one of the angled parking places that marked the end of the test.
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