Driving tests mark half-century in Cape

For most American teenagers, obtaining a driver's license is an important coming-of-age milestone. And that's been the case in Cape Girardeau for the past 50 years. The first driver's license exams were given here in August 1952, even though driver's licenses had been issued in some states as early as the 1920s.

For younger drivers, it's probably difficult to imagine a time when getting behind the wheel of a car or truck was open to anyone who could make the vehicle go.

Keep in mind that cars and trucks produced before and immediately after World War II had clutches and gearshifts -- something most of today's drivers never have to confront, unless they like certain sports cars or become drivers at a racetrack somewhere.

In the 1950s, though, many young motorists were intimately familiar with the mechanics of driving, thanks to hours spent on tractors as they did farm chores.

For the most part, today's drivers are better prepared to observe rules and regulations than their counterparts before driving tests became the norm. As for driving skill, however, the experience of keeping a tractor-pulled baler or hay wagon away from fence posts and ditches will never be matched by modern driving lessons.

There is still one common denominator for all drivers, young and old: Parallel parking gives almost everyone the willies.