Okay, here is another story.  I started writing these stories a few years back for my nephews who actually have an interest in what their father (my brother Mike, CHS ’60) and uncle did growing up in Claremont in the fabulous ‘50s and ‘60s.  Later I wrote a few more for classmates I’d kept in touch with.  Anyway, I’m sure you share some of these memories and hope you enjoy them.

Remembering Driver’s Training at Claremont High School, 1961… or Teens and Their Cars:  Part 1   

As a sophomore at CHS during the 1960/61 school year I could hardly wait to turn 16 and get my driver's license.  After too many days in the classroom being instructed on how to drive and studying driving laws, it was finally time to get behind the wheel!  My driver training group included Ted Shelton, George Gibbs, Paul Rasmussen and me. Although I liked the girls in our class, I was happy at having all guys in the car as there were no female ‘pheromones’ wafting in the air to distract us (and how they could distract us!).  So now we could get serious and focus on learning to drive as all 16 year old boys are anxious to do.

Our automatic-shift car had one steering wheel but a dual foot control (brake) on the passenger side for the instructor to use if necessary.  Our instructor, Earl D. Strang (‘Earl the Squirrel’ as the seniors called him), was the nicest, most calm guy ever.  Although his hair was obviously turning white because of his chosen career, you would have thought that teaching teenagers to drive would have made him a raving lunatic too!  But fortunately for us, it hadn’t.  On our first day in the car, Earl drove us up towards Mt. Baldy and turned off into an orange grove. “Boys”, he said with his right hand on the wheel and left arm resting on the open window, "this is a lesson on how NOT to drive...".  With that, he stomped on the accelerator and in a cloud of dust we flew down the dirt grove road.  After several high speed fish-tailing turns onto other dirt roads (with us bouncing around as there were no seat belts back then), the brakes were applied, the wheel spun and in a cloud of squealing dust he did a 180 and we were facing the way we came!  "I never want to see you boys doing that," he said quietly as he brushed dust off his coat.  What a blast… Earl was by far the coolest adult around!

Earl was calm and professional in his training techniques.  We started out slowly on the quiet surface streets of Claremont just learning the basics of accelerating, braking, backing up, turning and signaling. We then graduated to Foothill Blvd. with multiple lanes and moderate traffic.  Next we tackled the nerve-racking job of freeway driving.  Entering the freeway was the most difficult part as you not only had to watch the traffic you were merging into but also if the car ahead of you was going to stop before merging as often happened in those days.  Then it was up Mt. Baldy Road to learn about narrow winding roads and the proper way of braking coming down hill.  Finally it was parallel parking, and I have to say that I’ve always had good parking skills thanks to Earl.

As an example of his calm demeanor, Earl would be in the passenger seat, turned with his left arm over the seat talking to us in the back as Ted (affectionately called Mr. Magoo because of his poor eyesight and thick glasses) was gradually heading for the right shoulder and off the road.  Of course I'm sure our eyes were widening as we watched the car slowly veer but without so much as turning his head or a pause in his talking, Earl reached over with his right hand and turned the wheel so the car was running straight again. Everyone agreed that Earl had eyes in the back of his head!

Then there was the day I was driving when Earl brought his hand up to rub his forehead and eyes.  Taking his hand down he groaned and announced to all present, “I’m starting to see spots before my eyes!”  Alarmed, I wasn’t sure what to do, pull the car over to the curb and stop, or race back to Pomona hospital that we had passed earlier?  After a few moments of deafening silence in the car I finally said, “what do you want me to do, take you back to the hospital??”  “Well, there’s that,” he said, “or, you could just turn the windshield wipers on…it’s starting to sprinkle!”  He started laughing, and relieved, we join in.

There were only two frightening events in the car, one time a ‘jay-walking’ pedestrian foolishly stepped off the curb to cross the street ahead of us with Ted driving and Earl had to slam on his dual brake causing the three of us in the back to bounce off the front seat and the two of them to almost go through the windshield.  The other time was going ‘up’ Mt. Baldy road with George Gibbs at the wheel, we were learning how to take curves.  Earl told us, "off the gas (decelerate) going into the curve, and then gradually on the gas (accelerate) going out of the curve.  Simple right?  Well, George for some reason transposed the instructions (or maybe it was just his lousy hand, eye, foot coordination) and accelerated into the curve, losing control and heading us for the 500 ft. drop off into the canyon below.  Earl, without breaking a sweat, quickly got things back under control.  Paul and I in the backseat were about to lose bladder control, but Ted was his usual oblivious self as he couldn't see what was happening!

My friend Benny Heyer, who was in another class, related this Driver’s Training story to me:  "We had two girl classmates in our car (who shall remain nameless)…I remember one of them was driving when Earl told her to make a right turn onto a side street. The girl turned the steering wheel but for some reason never stopped turning!  We ended up bumping over the curb and into some lady's front yard, who by chance, happened to be standing there watering her plants!  The image of the frozen panic on her face is burned on my memory.  But Earl calmly stepped on ‘his’ brake and brought the vehicle to a stop.  He got out of the car and walked over and talked to the lady for a few minutes. Came back, got in, told the girl to put it into reverse and we backed out of the yard, onto the street and continued on our way.  Mr. Strang taught me to parallel park, enter onto a freeway safely and come down Baldy slowly without over-heating the brakes. I think the guy should be made the patron saint of driver education!”

My classmate Dianna Woy (Nichols) who I’ve known since Kindergarten, told me of her experience:  "Mr. Strang was the best, and a gentleman too!  One day it was my turn to drive and my hands were locked onto the steering wheel at the 10-2 positions as we went onto the freeway.  I was nervous enough but as it was a warm day the windows and vents were open and I noticed that my light-weight skirt was slowly being blown up my thighs!  I'm sure my face was turning red as my eyes flicked from the road to my lap but I dared not take my hands off the wheel...I didn't know what to do!  Well, Mr. Strang noticed my predicament and without saying anything or drawing attention of the others in the car, casually put his clipboard on my lap thus securing my skirt.  He never said a word about it that day or later.  What a gentleman!"

As I said, and you’ve noted from the stories, Earl was a very calm guy…nothing ever caused him to lose his cool except, apparently, my friend Stan Harn.  Here is his story:  “Earl Strang? He made me as nervous as hell!  I will never forget when he took us up a hill (at the time it seemed like a VERY steep hill), I was driving and he reached over and turned off the ignition key! My reaction was to hit the brake as hard as I could which basically threw everyone forward…both Earl and I about went through the windshield!  He yelled at me!  The thing was, I knew he was going to do this to me sometime because he had done it with the others, but of course I never knew when.  When it did happen, I simply over-reacted! That’s my only remembrance of driver’s training, I don’t even remember who else was in the car…obviously I’m trying to repress the whole thing!”

Martha Gerdeman (Johnson) had this story to tell:  “Driver’s training with Mr. Strang; who could forget their own personal experience?  I really don’t remember who was taking the class with me, but I do remember my most unbelievable day.  As we started out for the car, I saw a strange older model awaited us.  Yes, it was a STICK shift!  THREE peddles to deal with, not TWO.  I thought, no way possible, driving is hard enough.  After all the explanations of how you should drive this type of car, we were expected to drive it like we knew what we were doing.  I was not looking forward to my turn at all.  When it was, I was awful.  I made that car jump forward and stall over and over.  Once it was moving, it was easy.  But, coming to a stop and then progressing forward was real ugly.  I just was thankful I never stopped on a hill.  It all turned out well in the long run; and I was forever grateful I could drive a manual transmission.  Mr. Strang really was a great teacher and a kind person.”

Margaret (Margie) Allen Gray had this to say:  “I had to think about my experience with Mr. Strang. You are right about Jamie. He came in his senior year, so missed Driver's Ed at CHS. I remember the excitement of actually getting behind the wheel and experiencing those first lessons in driving. I was nervous and was relieved that he had a brake on his side too that could be applied if needed! I do not remember the other members of my group now, probably because I was nervous, but nothing too dramatic happened when we had our class. I do remember he had to apply his brake a few times when he thought someone was missing a stop or too close to something. Through all the years of my driving, I always remember his teaching us the proper grip on the steering wheel, ten and two. I didn't always use it, but I would chuckle to myself if I remembered it on a drive somewhere, and when using it would think, ‘thanks, Mr. Strang!’”

Teens and their cars:  Part 2

What is it with teens and their cars anyway?  Although complicated, I think the simple answer is two-fold:  freedom and privacy.  Initially, it was just the basic joy of driving a car.  When my classmates first got their driver’s licenses there were a lot of happy mothers in Claremont.  “You need anything at the store, Mom?  I’ll be happy to DRIVE there and get it for you!”  Yep, I think for the first year after I got my license my Mom didn’t have to drive anywhere…I was more than happy to take the family car and do it.  Of course, there was always that little detour by your buddy’s house to pick him up, then that other little detour through the neighborhood where ‘that’ girl lived…maybe she was out front and if you were feeling particularly brave, you might even stop and say “Hello”!

I was lucky that my folks bought a new 1962 Chevy Impala during my junior year at CHS.  I had lobbied for a 2-door hardtop rather than the 4-door models we usually got.  4-doors were very ‘family’ looking while 2-doors were ‘cool’ and ‘sporty’.  Of course, cool and sporty didn’t fly with my parents but my statistics that 2-doors had a higher resale value did, and a larger V8 engine was actually safer as you had ‘passing power’ when you really needed it!  I did a good sales job as they got the 2-door hard-top with the larger 327cubic inch V8.  I was a happy teen!

Most families had the ‘good’ car and the ‘other’ car.  The other car, or the old clunker, was usually relegated to fathers and young drivers such as me.  Ours was a 1950 Plymouth station wagon.  I have to admit that although I wouldn’t have wanted to pick up a date in it, I liked the old war horse. It had done yeoman service for the Schafer clan vacations, transporting us to probably every camp ground and National Park west of the Mississippi over the last decade. As opposed to the automatic transmission in the Chevy, it had a clutch and a manual 3-speed column shift.  I think there is really something ‘Zen like’ about manual shifting …it makes you more at one with the car…and it is just plain fun.  In addition, I could really crank up the rpm (speed) on that old 6 cylinder engine in 1^st and 2^nd gears!   For the first few seconds I could even beat a V8 engine (with automatic transmission) off the line!

The other advantage of driving the ‘old clunker’ was just that, it was old and worn…another scratch or two ‘probably’ wouldn’t be noticed.  That was handy when we lowered the station wagon’s rear gate for a couple of guys to sit on and then raced down the dirt roads in the orange groves with my buddies hanging on for dear life.  Of course after a while I’d stop and change places with one of the tail gate riders as I wasn’t going to let them have all the fun!

As opposed to the old clunker, I never would have dreamed of taking the new Chevy into the groves.  As a brand new 16 year old driver in 1961, I was very proud to be seen driving the Impala around town and was very careful with it.  One day while cruising (running an errand) in that cool car I saw my classmate Renee Warhurst walking down Indian Hill Blvd.  Renee was one of the prettiest girls in school and one of the nicest…I thought it would be great if she became the ‘first’ girl to ride with me.  Of course I pulled over and asked her if she wanted a ride.  She was quite surprised to see me in such a nice car and was happy to take me up on the offer. She was all smiles as she got in and rubbed her hand over the seats and looked all around, “Wow, what a nice car” she said.  I told her to ‘belt in’ and as seat belts were a new feature on cars back then she couldn’t quite figure out how to fasten it.  Although I wasn’t dating at 16, I  certainly appreciated the differences between boys and girls and was very happy to lean over and fasten it around her slim waist.  She gave me her big ‘dimpled’ smile and I’m sure I must have blushed. We actually sat in the car and talked for a while outside her house, until she finally had to go in.  The experience wasn’t lost on me…girls like nice cars! 

The teenage love affair with their cars evolved into ‘cruising’ which was popular during the 1950s and into the early 1960s.  Simply put, a bunch of girls in one car and a bunch of boys in another were out driving around hoping to make a connection.  Sometimes, it wasn’t even that, it was just to see and be seen.  In larger cities cruising could be ‘epic’ and the ‘muscle’ cars were amazing as seen in the movie “American Graffiti” which took place in the summer of 1962.  During that summer my Claremont High School classmates and I had just finished our junior year and were looking forward to being seniors in September.   Unfortunately our downtown was too small to really cruise (not to mention being ‘locked-down’ at 5pm) and most of us didn’t own a car, therefore the family car was used.  But we still cruised…Foothill Blvd. west over to La Verne or east over to Upland.  Before fast food franchises there were only a few eating places open late (none in Claremont) …but we had fun and made do.

Then there was always Pomona to the south with the perpetual rumors of the boy-starved girls at the Catholic girl's school (like anyone in “my group” would know what to do with one, if they did indeed exist!), but then you risked running into the leather jacketed ‘hoods’ of the area (who undoubtedly carried switch-blade knives) in their lowered and chopped "pachuco wagons"! 

Being able to drive was certainly a boon to dating…how embarrassing it was to have your mother or father drive you to your date’s home to pick her up for that school dance.  But above that was the opportunity to have some privacy.  I’m sure it’s where most of us had our first ‘make-out’ session, and for some their first sexual experience of either minor or major proportions!  Then there was the drive-in movie theater which was made for cars and great for the family but better for a date or a bunch of your friends.  In the early 1960's we had two drive-ins to choose from:  the Valley Drive-In on Mission Blvd. and the Mission Drive-In on Ramona Ave, both in Montclair to the east of Claremont.  The impressive Valley opened for business in 1948 and claimed fame as having the world’s largest ‘neon mural’ on the street side of the 8 story screen tower.  It was a hand painted scene of a Spanish ox cart with a mission in the background outlined with almost a half-mile of colored  and ‘animated’ neon tubing (see photo).  The screen was widened in 1954 to accommodate Cinemascope films making it the largest outdoor screen in the United States!   Its 30 acres could accommodate 800 cars…an impressive place!  Sadly it was demolished in 1980 to make way for a car dealership.

I remember double dating there once and since I drove, my ‘first time’ date and I were in front seat while there was a lot of romantic activity going on in the back seat…it was embarrassing for both of us and a lesson for me not to take a more ‘advanced’ couple with you to the drive-in!  Another time we tried to sneak in some guys in the trunk, but were caught.  Our names were taken and we were threatened that the police would be called next time!

As to car seats, it's too bad that younger generations don't know the benefits of bench seats.   The new bucket seats were cool looking and sporty, but the bench seat was best for dating.  Why?  Well, because your date (if she liked you that is) would snuggle right up next to you while you were driving (there were no seat or shoulder belts to get in the way).  You could even put your arm around her and drive in the non-approved one handed method.  A minor thing in today’s sexual climate but pretty exciting back then!

And then of course, boys being boys…we had to push the envelope.  By the time we were seniors the guys in my little group were good drivers (the quick reflexes of an 18 year old didn't hurt either) but we didn't always practice Earl Strang’s ‘safe and sane’ driving admonitions.  Whenever we could get our hands on someone’s family car (no one in our group owned one) we would road race up and down Mt. Baldy road.  Of course it was a 'chicken' game and in turn we would see how many miles per hour we could add onto the speed warning sign of each curve!  It's a wonder we all lived through puberty, or maybe it's a testament to Earl's driver’s training.  If it had snowed on Baldy, even better, we’d pile as much of it as we could on the car, drive back down the mountain (more carefully than usual as we didn’t want to lose the snow) and cruise the town throwing snowballs at classmates or undergrads.  Life could be very good at times!

Speaking of the mountains, one of the guys came up with a ‘brilliant’ idea…or so it seemed at the time.  He wondered how far we could drive up the mountains on the series of dirt ‘fire-breaks’ that had been bulldozed along the length and height of the San Gabriels…maybe we could even drive to the top!  Of course that was strictly illegal, but we thought it one of ‘those stupid laws’ made expressly to curtail the fun of teenage boys!  Although access to these breaks was barred by locked gates, where there is a will there is a way, and we were soon heading into the foothills in an old Ford Falcon station wagon with manual transmission.  The dirt ‘roads’ were steep and in bad condition; there was a lot of ‘riding the clutch’ in first gear and we were often stuck in ruts requiring strong backs and a jack to get us going again.  When darkness fell (accompanied by packs of howling coyotes) and the trail was getting ‘very’ steep (meaning, “are we going to fall off the side of this mountain?”), we decided to turn back without accomplishing our goal, but it was a great driving adventure.

When I asked Gary Gilbert if he had a driving adventure to share, he had this word of warning for us: “It's probably not a good idea to drive off the athletic track to the road below when the Webb's School groundskeeper thinks he's captured you by locking the gate to the only entrance!”   As a guy I can only applaud Gary’s imagination (track racing!) and his willingness to plow a road through the brush with his car!  Why didn’t I think of that?

Yes, even Claremont girls let their hair down occasionally.   Although girls didn’t usually push the danger element like boys did, they could and did push the “rules.”  In this case, when KD (Kathy Dettweiler) was driving her car with a couple of girlfriends, it gave them the opportunity to experiment with smoking cigarettes.  Since we all know that KD was a classic example of an innocent and pure Claremont girl, I can only assume that the idea came from her sometimes rowdy passengers Sue Files or Dianna Woy.  Well, according to KD, they were happily cruising town puffing away when pedestrian Jon York recognized the car and flagged them down.  A brief moment of panic ensued as the girls stuffed their cigarettes into the dashboard ash tray and pushed it shut.   A moment later as Jon was leaning in the car window making some light conversation, he notice smoke coming from the dashboard.  “Hey,” he said, “I think your car is on fire!”  Realizing it was cigarette smoke and not wanting to be found out, KD quickly and cleverly said, “I’d better get home and have my Dad look at it!”   She stomped the accelerator leaving a slightly alarmed and very confused York watching her smoking car disappear down the street!

Finally, there was a popular (for teen boys) stretch of Baseline Road to the east of Claremont that was called the ‘mile of bumps’…and for good reason.  When they paved that section of road (probably in the 1930s-40s), no grading was done and it was one mound and gully after another.  That was a favorite race area for generations of Claremont High Schoolers…you could really go airborne and then make the sparks fly when you returned to earth.  But the greatest ‘fun’ was putting one or more guys in the trunk (usually volunteers, but not always!) and taking the mile of bumps…I think the record was 3 guys.  It was great sport and remember, in those days the trunk was almost the size of the passenger compartment so no one was unduly cramped…scared yes, maybe slightly exhaust asphyxiated, but cramped, no!  It’s fortunate that none of our parents ever looked under their cars to notice the shiny 'ground-off’ areas on the transmission housing, mufflers and oil pan!  I’m sure they must have noticed that the shocks wore out quickly but I don’t recall anyone getting in trouble for it.

So ends my story of Claremont, teens and cars…..does anyone have a fun or frightening Earl Strang Driver Training story? Or...did you get more than 3 guys in the trunk at the Mile of Bumps? Or….?        Please post them or send to me to add to this story.