I turned 14 in Nebraska, where, because of all the farms, if you lived in what qualified as a rural area you could get a limited license to drive yourself to school and the gas station. So I got one and drove around willy-nilly (I had the address of several gas stations memorized) for just over a year.

At fifteen and two months I moved to Virginia. There you had to be 15 years, 8 months to get a learners permit, and you had to take drivers education in school as well as a 'behind the wheel' block of instruction. So at 15,8 I got my learners permit and could drive again (with an adult in the car), I took my class room instruction, and then I signed up for my behind the wheel.

Lesson one, the instructor comes to my house and asks me if I've ever driven before. "Yes sir." says I,

"Good" Says he "You can go ahead and drive right now." So I get into the car (I don't remember what it was, only that it was the first time I had ever driven an automatic transmission) and backed out of the driveway, no problem. I put the car in drive and off we went. At ~17 miles per hour as the RPMs were starting to wind up, out of habit I stomped on the clutch and went to shift.... Oh wait, this is an automatic, there is no clutch. What I manged to do was bring us to a screeching halt right in the middle of the street because I actually stomped on the brake.

The instructor wasn't amused.