Long Islanders share stories on how they learned to drive

Memorial Day is now in the rearview, which means summer road-trip season is right around the bend. It’s a good time to motor down memory lane.

So, we asked Long Islanders to recall how they learned to drive — and what was their first car. They pulled in with tales of driver's ed, expressway jitters and beloved first cars like one nicknamed the Batmobile. Buckle up and enjoy the trip.

Riding high with a red Mustang

Stephen Montana, a 43-year-old mechanical engineer who lives in Oceanside, was chomping at the bit to get his license as a teen. "I was waiting for it for years," he said, recalling his youth in Merrick. "That taste of freedom."

Autonomy arrived as a cherry red 1987 Mustang GT that Montana bought in 1999 from a neighbor for $2,500. He was 16 with just a learner’s permit and getting driving lessons from his father.

"My dad made it a good experience. He was very chill," said Montana, who’d grown up around go-carts and dirt bikes and aced his road test. Decades later, the sexy Mustang is history. He drives a Ford F150 Raptor that fits his life as a married dad.

Wherever he’s driving, including his favorite Long Island stretch along Old Montauk Highway, he recalls a rule ingrained back when you needed a key, not a fob, to start the car. "Patience," he said. "A little of it goes a long way. Less headaches and stress on the road."

She loved her Audi Fox

Robin Gordon, 58, lives and works in Huntington, where she assists with marketing and advertising at Peppard Home + Interiors, formerly Suite Pieces.

She still has vivid memories of Oyster Bay High School driver’s ed class. "It was kind of hysterical, because everybody had different skill levels," she said. "Some people couldn’t back up. Some people couldn’t get on the highway. Some people were scared to keep their hands on the wheel."

The gnarliest nail-biter: "Getting on the Northern State Parkway was always the biggest hurdle because the ramps are so short," she said. "I think I was pretty capable."

Gordon chalked her skillfulness up to the fact that her dad was a mechanic and a used-car dealer. After she passed her road test on an automatic car, he was determined to further her driving education.

"He figured that the best way to teach me how to drive a standard was to buy me a car that was a standard shift," she said.

In 1984, he purchased a 1976 four-speed manual transmission Audi Fox. "If he paid $1,000 for it, I'd be surprised," Gordon said. "It was a battleship gray. It had no shine to it at all."

It did have a tendency to be finicky on hills. She still flinches while recalling stalling out at a traffic light — for no fewer than four light cycles — and having to have her dad take over.

Still, looking back, she said, it’s hard not to appreciate the car’s fuel efficiency — something that looms large at the pump these days. "I ended up loving that Audi Fox. It was a great little car."

Mastering motoring in a Mack truck

Dennis Manfredo, 78, grew up in Franklin Square and lives in Miller Place. "I love driving," he said. He’s been at it for six decades plus change. He learned to drive a stick shift on a Mack truck at Rheingold Brewery in Brooklyn, where his father worked.

"My dad said, ‘I want you to learn how to drive a truck, because if you can drive that, you can drive anything,’ " said Manfredo, whose practice sessions were in the brewery parking lot in a truck loaded with bottles.

"I had to learn how to back up without breaking the bottles in the truck," he said. "It was very interesting, but it was also fun. My father was direct, but he never got me nervous." (Manfredo didn't break a single bottle.) On Long Island, he practiced on Franklin and Corona avenues.

Manfredo’s uncle bought him his first car — a 1953 Ford Victoria — for $700. "It was just a sweetheart of a car. It was coral white and black," said Manfredo, adding that the previous owner babied it. "When I asked if we could start it up, she said, ‘Yes, but I have to take the blanket off the engine. I like it not to get too cold.’ "

That set off a lifelong passion for cars for Manfredo, who no longer has that Victoria. "In mint condition, it’d be worth $35,000," he said. Currently president of the Long Island Street Rod Association, a car club, his vintage collection includes a 1934 Ford 3-window Coup. His everyday car is a 2025 Hyundai Santa Fe.

"I’m happy in almost any car," Manfredo said. "I love going out on North Country Road."

Parallel parking and the 'Batmobile'

Growing up in Baldwin, Paul Nosworthy got busy learning how to drive as soon as he turned 16. "I wanted to do it immediately," he said. "The day my birthday came, my parents took me from school to go get my permit."

He learned to drive on their 2003 Cadillac DeVille DHS. "My mom taught me to drive at the same time she taught my aunt, who was a few years older than me," said Nosworthy, 29, who owns Nos Exotics Snacks & Drinks in Massapequa. "My mother was patient, especially with my aunt. We practiced pretty often on the Southern State Parkway. Later, my dad taught me how to drive a stick car. That was a whole other thing."

Nosworthy’s greatest roadblock, like others, was parallel parking. "Especially when there were a lot of cars around, the pressure was on you to get into the spot quickly so everybody could pass along and keep driving," he said. "Once I got the hang of that, the nerves faded."

After getting his license, his first personal car was a 2012 Nissan Maxima. "My parents got it for me. They surprised me. I loved it," he said. "It was black on black. We called it the Batmobile. It lasted a long time. I ended up giving it to my sister and brother."

A young man in a van

John Collorafi, a 37-year-old lawyer from Floral Park who works in Mineola, has five younger siblings. Growing up in Amityville, he learned to drive at age 17 with his father.

"I think my mom was just a little too nervous, because my dad did most of the driving," Collorafi said. "I’m from a big family, so we had a large, eight-seater Dodge Caravan."

"At first, I drove around the Amityville beach parking lot and side streets," he said. "Then it was along Merrick Road — very slowly. It was definitely tough when it came to parallel parking."

"My father was very calm and patient, when it was just us in the van," said Collorafi, adding that the mood intensified with the family onboard. "There were a couple times when he let me drive the whole family back from Mass on Sunday. So there’d be seven people in the car."

Collorafi got his license, passing his road test in Amityville in the van on the first try. But after five years in New York City, where he thought he’d live the rest of his life, he let his license lapse.

At 33, he moved back to Long Island and took another road test in his mother’s Ford Focus in Mineola. "The second one was really easy," he said. "I don’t even think I had to do a three-point turn."

 Collorafi, who has a 4-year-old daughter, now drives a 2022 Nissan Sentra — his first car of his own. "My daughter recently started telling me that when she’s grown up," he said, "she’s going to drive me to work."