emilie posted about driving a stick shift today on her blog and thinking about learning to drive a stick made me burst out laughing.
do you know how to drive a stick?
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| image stolen from emilie |
i'll never forget the first time i tried. my sister ellen's boyfriend in high school, bobby, had a blue truck that was covered with bumper stickers (things like "tool", etc.) and was a stick. bobby never let anybody drive his truck but he wanted me to learn so one day he got it in his head to teach me. so for some reason, ellen decided to come with us but the truck only had a bench seat. i was probably about 4'10" at the time and bobby was 6'2" at least, so pulling the seat close enough for me to reach the pedals meant bobby was scrunched into a ball taking up all the extra room, so ellen sat in the back. like, in the bed of the truck. bobby was trying to teach me about the clutch and the brake, but i was not getting it. the fact that i could use both feet to drive and then also be steering and watching the road was too much for me, and as i was trying to turn around in our cul-de-sac i forgot that i could use the clutch and the brake at the same time and the truck started bouncing pretty seriously and stalling and i rammed the truck straight into the curb. poor ellen wasn't prepared for the force of the crash and her body slammed into the back window. it was
so loud. bobby was yelling and he was so mad but i could not stop laughing.
bobby didn't let me try again. (ellen was okay, by the way.)
but now that i knew the basics of how to do it, i wanted to try again. my dad's car was a stick but it was a smaller, less-scary version of bobby's truck so one day i decided to try it on my own. before i got to my friend jewelene's house a few blocks away, i had it figured out.
it's been at least 10 years since i've driven a stick but i'm pretty sure i would be able to do it again with no problems. when we watched the amazing race this week i was shocked to see a grown man that doesn't know how to drive a stick. i'm just throwing this out there: if you would like to keep your man card, learn how to drive a manual transmission. it's not hard.
do you know how to drive a stick shift? when did you learn?
11 comments:
My first car was a stick shift. I haven't driven a stick since I was about 18. I'd love to try again and see if I could still do it. I assume I wouldn't forget. Who knows.
I learned to drive on a stick and insist that all my kids learn. It's lame to not know how. I loved it in college when some guy would need help with something and the lame girls couldn't help because they couldn't drive a stick. I could always say "of course I can". Thanks Dad!
I do think it's better to learn the basics of driving and then learn the stick. That's how we did it with our kids...less stressful!
I can but not well. Joe started teaching me before we moved to Texas but then I REFUSED to drive his car in Houston because they are CRAZY drivers there! Since we've been back I've done it a few times mostly out of necessity and mostly in our parking lot... I need to learn how to do it well... But not on trappers loop :)
My mom taught me in an International Scout. Loved that vehicle, she took me all over town. Taught me how to park on a hill and how to use parking brake to start from park up the hill. Mom was patient and didn't yell when I almost ran over the pedestrian. But I guess my first driving experience was driving the ranch truck, grandpa would shift and I would drive. First car was a '72 Ford Fairlane 3 on the tree, loved that car. Great for peeling out :)
Haha, this whole post made me laugh. I agree, every man should be able to drive a stick!
My highschool boyfriend let me try once on my street, but I did NOT get it, and thought I was going to crash every time I needed to stop. But a year or two later my older sister left her car with me for a week. She told me I could drive it around if I wanted, and that is when I taught myself to drive stick (although I never completely mastered it b/c I've never personally had a stick shift car.)
I don't know how! I've tried to learn a few times but I've never really been successful if hills or turns are involved. Give me a long straight road and I can drive stick, sort of. When Josh bought his car last year he really wanted a manual and I was excited to finally have a car to learn on. I'm too nervous to learn on someone else's vehicle in case I ruin their clutch or something.
My first car was a POC 1990 Ford Escort that was a stick with no power steering, no air conditioning, and no radio. And I LOVED it. It was so much fun to drive. I still miss driving a stick shift and kind of wish someone I knew had one so I could give it another go. :-D
I watched and thought I knew exactly how to drive a stick and was asked in high school to go to Piggly Wiggly and get something I don't remember what and the only vehicle I could use was a full size pickup with a stick. I killed it about 47 times trying to get out of the parking lot and people were so ticked off at me. We now own a Jeep 5 speed on the floor and it's great to drive except in traffic. Then my knees get tired
Nope, never learned, and really never wanted to--they made me too nervous growing up. This is of course coming from someone who didn't take drivers ed until they were almost 18, so yeah I just didn't really care all that much about driving in general at that point. I think my Mom scared me out of wanting to learn once she told me her "driving stick on the San Fransisco hills in her VW bug and how she thought she was going to die" story. heh.
also, I totally laughed out loud picturing your sister ramming against the window. I know, I'm terrible.
That's awesome!! I took my drivers test in a stick shift. I failed the first test... But not because it was a stick shift. Everyone at school new me for the awesome turquoise truck that I drove! It also had turquoise rims.
in a sad word: No. in HS both of my parents had stick shifts', and my mom ...and i even think at one point in time Michelle tried to teach me to drive a stick shift. my dad has a huge truck that was an automatic, but it was HUGE and i was super uncomfortable in it. i had a use a friends car to go take my driving test.
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