My mother-in-law has inherited a stick shift Nissan truck from the early 90’s.  It has a mere 80,000 miles, which is just so few.  The truck has been well maintained and the body is in great shape.  Last night she asked me to get some gas for her in it and I got to drive a stick shift for the first time in years.  Such fun!  I stalled the thing out 3 times in the King Sooper parking lot, but hey, its like learning all over again without my grandpa in the car.  Did I ever tell you that story?

You see I asked my grandpa Peterman to teach me how to drive a stick shift.  So he took me to a nice flat, sandy, isolated place (which is hard to find in the hills where he lives, well, level is at least) and helped me learn about shifting the gears, finding the right shifting points in his Chevy Luv, and getting used to a stick.  Then he let me drive home from that point (on a non-public dirt road, I was 15, I think).  Except for one thing: at a point on the road to his house the road is just as wide as the cars (plus a few feet, I’m sure) but drops off into a small stream on both sides.  At that point the road is inclined.  At that point my grandpa had me stop the truck and stop the engine.  And then he asked me to start the truck and continue on my way up to his house.  Yikes!  I panicked and freaked out and probably was 10 times more dangerous.  I let the truck drift backwards and then slammed on the breaks in major fear.  My grandpa chuckled as I switched places with him (having set the parking break, put the truck in reverse and swore to God above that I would never drive a stick again).  He smoothly drove us back up the hill and to his house explaining to me the physics and mechanics of driving.

I’m glad there aren’t steep hills and muddy streams in the King Sooper parking lot.  It makes it a lot easier for me to get going again.  Oh, and just in case you think I don’t deal with stick shifts well I happen to have inherited that Luv later on when I was 16 and driven it for a few short months until I scraped it down the side of my parents Camry 🙂