I learned to drive an automatic. My great-aunt Mildred sold me her 1955 Renault Dauphin for $50 in 1966. No synchromesh stick shift. It had a bad cotter pin in the transmission and my stepfather had it fixed at a 2nd floor garage at Fell & Divisadero. When it was ready he dropped me off and said - OK drive home. Rush hour traffic through the park to Westlake. I had my girlfriend with me. I learned to drive that stick shift really fast and have had sticks every since. On May 31, 2010, at 12:00 AM, norcal-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 30 May 2010 23:00:32 -0700 (PDT) > From: Sam Brewer <samrewerb@yahoo.com> > Subject: Re: [NORCAL] OT- drivers training > To: norcal@rootsweb.com > Message-ID: <727773.58208.qm@web32808.mail.mud.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > My dad taught me to drive an automatic. We lived in Alameda and on my second time behind the wheel my dad had me drive to the Nimitz freeway and drive to Hayward and back. His belief was that if you could drive the freeway, you could drive anywhere. > > My first experience with a stick shift was in the Navy in the Philippines. Our first class loaded everyone on a 5 ton flatbed and told me to drive. I calmly told him I never drove a stick. He sternly told me to get behind the wheel and drive. I tentatively got behind the wheel. He then instructed me on the fundamentals of a stick and after killing the engine a few times and jerking the truck and the guys in back a bunch more times I finally got comfortable driving the truck. This made the guys in back very happy as I was required to also drive it back. It was an open bed truck and it rained the whole way to our work station. The truck we came back in was canvas covered, the rain had stopped and it was about 115 in the shade. > > Sam