Stick Shifts

The topic has come up twice today. The first time, when I was IMing Stephen online. He’s spending 3 weeks working at a parish in England. Tangent – he said he wanted to be around people who speak English, for a change. When I was telling this to a mother of a priest at dinner a couple of weeks ago, she said good luck with that. She’s from Ireland and said Brits can be hard to understand.

Anyhow, Steve was complaining that he can’t borrow the rector’s car because it’s manual. That was also an issue when he was traveling in Italy with a couple of the other men. All the rental cars are sticks.

Then tonight my cousin’s son posted on Facebook asking who wants to learn how to drive a stick with him. He wants to buy a car. I’m guessing the manuals are more affordable than automatics.

I know how to drive a stick. Not only that, I like driving a stick. I think it’s fun. I was forced to learn how to drive it. My friends and I had plans to drive up to Cornell University to visit a friend, back in our college days. My father wouldn’t let me take the good car. I had to take his car, which was, of course, a manual transmission. I learned it in 2 days. Sort of.

Once we were up in Ithaca, I realized I didn’t quite master it. There are hills in Ithaca. Lots of hills. For those of you who have never driven a stick, the idea is you have one foot on the gas and the other on the clutch. You push in the clutch and shift. Then, as you depress the gas pedal, you release the clutch. The trouble is, if you are going uphill, you have to release your foot from the brake in order to put it on the gas. You then start rolling downhill. You have to make the transition really fast. Otherwise, you will end up in the front seat of the guy in back of you.

Ah, memories. I wonder if I remember how to drive a stick. I’m guessing it’s kind of like riding a bike. On the other hand, I can’t remember the last time I rode a bike, either.