Folks Of Interest Did you learn to drive a stick or a automatic?

My twin daughters are now 40 years old and I tried to teach them both with the mustang I pulled the engine and transmission out and installed in the Ranch Wagon.

They both failed miserably ,and I just couldn't take all the gear grinding and stopped trying,fast forward to my 21 year old granddaughter,I have taken here out in the wagon several times and she mastered the 5 speed in a matter of 20 minutes. HRP

 

I learned to drive on my parents 1966 Plymouth Fury 383 4-barrel 4 speed.

 

55 Pontiac 3speed column - Then graduated to a 61 Corvette 4speed I built myself when I was 17!

 

I learned to drive on a 50 Dodge "wayfarer" coupe.Flathead 6 3 on the tree.I had to think about that for a bit!

 

I learned to drive an automatic (67 Belvedere), but soon afterwards learned to drive a 3 on the tree on a Cushman four wheel vehicle - not sure what the "official" name was - at an amusement park! Those things were a BLAST!!

 

Your right Corn Fed, you read every now and then about some idiot carjacker trying to steal a stick shift then giving up because they can't operate it.

All of my kids, my brothers kids and even a few friends/neighbors kids learned to drive in this old OT 46 CJ2A Jeep just so they would know how to drive a clutch/stick vehicle. I told them all if you can drive this you can drive almost anything, and they can. I intend to start teaching my two 12 old twin granddaughters to drive in it this summer.
I basically learned to drive a tractor first but also in my dads 55 Chevy pickup with a hydromatic trans.

 

I learned to drive in a 28 Model A Tudor. Funny thing because I just turned 30. We also had a model a running g gear with a bus seat on it I used to rip around the yard in. My first car that I bought was a 78 Impala I bought from my great grandmother. Miss it to this day 15 years later

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I'm another one that learned in a '49 Chevy half ton with the 4 spd with granny low. Used for picking sweet corn. I remember a grasshopper landing on the w/s in front of me, and me hitting the glass with my fist to scare it off, ...I broke the windshield. My first auto was a '57 Ford I had in the service.

 

Both, really. We had a 52 Olds w/auto and a 50 Shoebox with a 3-speed. The Olds helped teach me how to stay on my side of the road and the shoebox taught be to change transmissions and clutches, among other things.

 

'60 Ford, 3 on the tree and '30 Model A same time frame.

 

56 Chevy 3 on the floor, my first car

 

1958 FORD 4 Door, my older Sister's car, V8 Automatic, PS, PB. I have told this story before, my sister managed a Mortgage company, with this job she traveled the state to close home loans for customers and when I turned 15, I would cut school and travel with her, for starters I drove when we left town, as time went on, I drove everywhere. On my 16th birthday I took my road test, I drove the instructor a few miles, normal turn here, left/right, etc. He said to me, John, You Passed, Just how long have you been driving ? I probably had about 5000 miles experience already. My first car, bought a 57 Chev 210 2 door body, no motor, went to boneyard, bought a 348 tri-carb w/ 3 speed manual trans and w/ the help of friends and neighbors had it running in about a week or two. Used up my paper route $$$ savings. Took myself cruising, taught myself how to drive stick quickly and the rest is history, had all shifter cars, 3 & 4 speed, big fun, Street racing, cruising, etc. until I left the street deal on a Judge's request/recommendation. Other than my OT Camaro ragtop shifter car, All my rides cars/trucks/SUV have been Auto trans vehicles for 45+ years.

 

Volvo 544. Four on the floor....

 

When I was about 7 or so we lived in Eritrea (my dad was in the Army). There were a lot of Italians living there so there were a lot of '30's era Italian cars around. My Dad bought a mid-'30's Bianchi. He had me sit on his lap and steer and shift while he worked the clutch. If I had sat in the seat by myself I would not have been able to see out of the car. The first time I really drove by myself was a few years later in a '40 Plymouth four door that was my Dad's daily driver. We went for a ride one day and ended up on some sandy dirt roads (closer to a trail of some kind) where he stopped got out and told me to get in the driver's seat and drive. Three speed on the column naturally. I loved that old Plymouth. It about killed me when he traded it for a used '58 Dodge Wagon. The push button tranny was neat , but not a stick. Of course Mom's '61 Pontiac with the 3 speed on the column was fun to drive, but I still wasn't old enough to drive on my own.....

 

I learned to drive in my 1949 Chevrolet coupe, 3 on the tree with a 261 truck motor, way back in the olden days, 1976. still have the transmission on a shelf in my shop, I may make a lamp out of it or something. still have the car as well, I'm getting old, better get back to work on it. worked all summer making $3.25 an hour to buy it. a buddy just spent more for 2 doors for his 51 than I did for the whole car.

 

Also a three on the tree. My granddads old 53 Studebaker farm truck. But he didn't know it at the time. It was so beat up he couldn't tell that I had hit stuff like trees etc. lol Ron...

 

Besides the old Farmall tractor, when I was about 9, the first car I drove legally on the street was a '50 Chevy with a 3-speed in the Sumer of 1961. I recall every second of that ride ! Never drove a car with an automatic transmission until 1973. God, but I miss those days.....

 

My first car was a '67 Dodge Dart, 273 V-8 and a torqueflite auto.

One of my first jobs was as a parts driver for an auto parts warehouse. They had a trio of Toyota mini trucks, with about a million miles on them...all stick shifts. They asked me when I got hired if I could drive stick, of course I said yes. Never drove stick shift in my life. Taught myself to shift in the middle of rush hour in Phoenix. Had to learn quickly, or die trying! Never looked back.

 

69 beetle , at 14 driving a 65 3ton Chevy 4 speed with split rear axle, not legally lol


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'57 chevy 2 door wagon, straight 6, 3 on the tree. It looked a lot like this one.




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I learned on dads 52 chevy 4 door 3 on the tree. Oh for the good old days

 

Started on tractors at 6. By about 8 I was driving hay truck with blocks on the pedals. In 1959, when I was 9, old man bought our first car- 59 Chev wagon with powerglide. One day the old man let me drive her home from town. When I got to our farm driveway and let off gas, car didn't slow down! Not sure I knew where the brake was right then, but I was gonna make that turn anyway. Old man had to reach over and hold the wheel straight till I could stop her and we discussed automatic transmissions a little more.

 

I'm thinking HRP got the idea for this thread from me-- last week I mentioned teaching one of my kids to drive stick in one of my old chevys. He turned 8 this weekend.
I was a lucky car kid. Dad always had several cars and a pickup and my uncle and grandpa had a wrecking yard. Also living in farm country. I can't pin down exactly what I first learned to drive in-- I remember driving a 48 chevy pickup across the neighbors pasture while he pitched flakes of hay off to the cows. An old Cadillac that a friend gave my dad for my brother and I. Dragged the side of that cad into a fence steering clear of a bull in the same pasture. So that's a stick and an automatic. Would've been about 9 or 10 for either of those. Of course my first car had a 4 speed and nearly all since have too.

When I did have my license, Pops would let me drive almost anything that he had. I remember in high school driving his '50 dodge (fluid drive), 57 chevy, his 356 Porsche roadster and once I drove his 61 Rolls. Was too weird for me and being a shy kid that was a bad choice of car. Also right hand drive..

 

took my driving test on my Mom's 64 Rambler, 3 speed on the column

 

At 14 I taught myself to drive my newly acquired 38 Ford with three at the knee.

 

My brother taught me to drive his 64 Chevy p.u. 292/granny.
After that it was easy street!

 

My dad wasn't a nurturing car guy so I learned at 16 in the Hice-Cool summer program. Some classroom, some behind the wheel practice in a '60 Chevy automatic. I'm thinking it was a dealer loaner to the school. I passed the tests and had some occasional use of the family cars which were also automatic. A year or so later I bought my aunts '49 DeSoto 3 speed column shift for $75. It was an hour from home and I had to learn it or burn it with my little brother in the shotgun seat helping me cuss. It wasn't long, maybe a week or less, and I was getting some scratch making lefts and rights from stop signs with the best of them.

 

2 speed 3 pedal Hyster Forklift. 12 years old and unsupervised in the warehouse as Dad worked else where in the building on Saturday's.

 

1970 Subaru 360 Standard shift. VW standard, High School Drivers Ed. standard.

 

Granpas early 63 four door falcon. 3 on tree. Brings back memories.