The King and the Grandson
Driving lesson 101
For the past 3 weeks the King has
been involved with the grandson and
the grandson's truck.
The truck motor needed to be completely
overhauled. So thru these weeks there
has been removal from the truck, taking
it apart. And then having to wait for parts,
waiting for the valves to be done. And slowly,
but surely putting it all together. And putting
it back into the truck. Then two days ago,
the most glorious sound for all mechanics,
the starting and running of the engine.
While it had its ups and downs, the hardest
part is yet to come. The training of how to
drive. Oh, the grandson took the driving classes
that the school has. And passed. And he has
a license to drive. But that was all fairly easy.
Now how to explain and show and hope he
gets it... see he had an automatic drive car.
This is what he wanted... a 5 speed manual
transmission. Today was the beginning of the
lesson. I don't know whose nerves were more
shot when they returned to the shop. From the
facial expressions, the tight lip and one word
answers, I would say it was equal.
See in the good old days, we learn the whole
land of the stick shift, in hay fields. And I'm sure
the King wish he knew someone who had a
large one right now. He and I both learn to
drive, by driving the hay truck. That is how my
brother learn. That is the great thing about growing
up on a farm.
So it is out to the back roads, stop, start, kill the
engine, start again, jerk, jerk, stall, kill the engine.
He finally got it going and was able to manage 2nd,
and 3rd pretty well, and then 4th. But down shifting,
not pretty. And the stopping at stop signs and starting
again. Well, we hope the transmission last long
enough. Add to that, the frustrations of a young
boy who thought he could just get behind the
wheel, and drive. After all, he saw his friend do it
all the time. It was just a matter of swish and it
went into gear. And he has been pretty voiceful
about how this is going to be ...no problem. The
fall from grace has not been landing well.
So today, is lesson 2. Do you remember when
you learn how to drive stick shift? Or are you
young enough, you never had to?
On Election Day 2024
11 hours ago
4 comments:
I remember learning how to drive a stick shift, and I am fairly young (27). My mom took me way out in the country to an empty church parking lot to practice the shifting and the clutching. The first car I drove regularly (after drivers ed at school) was my sisters old stick shift Ford Fiesta.
This is one of my favorite blogs to read. Hope you have a great day.
Tina
I remember learning how to drive a stick shift. In fact, you've given me an idea, and I'm going to blog about it. LOL Thanks.
Oh, yeah. I remember! My brother taught me. That was an experience!
Having achieved an advanced age, I have to puff up and brag that I learned how to type on a manual typewriter. No, not an IBM selectric, but one that didn't plug in.
Secondly, we didn't have automatic transmissions when I learned to drive. We normally had three on the column. That means that our gear shift was mounted to the right of the steering column, with three positions forward, and one reverse. It worked rather well for a long time, as the early automatics were gas guzzlers. The slippage when changing gears, severely affected gas mileage. To some extent, it still does. But back to the issue. There are thousands of people that have never had to worry about slipping a clutch while shifting, or, when I was young, and if the clutch was toast, speed shifting without one. We always had to, however remember to park on a hill for the rolling start.
I didn't mean to go off one this, except it brought back my misspent youth.
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