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This is a timely topic. Our granddaughter will turn 15 next month and wants to learn to drive stick. Our DD is Saturn Vue 5 speed so I guess I'll get the task of working with her. She expertly handles a Kubota 4 wheeler on her other grandfather's farm so it is just a matter of teaching her to deal with the clutch. She is a dancer and has excellent leg control so I'm hoping this is going to be relatively easy.

It will not be my first trip to this rodeo. I had a VW Bug when we were first married and got the "opportunity" to teach my new wife to drive it. We all laugh now about one particularly tear-filled moment when she stalled it on a hill and couldn't get it going, with me having to take over during the blare of following car horns. I taught our son (who has a 5 speed Camero now) and our daughter (whose first car was a Honda Prelude 5 speed). There were some teary times with the latter, too.

Though it has been many decades, I remember my own stick learning experience vividly. I managed to stall our 53' Mercury on a hill while still driving with my learner's permit. My Dad had to take over. The next time we went out, he took me to a back road up a mountain. He had me stop just as soon as the grade started. I stopped and started at least 50 times as we continued up the hill. I never stalled it with him in the car afterward. I knew that my "punishment" would be another trip to that hill.

But that training paid off. A friend rented a larger U-Haul truck and managed to get it perched just above a 6 foot tall wall. The engine didn't want to keep running and the clutch was in bad shape. The emergency brake wasn't holding well. They wanted me to take over and get the truck back from that ledge. I ended up with my right heal on the brake while I feathered the gas pedal with my toes. I was going to get one chance at it and could not let the truck drift forward in the process. Even with the different feel to that clutch, I managed to back it away from the edge and ended up driving the truck to complete that move. I said a silent "thank you, Dad" after it was over.