Re-learning to drive in a pandemic
I have been cooped up a LOT these days and I think the last time I actually drove an automotive vee-hickle was maybe a week ago or so. I mean, I usually drive my Ninja over to Cubelandia every day. It’s a zen drive of sorts. Today I was driving around our largely deserted city and I was kinda slow driving and paying extra attention to how I was shifting because the Ninja has a stick shift.
This is kinda funny because a high school friend on facebook has posted a meme about “what was your first car”. Well… She was a “rich kid” and her first car was a brand new Plymouth Duster that her dad bought her. I didn’t answer the meme because I don’t answer memes. My first couple o’ cars were my parents 1966(?) Pontiac Tempest and my grandparents’ (1965?) Ford Fairline. Both of those vee-hickles had automatic transmissions but I learned to drive stick via my family’s VW Bug. My FB friend says over and over that she could never learn to drive a stick. I am here to tell you that not only did I learn to drive a stick as a kid, I am STILL driving a frickin’ stick. Grrr. 2008 Honda Civic SI, 6-speed manual. Perfect vee-hickle for pandemic grocery pickup with its pop the trunk functionality.
We had a great time facetiming with our daughters and a niece tonight, along with a couple of beloved significant others. We are all well but it it is so hard to say good-bye and hang up from FaceTime.
April 4th, 2020 at 8:34 pm
Love a stick! Also love our modern continuously variable transmission (like an automatic, but no thunk into gear). Nice contrast.
April 5th, 2020 at 1:48 am
My first car (in 1972, when I was 16) was a ’66 Barracuda. My dad bought it for me and my mom about had an aneurysm. I honestly did NOT expect that he would ever buy me a car, and I was flummoxed. And joyful! And also appreciative! As the dutiful daughter with good grades and responsible behavior, I enjoyed that car for quite some time (loved to be able to drive to school). And paid for my own gas with babysitting and berry-picking money. Later, it became my brother’s car. We actually had it “driven” to Maine when my dad was transferred there, by some kid who needed a ride there. I drove it to school there, too. It was an automatic. I struggled trying to learn to drive my dad’s stick shift pickup truck. Then, in 1982, I bought a brand new Honda Civic with a stick and I HAD to learn. Thankfully, it was 10000000% easier than my dad’s old pick up and I drove a stick for many years. But with the Seattle area stop-and-crawl traffic and being pre-disposed to charlie horses in my feet, I gave up on stick shifts. Haven’t driven a stick since the early 2000s, and I’ll never go back.
April 5th, 2020 at 10:42 am
I didn’t have a car in high school (sometimes drove my parents’ Vega), but got a 1974 Toyota Celica when I was doing my student teaching. It was a stick, as were my next two cars after it. It’s too hilly around here and once I got an automatic, like Tonya, I didn’t go back. My late husband had a stick in his CJ7 Jeep and that clutch was tricky. I was one of the few who could drive it.