fenchurch | 26 June - Driving a stick

My dad tried really hard to teach me to drive a stick, on the theory that if I learned that first, then an automatic would be easy... but when I was first learning (at age 13 or so), I just found it too difficult to concentrate on driving *and* on operating the car, so we both finally gave up on the idea and I felt like I had to be relegated to driving an automatic for the rest of my life. Mostly this bugged me because of a book I'd read, The Weathermonger by Peter Dickinson, where one of the characters comments that the driver should always be smarter than the car (i.e. be able to drive a stick), something that really stuck with me. Flash forward many years and my mom and step-dad gave us a 1974 Super Beetle they weren't using... so

rackham took me out to some back roads and had me give it a try again. Amazingly, it was MUCH easier to do after the driving part of the equation had become second nature. Since then, my car has usually still been an automatic, although I did have a manual for several years and loved it.

On Thursday, my car needed to go in to have its brakes done, so Rackham drove it to the shop and then took their shuttle to the office... meaning I got to drive his MINI for the day! There really is just something sort of, well, empowering about driving a car where you have to shift up the faster you go. Also, you'll notice my shoes are sitting on the floor on the passenger side. I found, when I finally did figure out how to drive a stick, that I much prefer doing it barefoot... where I can "feel" the engine through my feet. Oh, and yes... I took this photo while I was parked.