Mhhhm…
What have I learned from my siblings?
When I was young, we had manual vehicles. My dad’s truck was 5 on the tree, mom’s station wagon had a shifter on the column too. A couple of my brothers had street motorcycles and of course they both had a clutch you worked with your heal. There were dirt bikes and 3 wheelers at my aunt and uncle’s property that you had to manual shift as well.
Turns out I never got to drive the 3 wheelers or dirt bikes as a kid because, well, I was a girl and only the boys got to drive ’em. And, I was always ‘too young’. Looking back, that might have just been momma’s excuse to keep her only daughter off the bikes. Anyway, by the time I was driving, mom’s car was what we lovingly called the SS Burgess, a huge 4 door automatic Chevy Impala and dad’s ‘truck’ car was an auto shifting El Camino.
When I took possession of my first car I couldn’t actually drive it because I had not yet learned to drive a car with a clutch. My brother Keith helped my buy my beloved blue Mustang and he drove it home from Renton Ford with me riding shot gun. For the record, being 17 and leaving my car sit in the driveway was torture. Thanks brother Tim for teaching me how to actually drive the car I had sitting in front of our house.
It was Honey who taught me how to drive a motorcycle. With him on the back, we rode around his couple acre pasture. When it looked like we were going to end up in the irrigation ditch (imagine a 3 feet deep water canal running along the property line) Honey started yelling “TURN!” over the noise of the engine. It still makes me laugh to think about him jumping off the back as we beelined for the crop water.
Jeff’s motorcycle sitting along side the canal
Actually, I did not learn to drive a motorcycle: one and done. Though I did not end up in the ditch, Honey was done with the lessons.
Oh, I also learned to light matches but that’s a story for another day.