I'm going to reply with a different take on this. I started mowing yards at 9 yrs old and always fascinated with clutches and transmissions on the mowers. Many folks in my family still had cars with sticks. While riding in their cars, I would watch them like a hawk working the clutch and shifting. By the time I was 14, I would worry the crap out of my older friends that had cars with sticks to let me drive in a parking lot or wherever. My Dad bought a used VW Beetle for a 2nd car when I was 16, at 19 I bought a used 4 speed Camaro. When I was 21 my Grandad calls me, says he bought a new Ford truck with a 4 speed, 6 ply tires, etc. and needed me to go with him to the dealership to pick it up. Grandad was born in 1908 in the mountains of North Carolina and worked as a foreman in a tobacco factory. I'm sure he had driven all sorts of vehicles over the years. So he picks me up and we go to get his truck. He tells me to drive it home. I wondered why I would drive it first but didn't question him. In my mind I'm expecting a Bigfoot type Ford truck. Upon arrival he points to this little red Ford Courier pickup (well, it did have a 4 speed and 6 ply tires). So we get back to his house and he says "let's go for a ride". He stalls it a couple of times but we get going down the street and he goes for 2nd but misses and gets 4th and at this point I learn that he has not driven this truck or anything with a clutch for maybe 30 yrs. Little truck bucks and shudders but picks up speed. By the time we get back, he has missed a few gears but is getting the feel of it. Bless his heart, he didn't want the folks at the dealership to see he was just a little rusty with that stick. Of course, after a few days and more miles he was shifting like C. W. McCall going down Wolf Creek Pass.
