When you're raised in farm country (ND), you learn early-on how to drive all manner of vehicles/equip't.
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My first was at the age of 12, a '52 Chevy p/u, 3 spd column shift circling around the farm yard in front of the farm house.
I was taught to NEVER back up unless I exited the vehicle & looked at what was behind me - never trust the mirrors.
Anyway, at the age of 14, 4" X 4" wood blocks were wired to the clutch & brake pedals so that my legs could reach them.
I drove a mega-ton, twin axle grain truck for my step-father during the Fall harvest - as per photo. Not just on-the-go next to the combine, but when full, driving another 6 miles to the town elevator to download. All the local young boys did the same for their families - most were older & taller than me, however.
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Not bragging, but I owe whatever vehicle handling skills I've enjoyed as an adult to how I was trained at that early age.
Farm kids just learned how to do it right...no compromise.
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Moto riding came to me when I stole my BIL's Ducati 200 while he was at work.
I confessed to him 20 yrs. later - scary. :eek:
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http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1359645157.jpg

I "drove" a bug in High School, but didn't really "learn" to drive a stick until after I graduated.;)

I knew the basics and could get around, but I never really mastered driving a stick until I had proper instruction. I would always map my route around hills that I knew I had to stop on and heavy traffic situations. After someone taught me, I never had a problem.

Most kids today cannot drive a stick and don't want to learn. Their parents mostly have slushboxes and have no desire to own a stick. It is an art to drive one well.

I was 13 in 1986 - My dad owned a 1983 911sc. One day he said lets go for a drive. I hoped in the car. We would often go hit the back roads. He pulled over and said lets switch seats. By the end of the day I was shifting as smooth as my dad. Think I only stalled 3 times and rode the clutch once when a cop was behind me at a stop sign on a hill early in the day

My Dad had an old '64 Comet he had kept for a 'learner' car for us kids - coupe - Caliente - Yellow with black interior - real wood accents - 3 on the column - 289 cu in - high school (not this car, but similar).

Never owned an automatic until my current daily driver. I have decided it is a rather good invention for daily driving. ;)

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6023/5...c9c6b50b_z.jpg

A 1953 Studebaker coupe.......3 on the tree with OD.....probably around 1964.
I'd been watchin' the old man for a few years. Once I got it into 1st (non-syncro... DOD got kinda' twitchy as I ground a pound) we were off....Been down hill ever since.;)

Ford tractor on the ranch where I grew up. I could shift it on the fly, drift it around corners. Lucky I'm still allive.

I started driving tractors at about 12, but with those you could start off in what ever gear you wanted. You did not shift them like a car, but you did learn about letting the clutch out slowly. Turned 16 in 75' and learned to drive stick on my sister-inlaws VW bug first day and then my mom took me out in my dad's 70' Jag E-type! Now that was a challenge with that clutch and power! After a few hours I felt I could drive anything, and pretty much have!

Now that I'm remembering, I was a quasi auto thief as a kid.
My BIL, sister, & another couple went to the lake for a Sunday afternoon of beer drinking & fun. They took BIL's car & left the couple's hot rod '46 Ford Coupe at the house. In those days, house doors were rarely locked & keys left in auto ignition - even parked on the street.
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I was raised in a poor household, and I lusted after that '46 rig w/decked-out flathead in plain view. I drove it over to my g/f's house & told her that it was mine.
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So what to do with those miles I racked up that afternoon?...I drove it around the local area backwards - believe it or not. Talk about car crazy, eh?

Worked at a hand car wash when I was 16. Had to learn to move the cars up to the next position. Back then it was usually Vette's, IROC's, M6's & M3's, those are the ones I remember.

A few years later I got in to a Honda Accord at a dealer I was working at. Went to start it to pull it out after being serviced. Did not push in the clutch and it was in gear. An old Honda will start when you do that. I plowed right in to a nice big Snap On Box. Mechanic was pissed.

big hill and my buddies 1970 chevy nova. he was a patient guy. took me a few tries and i was good.

i perfected the art in our 1971 bronco..with 3 on the tree!

Tractors - the best driver training aids...bar none. ;)

Great stories here!
Farm kids learned to drive early.

Dad had a '58 Chev PU 283 & column shifter. I got my permit & the two of us would (me) drive up 'Palomar Mountian' (in San Diego County) (we had property there and had to remove brush from around structures "Religiously" every 2 or 3 weeks for fire safety) It was about 110 miles round trip. Drive up on sat & home sun. He wouldnt let me use the brakes much, use that tranny. There was (is) a dirt road up the mountian 'Nate Harrison Grade' we took some times, it was fun! My 1st car was a '53 chev 2 door sedan with the 6 cyl. & 3 on the tree, no chrome. -corne-

BTW, that '58 PU was selected over another PU the dealer had at the same time which had the 283 AND factory mech fuel injection (Hillborne??) & LOTS of extras.

but with a tractor you deprive the student of the experience:

slight hill, red stoplight, and the car behind him pulls up tight..tests them nerves of steel. cold beads of sweat. first time this happened to me..i stalled it.

remember that?

I had my first crash on a tractor. I was hauling two wagons of hay behind a Farmall M, one of the early ones before they had disc brakes. Going down a slight incline to a one-lane bridge with concrete and steel on the sides at about 20 mph. There was a car coming and I assumed he would stop for me because everyone around there knew a tractor can't stop worth spit. I met him on the bridge, kept as far to the right as I could, so far the tractor's axle hit the steel of the bridge side. Things didn't get bad until the front corner of the wagon hit the bridge and the front of the car at pretty much the same time. Fortunately something in the hitch broke and the tractor didn't stop instantly, so I didn't get thrown off. But I peed my pants.

Yes, but it was on a tractor!
Slight hill, farm gate, you have to stop, get off and open the gate before you drive through. Wagon behind wants to jackknife if the tractor rolls back. Same beads of sweat.

When I applied to Ma Bell to be an installer I had to learn to drive a stick. All of our trucks were manual.

you win!! hahahha.

I got my learners permit at 14 and my dad taught me on my mom's Datsun 310.

I don't remember much about it. I already been driving my grandfathers pickup on his ranch and county roads, so it was just that third petal I had to get used to. I do remember a stop sign that had a small steep hill right before it. I had to wave a few cars by. I think I taught 10-12 people in high school how to drive a stick.

That was in 1985 and up until two years ago, I had only driven a stick as my daily driver. Now my only stick is a 930 and i realized that I'll be teaching my daughters to drive a stick on that. So what is the consensus, KEP or Sachs?

I think I took the long way to high school for a week before I had the nerve to tackle stop signs on hills.:cool:

One of my dad's friends owned a golf course, and I worked for him one summer when I was 15. The "truck" he wanted me to use to pick up branches and do other odd jobs around the course was an old Chevy Luv. After my dad dropped me off in the morning, the owner took me over to the truck and asked me if I knew how to drive stick. I told him I'm only 15 and don't have a license. He replied with, "That's not what I asked you." and then proceeded to give me about a 30 second lesson on how to operate a manual transmission. So, that was my first experience driving (and also towing a flatbed trailer). To this day, working on that golf course was probably my favorite job ever, and I've loved sticks ever since. I've owned several automatics over the years, but they bore me. Very glad to be back to a manual with my 944 :)

it would have been 1994 and I learned on a 1984 BMW 318i.

I was 16 and it was my first car, I bought it as an automatic and decided I wanted a manual. Found a yard in the North Bay that would trade my automatic with all the accessories for a manual swap. Took me a couple days by myself and once I had it together my Dad took it for a test drive since I couldn't drive a stick. I remember going out that Saturday night with some friends, stalling all over town, good times.

Hillborne in a p/u. Early 'vette?

Aqua blue and white Metrolipitan on a closed section of a new neighborhood in Houston TX. 1968. But I had been riding dirt bikes for about 5 year so I understood the clutch concept.

Yep, remember.
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I say 'tractors' cuz they're so low-geared & forgiving...hard to stall.

Started with motorcycles at age 8. My parents had a 67 VW bug and since we lived in a rural area I would hop in a take for a spin, sometimes just around circular drive way, sometimes up and down nearby roads. Having the MC experience made picking up standard quite easy i think. Later began driving my father's 68 912.

Growing up on the farm, I don't count the tractors, as you could really start them in any gear and go from there.

When sister #3 (4 years older) was practicing for her license, she got me to go through the same drills. Our driveway was a large "T" shape, so the procedure was to back into the stem of the T, drive to the end of the lane, back up to the garage, drive into the stem, back to the end of the lane and drive to the garage. If you did it right, you could up-shift on that last bit.

The car was a '62 Acadian, Canadian Pontiac version of the Chevy II, with a '3 on the tree'. You quickly got a real good feel for the clutch. Sometimes we used the Chev p/u, also a six with 3 on the tree.

The best part was, you were reversing as much as driving ahead, so that part in Drivers' Ed. was a snap and later, when I worked on a large farm with several dual-wheel stake body trucks, I could put them anywhere.

Hmmm. That's a few years ago.
Les

Never owned an automatic until I was 35.....and needed a kid hauler. The wife never learned.

First was a 56 bug.....non synchro 1st gear crash box. Learned the clutch slip. accelerator and ebrake on the hills in SmelLA. Never moved an inch.

On my driver's test, the DMV dude put me on a hill, some asshat sucked up behind me, not 1/4 inch slip back. Got 100%......

Yes, yes. If there was a black belt in parking/placing vehicles...I'd have it.
Ever watch a truck driver place a dual trailer rig? A thing of beauty.

My oldest sister married & moved from ND to CA back in the 50's. She told me about this DMV test.

When I was 13........used to work for a pressure wash company....
Was in a 1 ton ford van with a 4 speed, no power steering.....and a 500 water tank in back with multiple pumps et....
that thing was heavy.......but nailed it early, around the same time on my Honda 250r three Wheeler.......talk about different spectrums lol

1970 age 8 on our farm.
Chevy pick up, 3 on the tree.

I had a couple short "lessons" while in college, but it wasn't until I was in my first year of grad school and bought a Nissan 200SX SE-R that I really learned how to drive a stick. Went on a test drive (stalled it once, IIRC). Then returned later that night to buy the car and drive it home (stalled it once, again). But I had a motorcycle in college, so the concept of balancing clutch and throttle wasn't totally foreign.

My father, the master, taught me properly in his bought-new '67 Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII, beginning when I was 14, in parking lots, and soloing me out when I was on my permit. San Francisco hills, coastal roads, bay area freeways, the lot. Double-clutched from the very beginning. Heel-toe came later. Terrific car to learn in and a terrific instructor.

My first car was a FIAT 128SL coupe (I was 15)...followed by a sirocco....4spd merc cougar....then there was a blip early in marriage where practical transportation (ie; boring) took priority. Now I always have at least one standard in the fleet at all times. Automatic cars are not "driven" they are just "pointed" in your direction of travel.

First attempts were on a Kubota, on/off clutch. My uncle let me take his Toyota truck around the block a few times when I was ~15. Looking back I think he was crazy. Official lessons where through drivers ed. I paid a little extra to learn on a stick, a craptastic Chevy Cavalier IIRC.

Lot's of farm and ranch kid stories, so I'll add mine.

We had a 1958 El Camino that was our ranch manure truck. It was always parked under a tree near the main stable and my Dad build a ramp we'd back the truck up to so we could load wheel barrels full of road apples into the bed. A weeks worth would fill the truck up, way up.

The truck had been my Uncles until in passed away in 1965, then we drove up to SF and brought it home.

My job was to take he manure the many other small ranches and farms in the area that had huge gardens.

I was nine when I started doing the manure runs, all on back roads, private roads, etc. It took me a few weeks and a few jams to get good, but once you master tres on the tree, a heavy clutch, a long throw and manual steering, not much bothers you.

I had the time of my life. I always had my Marlin lever action .22 by my side, just in case a Jackrabbit rebellion needed squelching:)

Similar to many on here already--14 and a "field car" 68 Bug. It was alot of fun--till I got it stuck in the marsh in the fall and it sat through the winter.

learned in my brothers 68 gto in Northridge fashion square parking lot about 10 pm, they had a nice ramp on the west side to practice hill starts (circa 1972), 70 opel gt was the first stick I owned about 1973.

The family truckster was a '72 Kombi poptop camper with the back seats refitted for us kids. The day I turned 16 I could get my learner's permit I did so amd my dad started teaching me to drive it. The thing was a terror to find gears in even for someone used to it, but I got there in the end.

Over the years I've owned very few auto cars. Back then they were still a bit uncommon compared to the (cheaper) manual gearbox variants so most people here can drive a manual. It's even moreso in Europe but high fuel costs and up front expense means cheap eco type stuff has always been the most popular. Old autos used to suck a lot of fuel.