Teaching the Grandson, To shift a teener Options

[PanelBilly]

A friend shared an idea with me a Christmas time that stuck with me. He said that we should give the gift of a skill rather than something we buy from the store. Well, I gave my Grandson a Nintendo gift card, but I also told him I was going to teach him how to shift the 914. He’s only 14. His dad has given him some driving lessons in their truck on gravel roads while out hunting, so he was comfortable behind the wheel already.

On Christmas Day it was snowing in Seattle, so all we did was sit in the car and practice the shift pattern and pressing in the clutch. Still he was happy. Finely, this morning the weather was good and both of our schedules fit.

We did an hour of starts and stops. He was very gentle with the throttle so we didn’t have too many neck breaking events. Overall he did great and I had a blast! He even shifted into second a few times. I’m going to need to find a longer empty road for the next lesson.

He had to ask me if we could quit because his leg was tired. It’s funny, but he’s the only other person who has driven my car.

[snakemain]

I learned at 7 on a 74 Ford pickup in the hay field, because I was the only one too small to throw a hay bale onto the trailer. 1st gear, clutch, let off, clutch, let off for several hundred bales. Continued a couple years later on the new truck with shifting from the center seat when my dad had shoulder surgery. He'd rarely tell me when to shift or to what gear, even at night...I was supposed to learn.

My wife, before she was my wife, learned when she moved to Italy. Her sponsor was nice enough to teach her because finding a MT car was much easier than an auto.

Kids will probably start learning in a few years on my Jeep.