[TR] Learning to drive standard

[oliver]

funny - I started out on a lawn tractor, too.  not the same as the hay 
puller, but it taught me how to work a clutch.  also learned how to back up 
with a trailer.  that's been helpful, too!

first manual transmission I ever drove was my older brother's friend's gto. 
yeah, I know.  tough.  got right in and drove off.  no issues.  so I guess 
the moral of the story is start out on a tractor <grin>

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Jim Wallace" <grandfatherjim at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 8:06 AM
To: <triumphs at autox.team.net>
Subject: [TR] Learning to drive standard

> I started driving when I was about 8 - on the family tractor. I thought my
> age must have been exaggerated downward in my mind over the years but then
> some old home movies surfaced and there I was.
> After a few years of lighter duty work I was assigned to pulling the hay
> wagon as it was loaded up. This is a great way to learn how to work a 
> clutch
> - with a tremendously underpowered tractor (a Ferguson with what to those
> who read this forum is a strangely familiar looking engine) pulling way 
> too
> big a load. Operating the throttle by hand while letting out the clutch 
> with
> the left foot, and having to do it smoothly so the guys on the wagon 
> didn't
> end up off the wagon, so to speak, was good preparation for eventually
> learning to drive a car with a manual transmission. Once I got behind the
> wheel everything fell into place.
> Sadly, no sooner had I mastered pulling the wagon than I grew big enough 
> to
> be sent back to load the wagon, where the bigger boys all said that 
> everyone
> really should be able to lift bales their own weight. When you're about 11
> and weigh 80 pounds it becomes quite a challenge!
> So there's my two cents. Get the young lady started on a tractor. In a
> field.
> Jim
>
> PS Tim - in your experience were the farm kids who went to driving school
> any more adept? Just curious.