What's on your Thursday Menu?

Yes she can.

I am the same as Kelly, I can but I do it so infrequently (like once a decade?) that it would be great humor for anyone watching

My first brand new car was a 1978 mustang with a stick shift and I had never driven with one. A friend test-drove it, but I drove it off the lot when I picked it up. I had driven many times with others who used a stick shift and asked a lot of questions so I knew the basics but didn't have the "feel". I had already identified a church parking lot right near the dealer that I drove to and stopped-started until I had the feel, then drove home. All on relatively flat ground... The next day I drove to work. On the way home I stopped at a light which was uphill from my car. You can just imagine how much fun that was and how many people were swearing at me before I finally succeeded at getting going and through the light... That evening I went to my mothers neighborhood on a hill and stopped started on the hill over and over again.

Next generation: Oldest DD learns to drive and gets her license in an automatic, but we chose to insure her ONLY on the older car with a standard after she got her license. Once again, I took her to my mothers neighborhood and she stopped started until she had it.

Good luck to DS!

The uphill is the hardest and I can imagine the stress. A friend of mine coming from Italy had specifically asked for a standard car to drive in San Francisco. I told him he was crazy. He called me lazy!
But you are right, once you get the feel of the car you can do it.

I learned to drive a stick on our old 1963 Volvo. I was frightened of needing to stop on an incline, then being unable to move forward again without first rolling backwards and slamming into whoever was on the hill behind me. I found an empty paved lot with a hill and practiced over and over - and over! - until I knew I had it and wouldn't cause a crash.

I drive a stick! Fiat Pop 500, mint green! For as long as I am able, I won't drive anything other than a stick.

No way! You have a 500? Let me see her! Please!

As I said in my post we have rented a 500 for DS, it brings back so many memories of my teens and early 20s.

I learned on a stick and drove one for YEARS. But DH can't drive them and wasn't a very good student when I was trying to teach him (I think the problem was he just wasn't interested in learning), so after my last manual transmission car died, I had to get an automatic. I really miss manual some days...

when we were in France several years ago visiting some Turkish friends who at the time were living in Paris, we needed to rent a car to take a trip down to Dijon and Lyons. I was the only one of the four of us who knew how to drive stick. But I was having some neurological issues at the time and was banned from driving for six months. One of the friends said "you're in a different country - they'll never know", but I refused - it'd be my luck that we'd get in some accident and the rental company would somehow find out that I wasn't allowed to drive. So my friends had to check with about a zillion car rental places to finally find one that carried a car with automatic transmission - and it cost a fortune, as I recall. SO....being able to drive a manual can be a good skill to have!

I'm actually surprised you were able to find an automatic. It's a good skill to have, for just in case situations.

I was surprised they found one, too - but it did take forever - and many phone calls. It was a Mercedes, I think - another reason why it probably cost a fortune. I think the guy friend was really ticked at me because I refused to drive. But as I said before, it would have been my luck that we would have been in some freak accident and I would have had to pay for the damage if the company found out I wasn't supposed to be driving!