When I got this weeks hub weekly overview, and after having read the pieces that interested me, my eyes caught on to "idea bank". I don't remember, if I ever went there before, but something drew my interest.

Now don't get me wrong. Just because I have not written any hubs for a while, I am very much part of the hub community, and I don't lack ideas on what to write about. But the "idea bank" got my interest.

What fun it was and is. All those great subjects on "how to...". I must admit that most of them have nothing to do with me, but a couple of them took my interest, and in the end I decided to go with "How to Drive Stick"

When I saw that one the first thing that struck me was: What on earth are they talking about? Very fast it dawned on me that probably what they want to know is "how to drive a stick shift car".

But that first question "How to drive stick" is very badly phrased. It can be understood in so many different ways, and those different ways took me way back to when I first learned to drive, a time when there was nothing but stick. But stick did not always mean what it is supposed to mean.

Those were the days of drive in movies, of drives to the park, or the overlook over the sea, or whatever was available. Whenever we girls told each other that that was the plan for the evening outing, the question the next day was: How was the stick drive?

Now I am not going to go into the details of the answers. I will leave that up to your own imagination. But for the younger people who may be reading these lines, we are talking about the roaring sixties, where everything was up for grabs.

I have now been driving stick cars for more than 40 years. In fact when the first automatics came out, I was a little lost. I did not like automatics. They took the fun out of driving. But automatics have become better over the years, and stick driving has also improved tremendously.

When driving stick back in those days you really had to pay attention to the clutch. It is so important not to let go of the clutch too fast, which would cause the car to stall. But if you did it too slowly and all the time, you could cause serious damage to clutch and engine. So the driving instructor would always sit with his foot on the clutch, just in case.

Since this is an answer to a how to question, some more details.

1. When starting - keep clutch fully engaged, i.e. pedal pressed down fully
2. Shift into first gear
3. Engage gas pedal lightly, till you feel the engine tucking at car
4. Release clutch about half way and gently ease the car forward
5. As car begins moving, release clutch fully

To shift into second gear
6. Engage clutch fully
7. Shift stick into second gear
8. Release clutch gently for car to increase speed
9. Release clutch fully

To shift into third and fourth gear - repear 6-9, until maximum permitted speed has been reached.

To reduce speed, using engine as brake:
1. Engage clutch
2. Shift gear to lower gear needed
3. Release clutch partially
4. Release clutch fully.

As opposed to automatic driving, it is almost impossible to reach high speeds unknowingly, as you handle the clutch manually - ooops sorry - with your feet. You alone are responsible for moving from first gear to second, third and more.

But be careful of what termonology you use. You could be misunderstood.