At the age of 12 I learned in dramatic fashion the difference between the brake and the clutch. My grandfather asked me to help him feed his cattle. He sat on the trailer throwing hay bales off while I drove the tractor. There were no tires on the trailer wheels. When I depressed the clutch on the left, the tractor stopped in the soft pasture just as quickly as when I used the brake on the right. So I thought they were about the same and only used the clutch to stop. That worked well until we started down a hill. I depressed the clutch expecting it all to stop, but it just kept going faster. Too late to use the brake, and just before plowing through a fence, I turned abruptly to the left dumping my grandfather and most of the hay against the fence. I apologized profusely. He got up and said he was ok. Later when I asked him about it, he said "I was stove up a bit." Grandfathers are like that.
I have taught a number of people how to drive a car with a straight shift. It has cost me a lot of time, a little gas, and quite a bit of mileage off several sets of tires.
Driving a "stick" or manual transmission is tricky until you get the hang of it. Then it's, well, automatic. Anyone who has driven a stick shift for any length of time no longer has to think about what he's doing. It becomes a natural as breathing.
At first though, it's fairly difficult to master the art. It's all about applying the clutch, the brake and the throttle. They each have to be employed in the right measure at the precise moment or the car won't go. It's not enough to just let out the clutch. If you don't have enough throttle the car will die. If you have too much throttle, you're going to burn the tires. Either way doesn't work. If you happen to be on an incline, then it becomes more problematic. Now you have to hold the car with the brake until you release the clutch. This process involves moving the right foot from the brake to the throttle at the same time you're releasing the clutch. If you do it wrong, you'll stall, burn the tires, or roll into the car behind you. You need to become fairly adept with a stick before you attempt starting on a hill,
The five speed is the most common manual transmission. The gears are first through fifth. First is "low gear" and fifth is "high gear." Depressing the clutch in any gear disengages the clutch plate just as if the car is in neutral. You start idling with the clutch depressed in first gear. When you release the clutch you start rolling in first gear. Then you press the clutch and shift to second. When exactly do you do that? When it's time to. You go by the sound of the engine and the feel of the car. You could refer to the tachometer, but that's really not necessary. Then you shift to third, to fourth and to fifth. But you don't have to shift up and down in that order. As you approach a stop while in fifth gear, you'll depress the clutch and shift back to first. If you're cruising in fifth and need immediate acceleration, you might shift back to third for the extra pep. Then up to fourth and fifth. The transmission doesn't care which gear you're in. But if you shift from high to too low, you're going to put yourself in the dashboard, because the low gear can't keep up with the speed of the car. This is also not too good for the transmission. Over time using the correct gear becomes second nature.
I think I move in five speeds as well. When the alarm rings I'm in neutral. After my head clears, I'm in first. Second gets me to the shower. After my shower I'm in third. By the time I get to work I'm in fourth. By ten or so, after the coffee kicks in, I'm mostly in high gear for the rest of the day. I then downshift and upshift as situations require.
I don't remember who taught me to drive a stick. It was probably my father since the first manual transmission I drove was one of his dump trucks. It was a four speed with a split shift. The split shift splits each gear by moving the rear differential. Using some fancy footwork, involving double clutching between gears, I turned the truck into an eight speed. My first car, a 1950 Chevy Deluxe, had three gears on the column. What made it particularly tricky is if I came to a complete stop with the car in third gear, then it was stuck in third gear. I then had to start the car moving in third gear. This involved much rpm and a very slow start. On a hill, this was almost impossible to do. I didn't make that mistake many times before I bumped it out of third before I stopped.
I haven't owned a car with a stick in several years. But today I jumped in a five speed F-150 and it was just like riding a bicycle. My hands and feet knew exactly what to do with little or no conscious effort on my part. It reminded me how much I enjoy driving a vehicle with a manual transmission.
Now to be able to "get it in high gear" as soon as the clock alarms.
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