Among the many places I have attempted to learn to drive are: the parking lot at the boarding school where my mother taught; the Pentagon parking lot (huh, I bet you can't do that now); suburban Arlington, VA; the Washington Beltway (not a place I would recommend starting to learn about highway driving); a cul-de-sac development in Connecticut. Teachers included my mother, my friend L., L.'s then boyfriend (who was responsible for the Beltway fiasco, but also discovered I have a bit of a knack for parallel parking), a hire professional, and my husband.

Unfortunately I still don't drive. (I did pass a driving test once and got, and have, a license.)

(not a place I would recommend starting to learn about highway driving)

In the DC area? I'd recommend I-66 beyond -- let's play it safe and say Haymarket. I'm not familiar enough with I-70 to state an opinion, though.

That sucks, Typo Boy. I'm sorry.

I learned to drive automatic, but later on my dad taught me how to drive stick in his old, Ford pickup truck. It had power nothing (no power steering, brakes, etc.), so everything else I've driven since then has seemed like an upgrade. Except for the '76 VW Dasher that I bought for $800 while in grad school, the cars I've bought have had manual transmissions. They're usually cheaper, get better mileage, and manual transmissions tend to last longer than automatics. Since I try to keep my vehicles as long as possible, that's definitely a plus.

hello, Marin, anyone

HAH. That's such a ridiculous street. A friend of mine once told me her son went down Marin on a skateboard. Kid's lucky to have survived.

I learned to drive in the suburbs, and particularly in the development where our summer cottage was. Empty roads, plenty of opportunities to learn to shift the clutch. I still haven't taught my nieces to drive stick because I can't really find a good place to do it around here--there's just too much traffic everywhere.

The first stick shift I drove was one of these, but with a cab and a flatbed trailer. Most of the stick shifts I've driven were military surplus vans or trucks. I've only had a couple of occasions to drive a stick made after 1970.

My mom taught me to drive in a stick shift VW Beetle on the country roads around our farm. I had been driving tractors in the fields before that, so it shouldn't have been a Thing, but I was terrified. I learned, though.

Haven't driven a stick shift in eons, now. I probably could remember how pretty quickly, but I wouldn't want to relearn it in someone else's car!

She said her dad told her to hold the shifter gently like she was holding a guy's cock.

eeewwwwwwwww

Dang Typo.

To have it pulled? That sounds way out of line.

too many people ask me to do too many different things. I don't know enough and I can't keep anything straight. I am pretty sure I need an increase in meds also. I started crying when someone asked if I had set up a phone meeting yet. That was at 9am this morning and I had no recollection of when the previous request had come in (it was in an email yesterday afternoon that I had flagged, but had not gotten to yet in the never-ending task list).

Daddy tried to teach me how to shift, but it got too frustrating. I only learned manual when Hubby had a dislocated shoulder and couldn't shift as it was healing, so I had to shift as he pushed the clutch. It worked. But he doesn't think I do it right, so he only things I should drive automatic. Which is cool by me, because my knee hates clutches.

He learned to drive a shift when he was in the Forest Service and his boss drove him and an aviation fuel truck onto an active runway, told him a plane was due in 20 minutes, and it was up to him to get the truck off the runway.