Daughters and Standard gearboxes

[Bruce Giller <bgiller@xxxxxxxxx>]

	I had the dubious honor of teaching my daughter how to drive a few
years back.  We took the '82 Jetta (5 speed manual) over the UMd parking
lot on Sundays and practiced shifting, stopping, turning, parallel
parking, etc.  She kept complaining that all this shifting was hard to
do and all her friends were driving automatics and they had it easier
and...and... and...  I kept up the mantra that if you can drive a manual
car, you can drive any car, and it is more fun to drive manuals.

	The years have passed, she got her license, and the Jetta ('The Car
Formely Owned by Jane' [my wife]) became hers.  This year she has bought
a new car (couldn't talk into getting a Alfa; "You are always fixing it
and getting boxes of parts in the mail every day.  No way!") to replace
the aging Jetta (171k miles) with a '99 Jetta with manual transmission. 
No automatic for her!

	She is a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate student at UMd but with
almost no interest in any vehicle applications at all.  She is all math
and theory.  But she does know how to change the oil and antifreeze -
maybe one day she'll want to do more.

"Is dis a system???"  Mr. Natural

Bruce Giller
Takoma 'Radiation-Free-Zone and Finally ReUnited' Park, Md
'73 Alfa GTV 2000
'86 Alfa Spider
'72 Moto Guzzi Eldorado

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