FRIDAY SURPRISE: Stick in the mud.

Friday, October 31, 2008 Filed in: Friday Surprise!, Completely irrelevant

Bet you thought I'd have some Halloween-themed article today, didn't you? Hah! That would be too predictable. Instead, let's talk automobiles!

I had an interesting conversation with our local Fire Chief a while back. We had the department out to do a practice burn on an old barn, and they brought out the whole inventory - including a Ford engine from the mid-60s. It's the oldest piece of equipment they have, the rest of the gear being less than 10 years old. They're planning to replace it, not because it doesn't work (the truck has very low hours), but because it's a stick shift (the rest of their vehicles are automatics.) According to the Chief, only a few of the department's members know how to drive a truck with a manual transmission!

To this old farm boy, who grew up with changing gears himself, that seems strange. It's also the way of the world - even my wife has driven a stick shift only once in her life, and that was a long time ago.

It should come as no surprise, I suppose, to learn that less than 8% of all vehicles sold have manual transmissions. Even some performance cars come equipped exclusively with automatics these days.

I guess I belong to an earlier time. Not even 50, and yet pining for the "old days." Sigh.

-=[ Grant ]=-
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