I started driving tractors when I was in kindergarten (see my post about "Driving Tractors"). This post is about driving automobiles.
I have early memories of driving our white pickup (a 1956 Ford) while Dad fed hay out of the back. Dad would put the truck in gear and start the truck moving. Then, he would get out of the truck and into the truck bed. My job was to keep the truck driving straight and to push in the clutch when Dad tapped the string cutter on the bed.
We had a gas tank at our house (a 500-gallon tank if I remember correctly). It was on a stand in the yard. I have some early memories of Fred Neuenschwander coming with the big fuel truck to fill our gas tank. We would use this tank to gas up our tractors, truck, and cars. We had a padlock on the nozzle to keep others from stealing gas. Most of the time, we did not lock the lock. We just inserted the lock clasp through the tank locking mechanism and closed the lock so it looked locked. For those occasions when the lock was locked, we had the key suspended from a twine string hanging in the tree beside the gas tank.
When I was about 8, Dad asked me to go gas up the car (two-tone brown 1973 Ford LTD) one day. When I went to get the car, I found it was parked in the garage. While Dad had asked me to gas up the car before, I had never backed it out of the garage! I was super nervous. I backed up so slowly that it seemed like I was hardly moving. But I made it without taking off a side mirror.
When Kelly graduated from high school and left home in 1979, I was 12 years old. Sometimes, Dad would have me drive the truck to town to get feed from the Feedstore. I remember the first time he asked me to go to town, he told me that if the Thayne cop stopped me I should just say that my dad really needed me to go to town for him.
In the time between when Kelly left home and I turned 16, Dad would sometimes need to have a car in Afton after his morning bus run. He would have me drive the car or truck to the neighbor's house. When one of our neighbors who was old enough to drive came out to get on the bus, Dad would ask them to drive the car to the high school for him. Tracy Dana and Sandy Martin were the two who Dad asked the most. Once in a while, he would ask Allison Larson.
In the fall of 1981, Dad wanted to take a load of calves to Idaho Falls to the sale yard between the morning and afternoon bus run. We got up early and loaded the trailer with a full load of calves before we got ready for school. Then, Dad had me drive the truck and trailer to the Danas. He asked Tracy to drive the truck to the high school for him.
When Tracy got into the truck, she said, "Umm, I do not know how to drive a stick shift..." Dad had already left with the bus, so, we did not have many other options. I gave Tracy a quick run-down about the clutch, brake, and shifting. Then, I slid into the middle of the truck's front seat. I told Tracy that I would run the gas pedal and shift. She would steer and run the clutch and brake. I told her that I would call out when to push in the clutch so that we could shift gears. And, that is how Tracy Dana learned to drive a stick shift transmission while pulling a fully loaded fifth-wheel trailer behind a one-ton truck.
When Sandy Martin drove, she would hold the steering wheel with one hand (her right) in the 6 o'clock position. I always thought that was a strange way to drive.
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