During my high school years, when my brother and I were barely old enough to drive, my dad bought a 1964 Corvair Spyder convertible. At first, my brother and I thought that was cool, especially since it had a four speed on the floor.

The trouble was that my father no longer liked driving manual transmission cars. He drove that car like it had an automatic transmission. He would start from a stop in second gear, then shift up to fourth and leave it there until he had to stop again. I cannot tell you how many times he would forget and start up in fourth gear, bucking and weaving the whole way. I do not think that first and third gear were ever used.

My brother and I thought four speeds on the floor were really cool and would pull our hair every time we rode with him. Driving around corners was especially excruciating since he would never bother to downshift. That car would bounce up and down coming out of a turn like we were riding on the back of a porpoise.

It is amazing the transmission lasted as long as it did. What is even more amazing is that we were never able to convince him that what he was doing was not good for the car. I do not remember for sure, but I suspect he sold that car as soon as he sent my brother away to his first year in college.