When the Okinawa returned to North Island I wanted to see Madeline, my fiancee. In those days there was no bridge yet. Travel from North Island was by ferry boat. One of the other officers was in the duty section and had to stay on the ship. He also had a car at North Island. He offered to let me take the car for the day, and return the keys to him in the morning. It was an offer I was more than happy to accept. As we parted he told me
“By the way, it’s a stick shift. Will that be a problem?”
I answered “No way!”
That wasn’t entirely true. I had learned to drive on an automatic transmission. I had never driven a car with a clutch and manual transmission in my life.
I found the car and took it around the parking lot to figure out how I changed gears. It was a bit uneven, to say the least. Every time I let out the clutch the car gave a little jump.
Undaunted, I drove off the base and headed for the ferry. The entire trip was full of sudden little leaps as I changed gears or started to move. There were plenty of other drivers who let me know they were unhappy by leaning on their horns. Every stop light was a tiny nightmare. Despite the distractions, I managed to make the drive to my destination on Point Loma. I also got the car back to the base safely.
It was almost ten years later before I drove a manual transmission again. But by then I was a able to handle it much better.
Wetherhorn 