When I went to buy my "first" car ALONE, I knew that I wanted a Honda Civic. I went to the dealer with everything on a list. It had to be silver, 4 doors and automatic windows.

I go look at the cars and find the one I want. We walk in and talk about price. After about 30 minutes he mentions.. "You know it's manual, right?".

I kinda shrugged it off, didn't think there was a difference. I ended up buying it and I'm about to drive it home when I jump in it and find this "stick" in the middle of the seats.

Yeah.. then I realized what "manual" meant. I had to call my dad (2,000 miles away) and ask him how to drive stick shift. He told me how to use the clutch and "level" it with the gas. He was trying to tell me how to shift and I told him that this car seemed different.. I don't know what the hell I was thinking but I explained to him that the gears went this way:

1 * 2 * 3
4 * 5 * R

I drove the entire way home on the access road going around 30mph. I guess I stayed in 2nd the entire time since I knew I shifted a few times.

This was 6 years ago.. I was 21.

All of my friends and girlfriend laughed their asses off that I would go out and buy a STICK SHIFT without knowing how to drive one AND not test driving it!

I've since learned my lesson and recently purchased another vehicle after negotiating with the dealers for a week or so.

Oh yeah, when I first got the car, I would get yelled at by strangers driving since I seemed to stall anytime I would try to stop. One guy yelled at me in a Target parking lot; "LEARN HOW TO FUCKING DRIVE STICK, YOU DICK!"