[LEMONS] 6.27.2001
I heard, or read, or divined sometime last week that the stick shift is on its way out. I'm not one to venerate cars, but I have to say this news made me a little weepy. It brought back memories of lurching through Montgomery neighborhoods while my dad, or mom, or both would bark things like "no, no let it out gently! I said gently!" Or that masterful feeling when I finally did figure out the clutch and my parents' 1981 RX-7 slid from first to second to third like Rickey Henderson and I knew I was the baddest sumbitch in Alabama. So yep, I'm a little sorry to hear that the stick shift is going away. It's the one thing that lets you know that you're controlling a machine, rather than cruising in a small living room. But Mark Morford eulogizes it much better than I could.
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