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billroperAs I was changing gears on my Ford Edge the other day (automatic, but a big stick in the middle of the console), Gretchen observed that she liked the gearshift on her minivan which is mounted on the steering wheel. Of course, if we get a new minivan some day, that gearshift is likely to go away in favor of a tiny knob on the dash, because everything nowadays is drive-by-wire. Gretchen is not sure this is an improvement.
Neither am I, due to an incident that happened when I was quite young.
At the time, our family owned a Dodge Coronet, a nice little sedan (for some values of little) where the gearshift was mounted in the center of the dashboard, because that meant that you could have a big bench seat in front and back. Given that my younger brother, Mitch, was still pretty young, he rode -- in those days before car seats and seat belts -- planted between my dad, the driver, and my mom, the navigator. This meant they didn't have to put all three kids in the back seat together, which would have inevitably ended in cries of "He's touching me!"
It was a splendid arrangement.
Right up until my toddler-sized brother kicked his legs up and kicked the gearshift lever.
Into reverse.
While we were driving across a bridge over the Arkansas River.
The automatic transmission on this car was made of stern stuff and lurched to try to obey and send us backwards. My dad reached out, shifted back into drive, the transmission lurched again, and we were moving forward, which beat the heck out of trying to back up into the river.
Subsequently, my little brother rode in the back seat with the rest of us kids.
This all comes to mind as I think of that gearshift knob on the dash.
As I recall, it's nowhere *near* the volume knob for the radio.
Which is good.
Neither am I, due to an incident that happened when I was quite young.
At the time, our family owned a Dodge Coronet, a nice little sedan (for some values of little) where the gearshift was mounted in the center of the dashboard, because that meant that you could have a big bench seat in front and back. Given that my younger brother, Mitch, was still pretty young, he rode -- in those days before car seats and seat belts -- planted between my dad, the driver, and my mom, the navigator. This meant they didn't have to put all three kids in the back seat together, which would have inevitably ended in cries of "He's touching me!"
It was a splendid arrangement.
Right up until my toddler-sized brother kicked his legs up and kicked the gearshift lever.
Into reverse.
While we were driving across a bridge over the Arkansas River.
The automatic transmission on this car was made of stern stuff and lurched to try to obey and send us backwards. My dad reached out, shifted back into drive, the transmission lurched again, and we were moving forward, which beat the heck out of trying to back up into the river.
Subsequently, my little brother rode in the back seat with the rest of us kids.
This all comes to mind as I think of that gearshift knob on the dash.
As I recall, it's nowhere *near* the volume knob for the radio.
Which is good.