Shift Without Clutch Experiment

[bronsin]

Yes two wheel drive. I grew up in the lake effect snow belt in upstate NY in a rural farming area populated by penny pinching dairy farmers. They would never in a million years by a truck with 4x4. Costs more money and it only breaks sooner than a 2 wd would. To drive in a 30 inch snowstorm they put weight in the bed (stone? wood?) over the rear wheels.

They would sit around the woodstove and slap their knees laughing and telling of the city slickers with their 4x4s who went off the road in a snowstorm because 1) they were going too fast and 2) back then there was no differential acion between the front and rear wheels with 4x4. Going around a corner the too fast set of wheels will lock and skid on the snow and ice and send the vehicle into the ditch.

Although they are all dead now Im sure they are looking down on me and if I bought a 4x4 Im sure I would hear about it when my turn comes.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bronsin

Yes two wheel drive. I grew up in the lake effect snow belt in upstate NY in a rural farming area populated by penny pinching dairy farmers. They would never in a million years by a truck with 4x4. Costs more money and it only breaks sooner than a 2 wd would. To drive in a 30 inch snowstorm they put weight in the bed (stone? wood?) over the rear wheels.

They would sit around the woodstove and slap their knees laughing and telling of the city slickers with their 4x4s who went off the road in a snowstorm because 1) they were going too fast and 2) back then there was no differential acion between the front and rear wheels with 4x4. Going around a corner the too fast set of wheels will lock and skid on the snow and ice and send the vehicle into the ditch.

Although they are all dead now Im sure they are looking down on me and if I bought a 4x4 Im sure I would hear about it when my turn comes.

LOL. Sounds like my grandfather. Amazing (natural...but still amazing) the influence our relatives can have on us. My grandfather would open christmas presents oh so carefully so that the wrapping paper could be used again (when he probably had enough money to buy a wrapping paper company). My grandmother would never use the paper again....and my grandfather knew this. Looking back on it, I think he did it to teach we three grandchildren not to waste anything. We had weak fathers, and he knew we needed to learn stuff like that from him. My great great grandfather gave my great grandfather a company to run, and he ran it into the ground. For many years my grandfather, his brother, and their parents lived in my great great grandfather's house until they could again afford a house. I think this is one reason why, after buying my parents a house, he didn't kick us out when they couldn't afford to pay any rent.....plus it was only 4 miles from his house and he liked having us close by .

When my mom and aunt were growing up, most of the parents of their friends had summer houses at Lake Tahoe and the wives and kids would spend the entire summer at Tahoe, and the husbands would come up on weekends. My grandfather thought this was unacceptable. His attitude was 'If I can't come home to my family every night, then it is too far'. The lot he bought for such a house was on a golf course and had a small private lake. He had to have the utilities put in. He spent so little for the land and to build the expansive house it would make you cry. After the house was built he put in a gigantic brick patio, edged by a brick wall with a built in fireplace. All brick. And he laid every brick himself. And this was a man who wore a custom suit to work each day. He also built the house so his father could live out his days there......... With every minute I spend following financial markets and every penny of value I extract when spending, I feel my grandfather looking down from above with an ever widening smile...also knowing that I feel the same generosity toward my little cousin (his great granddaughter) that he felt toward his children and grandchildren.