As best friends, Christy and I learned many things from each other, one thing that I do every day reminds me of her.

She taught me how to drive stick shift. When Christy got her license, she got to drive one of the family cars on occasion, an '88 Ford Escort "Pony." I had just received my license but only knew automatic. So Christy offered to teach me stick. Just as someone taught her, I first got to shift for her when she was driving to get a feel for the gears. Then, I got to practice on the mesa on an isolated street before she'd take me home from her house. We had several "practice" sessions and on our very last one, she had me drive to the "new" dairy on Arrowhead Lake Rd (although I don't recall it being named that then, but I'm not sure). As a treat, we bought candy necklaces to commemorate my 'graduation' into the world of the stick shift. To this day, I have always owned a stick. Ironically, the first car that I bought on my own when I moved to D.C. was an '87 Ford Escort GT. I loved the clunky transmission and the torque that 1st gear gave and occasionally use the 'shift w/o the clutch' trick that she showed me, for nostalgia's sake.

Christy became the teacher of the stick shift to some of our other friends along the way, (I'm quite sure Dale might be horrified to find out about all of this activity in his commuting car!) But I will say that the car sure could take a lickin' and keep on tickin' :-)