The Victoria Effect

 I learned to drive in a car identical to this, a 1951 Ford Victoria two door hardtop.  I was eleven or twelve when my dad first let me drive back and forth on our driveway - backing up to the street then forward to the garage and repeat.  I don't know how many miles I logged that way, but by the time I first drove on the street, I could back as well as I could go forward and had no trouble parallel parking.  I drove the same route about a zillion times in my mother's 52 Chevy, but the Ford was the first.

There was one other permanent effect from learning on that Ford.  As you can see in the picture above, the ignition switch was located on the left side of the dashboard.  I have never owned another vehicle where the key went in on the left of the steering column, but almost seventy years later I still carry my car keys in my left pocket.