When I was about 22, I exited the movie theater to a car with a dead battery. Argh! What was I going to do? Having recently moved out of my parents' house, I wanted to solve this on my own. So, I went to Walmart, which was in the same complex as the cinema, and bought jumper cables. Then I waited in the parking lot until someone came by and asked if they'd give me a jump. They did and I made it home.
Why am I telling this story? Because of how foolish I was at the time. You see, I worked on my Uncles' farm all through High School and they had a Ford 8000 tractor, which was my tractor. The thing with this tractor was that it had a switch in the clutch to make sure the clutch was engaged when the ignition was fired. The switch was bad. For an entire Summer I was starting that tractor by popping the clutch on a small grade slope.
Back to my car. It had a manual transmission. I could've done the same. DOH!
I did learn my lesson. Years later my car's alternator was failing which left me with a dead battery--a lot. So it was a Flinstones start up for a while: put a foot out the door, give a push and pop the clutch. I did that for at least a week.