Oil filter for 61 American ohv 6 ?

The way the transmissions were made back then is the issue. You have two drive positions. There should be a little 1 and 2 a little above and to the left and right of the D on the shift quadrant. The autos back then were designed to take off in 2nd gear, not first. That would be the first drive position -- right after neutral -- which is "D2". Pull it down one more click to "D1" and it will start in first gear -- the position right above Low. The torque converter's torque multiplication helped it start moving when taking off in second -- you just weren't going to take off really quick... which also hurts fuel economy anyway. Today we know that slipping the converter that much usually has a detrimental affect on fuel economy, at least in city driving. Probably did then too, but that was the popular thinking (start in second) back then!  Probably a hold-over from the earlier days when cars had low compression engines and lots of low end torque... which was still relatively true in the late 40s/early 50s when these transmissions were engineered -- by people who learned to drive in pre-war cars...

The reasoning was to get it up into high gear as soon as possible for better economy. So you use D2 for driving with a light load in relatively flat areas, D1 for hilly terrain and/or heavier loads. No need to manually shift it, otherwise you wouldn't have bought an automatic transmission, right? Low (first gear only) was provided for those few instances when you didn't want it to shift, such as being stuck in sand/mud/snow. 

The trans is programmed with a safety, so if you shift from D1 to L it won't down-shift all the way over a certain speed (about 30-35, IIRC... may be lower). So the strategy to shift manually through all three gears (drag racers!) is to start in D1 then pull it back into L right after the 1-2 shift. You will be going to fast for the trans to shift back down to first so it will hold second until you shift back into D1. I never found a reason to do that, and it doesn't improve time much with a stock engine. I tried it with a stop watch just to see the results many years ago. Not worth shaving a few tenths of a second off for anything but drag racing, and it took some practice to learn exactly when to shift (need a tach!) to even do that.

You can get the brake light switch locally, but do yourself a favor and order one from Ron Francis Wiring. Every one I've purchased form other sources haven't held up to daily driving. They would last about six months -- which could be 6-10 years in a car that's just driven occasionally. I wired in a mechanical switch to the brake pedal and haven't had an issue since 2003. The Ron Francis sourced pressure switch is what hot rodders swear by (not at!) and will last considerably longer. The good thing is the switch can be replaced without having to bleed the system or lose any brake fluid.

If you go with a local source carry a spare and check the brake lights on occasion -- every day if on a long trip. You don't know if they are out if you don't check, unless a friendly passer by/driver notices and informs you. I was informed by an irate cop, who noticed from 2-3 blocks away the I "didn't even slow down" for two stop signs in a small neighborhood. While I admit to "California" stops (he was far enough back I didn't notice it was a cop, and I wasn't doing anything wrong anyway) now, I didn't say much to him. I started to, but before I got a word out he said "you know I could take you in fro reckless driving", so I decided my best answers would be yes or no sir!! Went to court and got out of most of it, but they still gave me a ticket for an "incomplete stop" at one.