You can always lower your shift points by slightly rolling out of the throttle to help "nudge" the transmission to shift when you want it to. It's a skill that you pick up by driving old heaps ;)
Yep, that's how you had to drive some of the old Torqueflites. I (partially) learned to drive on a '68 Dart /6-torqueflite, and that's what my Grandma told me to do with the gas pedal. Funny how you remember stuff like that from almost 50 years ago, isn't it?