BS: Your Best Old Volkswagen Story...

Subject: RE: BS: Your Best Old Volkswagen Story...
From: gnu
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 05:04 AM

Oops! "... a really steep hill."

Subject: RE: BS: Your Best Old Volkswagen Story...
From: gnu
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 05:02 AM

Janie, me too.

Bad idea...

Officer: I didn't know a Bug could do 80.

Me: This one will do 95 on a steep hill.

Officer (rather disgusted voice): Hmmmm. Be right back.... here ya go.

Subject: RE: BS: Your Best Old Volkswagen Story...
From: Kampervan
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 04:31 AM

My daughter bought a 69 late bay in the early nineties when she was at university in Plymouth (U.K.).

She had a great time running around the West country for 2/3 years. Then she went off around the world for a year and a half. While she was away I rebuilt it, got the bodywork fixed and re-sprayed and used it myself. Went to Copredy, had a great time just driving it around.

When she came back my daughter began using it again and she went to folk festivals around the country. Beverley several times, Shrewsbury, Llama Tree. She slept in the van, and, if I was with her then I slept in the tent (my wife doesn't do folk!).

Then she met her partner, they rebuilt the van again, and now its a holiday bus for them, their 1 year old son and his 13 year old daughter.

In fact the VW is now Vicky's passport to credibility with her step-daughter who is looking forward to going to festivals ( not necessarily of the folk variety) with her next year.

So, at 44 years old (my daughter is a year or two younger than her van) the VW has been part of the family for a long time and has given all of us some great memories. But the best bit is that, hopefully there are lots more good memories to be made.

good luck to all air-cooled owners.

K/van

Subject: RE: BS: Your Best Old Volkswagen Story...
From: Janie
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 01:49 AM

Now, I could write a book - at least a short book of essays and short stories only partly fictional - about life in a Ford F250. But the Memories from the VW days, while less dramatic, are also fonder.

Subject: RE: BS: Your Best Old Volkswagen Story...
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 01:33 AM

Back in the late 70's my gay friends (both almost 2 metres tall - that's 6ft 6ins in the old numbers) had a VW & I remember a trip back from the central coast (about 50 miles north of Sydney)

I was sitting/sprawling across the back seat as they had to push their seats waaaay back. I don't remember crawling in or getting out, just the very long slow trip on a hot summer's day, windows wide open to get a breeze. I don't think the back seat got much breeze!

Part of the delay was explained at the Toll gates - there had been an accident much earlier, & everyone asked the collectors about the delay.

My friends also had 2 standard poodles which would no doubt have had a more comfortable trip in their car.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Your Best Old Volkswagen Story...
From: Janie
Date: 03 Aug 13 - 11:46 PM

The 1st car I ever owned was a 1969 VW Beetle. It was that nondescript beige/taupe/tan color. My sister had a similar Bug, but sexier, red with a white racing stripe climbing up the hood and over the roof.

I ran the wheels off that thing. $5.00 would fill up the tank (gas was .53 cents per gallon then.) But $5.00 bucks was a lot of money to me in those days. My take home pay was about $250 per month. Lived in a big, cheap apartment with a whole crowd of people to share expenses. Visited Ma and Pa every Sunday for a good big meal, did laundry, and got sent home with cans of pinto beans and the like to help keep us fed during the week.

The heater sucked in winter, but with it's rear engine it could climb the steep hills of Charleston, WV's West Side where many of my friends lived and where music was happening in living rooms and bands were rehearsing in garages, if only the band members could get up the hills to rehearsal during the frequent heavy snows in those days- so I was in high demand as a taxi service. Amazing how many people can pack into a small space in the time before we had enough sense to realize seat belts save lives, and all were young enough and thin enough to not mind sitting on laps (or being sat upon.)

In summer, roll the windows down and hope you could drive fast enough often enough to cool things down a bit. My boyfriend during part of the years I had the VW was playing with Turley Richards in the midwest, based in Louisville and playing often in Chicago and environs, so I was often making that long trip west and north on I-64 and I-65. Always found myself in the company of truckers, my little bug sandwiched between them, all of us doing 45 mph up the grades, and 65 mph down the grades.

Those were also the days I was spending most weekends spring to fall at old time music festivals around West Virginia. It was amazing how much gear could be jammed into that little car, and how often I was the only one who was able to drive out of mudclogged fields after a weekend of camping in what was normally a pasture on top of a mountain. And since temps are better in the mountains and there are no traffic jams, (and long haired hippy-chicks with hair captured in a band didn't mind the wind whipping through the windows.) Fond memories.

Bought it for $500. Abused it. Got sideswiped and the fender dented. Sold it for $500 a few years later. Great memories. But I was so much younger then. Would not want one now.

Subject: RE: BS: Your Best Old Volkswagen Story...
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Aug 13 - 10:53 PM

I learned to drive in a 1961 VW. It was that weird, powdery green color.   I knew you were supposed to shift down when making a turn, but one time I shifted down from fourth to first on a turn. That, indeed, was a revelation.
I had one accident with that VW, and my brother had several. We bought a second, inoperable VW as a backup, and cannibalized it for part. It worked fine. Most of the accidents were not our fault, so we made money off the insurance settlements.
I attended a Catholic seminary in the 1960s, and the seminary had a VW bus, which I was allowed to drive. Every time there was a wind, that Microbus was all over the road. But one time, I had a full keg of beer in the center compartment of the Microbus. That vehicle was sooooo stable. That's all it needed, a proper portion of beer.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Your Best Old Volkswagen Story...
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 03 Aug 13 - 10:38 PM

My mom saved the money she earned at various jobs over the years for a car of her own so that we could become a two-car family. She looked at several and chose a VW Bug. I had learned to drive on a car with automatic transmission and had to learn how to shift on it. Because mom worked as a school crossing guard by the time she'd saved enough to buy the Beetle, she had summers off and as a college student I got to drive it to my summer job along the coast of southern RI. I was good about turning off the radio when I parked the car, but one morning I drove to work through fog and forgot to turn off the lights. When I finished work and tried to start the car, well, you know. I never forgot again but am grateful that cars now turn the lights off if the driver forgets.

After I graduated from college, got a job, and bought an automatic transmission car of my own I lost the ability to shift. When I married, my husband (I'm now divorced) retaught me and this time it "took." Except for the car I had when we married, all my others were standard transmissions until the one I bought in January. At my age, I've decided to simplify driving, and I don't even know if there are standard transmission Priuses.

Subject: BS: Your Best Old Volkswagen Story...
From: Bobert
Date: 03 Aug 13 - 09:27 PM

Something that every old folkie has in common with every other old folkie is...

...the Volkswagen story...

No, I'm not talkin' about Rabbits and Jettas...

I'm talkin' air cooled...

I got mine... No, I probably have half a dozen but...

...How about yours???

B~