NSR: curse of the VW bus~!

[Stig / Major Tom]

There's a 3 bedroom house w/two car garage in those trees.
The builders planted one small maple tree in the front yards of all the houses......I brought home all the remainder of the trees you see in this photo inside my VW bus.
Great fun - and lots of privacy - but when fall comes and the leaves drop.....WTH am I supposed to do with them?!

Last fall two middle school boys came to the door - "we'll rake your leavers up for $5 each."

I said, "ahh, OK, super, but wait - what are you going to do with them?"

They said "we're going to put them in bags"

I said, "OK....and then what are you going to do with so many bags of leaves?"

The short one, the colonel, said, "easy, we're going to dump in my dad's yard."

I thought to myself,  "Does your dad own a gun?"....but what I said was, "boys.....your dad has one small tree in his yard. He is not going to be pleased seeing all my leaves in his front yard when he gets home."

They went off studying why their plan to make a fortune apparently had a few holes in it..

So what did I do with them? I mowed/mulched a bunch .....and stood watching them blow merrily down the street in a few nice storms! My wife came up to me, while I watched, pointed...."this, honey, is why God made wind."
Stig

[randyo]

I miss my Vanagon, especially the shifter

[Stig / Major Tom]

I miss my Vanagon, especially the shifter

Agree Randy!
I enjoyed every winter morning in Mass heading to work..in our 69 bus..about 30 miles on the highway. After 15mins or so you  couldn't see your breat anymore. Handwarmer was a hot mug of coffee.
The 91 Vanagon was good in winter ...local VW shop (The Bug Hut!) advised RedLine gear oil. Cold morning stiff shifting was much better.
Lot of fond memories of those busses. That 69 was our first car. My first car license.
Wife bought it with our savings and her allotment while I
was in Vietnam.  My pay was tax-free, sent most of it home, (kept about $20 for cigs and pop) plus I got separation pay, overseas pay and $60 extra for hazardous
duty pay. Army language for getting shot at. Oh, yeah some $$ for flight crew member when I started doing medevacs. Coolest thing about dodging RPG's in a Huey is that you qualified for those neat looking Aviator sunglasses!
Laughable what that all added up to!

Good times
Stig

[randyo]

my Vanagon was air cooled, '82? had gas heater, it could keep ya warm in-30° below, but fuel economy suffered, I remember one tank barely 4 mpg

back in late 60's early 70's my older brother ran a foreign auto repair shop, primarily VWs, he had a '58 bus that he bolted one of his race engines into, with the low gearing for the original 28hp engine, didn't gain him a lot on top end, but he could get there quick

my first car was a '68 sky blue beetle, pick that one out of a parking lot after shopping. the sky blue was a popular color

[Stig / Major Tom]

my Vanagon was air cooled, '82? had gas heater, it could keep ya warm in-30° below, but fuel economy suffered, I remember one tank barely 4 mpg

back in late 60's early 70's my older brother ran a foreign auto repair shop, primarily VWs, he had a '58 bus that he bolted one of his race engines into, with the low gearing for the original 28hp engine, didn't gain him a lot on top end, but he could get there quick

my first car was a '68 sky blue beetle, pick that one out of a parking lot after shopping. the sky blue was a popular color

ever notice that those Beetles were about the tallest cars in the parking lot!?
Loved the headroom!
I had a navy 71, and a leaf green 73 super, and a metal crank open sunroof red one from the 60's. Do not rmember the year - only one bought used....purchased to off-set the 80 Vanagon's horrible gas mileage. Those still had the 79's A/C engines - slow & thirsty! Would have been better advised to have purchased the '79 Champagne Edition BayWindow that was also in the showroom, next to the Vanagon! Bay was priced at $7K, the Vanagon $10K.
That was the first VW to break the $10K barrier!
Stig

[randyo]

Beetles tallest in the lot?

they couldn't compete with the ever popular SUV or pickup truck in my locale

[Stig / Major Tom]

Beetles tallest in the lot?

they couldn't compete with the ever popular SUV or pickup truck in my locale

Darn few suv's in 1970 grocery store lots!
Beetles were taller than every GM, Ford or Chrysler sedan out there!

[randyo]

bronco's, blazers, wagoneers, ih scouts were always common growing up, could be my profession as a land surveyor, encountering more of em, that said, my first employer as a surveyor, we worked out of a beetle, and my 2nd land surveying job, we worked out of a vw thing a few weeks waiting for the jeep my boss ordered and then his wife took over the thing