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DAD'S LOVE AFFAIR WITH VWs
8-1-08
I don't know when and where Dad's love affair with VWs began but it
goes back as far as I can remember. I am certain he could have taken a
Bug apart and put it back together blindfolded.
He was a true jack-of-all-trades and succeeded royally at several
skilled trades but he was happiest when working on VWs and the Bug was
his favorite car in their line.
It seems he always had one in the front yard, one in the back yard, and
one on the rack he built down in his basement. Even after he retired,
people who did not trust any other mechanic to touch their VWs would
bring them to his home, knowing full that he reserved the right to work
on them when he felt like it. I know what I am talking about because I
overheard many of the conversations.
When I complained about the lack of air conditioners on the early
models, he got spunky with me. "Listen, son," he said, "that is the best
engineered car in the world. The absence of an air conditioner is a
minor problem. It circulates air better than any car. While other cars
will leave you broken down on the side of the road on hot summer days,
the Bug will keep on rolling."
Come to think of it, I have seen very few Bugs sitting by the side of
the road or being towed.
He said, "The genius of the car is that it's engineered for
dependability. It is simple in design from the tires up. You will save
enough on maintenance to buy two Bugs for what you'd pay to keep up a
gas hog."
When I was fired as county manager and lost my county car, I was
blackballed politically and could not find a good job. My uncle Van had
called his guitar a "starvation box" and for a while I made my living
playing guitar in bands. How well I came to understand that "starvation
box" thing!
Dad found me a Bug for $250. The right front seat was out and he said he
would find me one but I said, "No, that is a perfect place to sit my
amplifier." I drove the wheels off that car and never had any trouble
with it. It sure enhanced my respect for my Dad's judgment.
He worked at a VW dealership and at a large VW repair shop. Finally, the
day came when he could no longer crawl up under cars. He was so skilled
and creative that Charlie Standifer at Standifer Nissan gave him a job
running their machine job. If they couldn't find a part, he'd just make
it.
When mother's health broke he retired but the people who had trusted
their VWs to him down through the years would come by the old home place
and leave their cars for him to fix. If the job didn't require crawling
around under the car and there was no rush, he would fix them. He
continued this until the day he died.
He and mother thought nothing of driving hundreds of miles on an
impulse pleasure trip in their little Bug. A hundred mile trip would be
a two hundred mile trip because he loved taking the side roads. He loved
old country stores and yard sales. Mother was a wonderful painter and
would sometimes get him to stop while she sketched something that caught
her eye.
Even in their eighties, they were like two young lovebirds scooting down
the road in their little Bug. Most of the time they were holding hands.
If there's anything more beautiful than a couple who have been married
over 60 years driving along in a VW Bug holding hands, I have never seen
it. It's a mental image I often hold in mind in those moments when I am
overcome with gratitude to God for the life I have been given.
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